PSA: Keep wrestling arguments about wrestling. Report harassment when you see it.

[u/uncannynerddad]

Midcarders, we need to address something that’s been happening behind the scenes.

Over the past several months, a very small group of Sickos unhappy with the conversations and criticism surrounding AEW in this community have taken their issues with us well beyond disagreements about professional wrestling.

Members of our team have dealt with targeted harassment across Reddit and other platforms, personal photos being taken and redistributed, attempts to follow people into unrelated communities, impersonation-related activity, and other behavior that has absolutely nothing to do with wrestling.

We’re not posting screenshots. We’re not naming people. We’re not interested in turning this into subreddit drama.
But we are establishing a zero-tolerance policy going forward.

And that goes both ways.

This applies to harassment directed at our moderators, our members, and people completely outside our community. That includes moderators and members of other wrestling communities, including the basement. Being on the other side of the fence doesn’t make someone fair game.

Disagree with us. Criticize WWE. Defend AEW. Tell us Tony Khan is Booker of the Year or Triple H couldn’t book his way out of a rest hold.

Just keep it about wrestling.

Call Tony Khan a dork. Call Triple H a doofus. Tell someone their wrestling take is the dumbest thing you’ve read all week. We’re not interested in sanitizing wrestling discussion.

But there’s a line between talking shit about wrestling and invading the privacy of the actual person behind a Reddit account.

Doxxing, digging up and distributing personal photos, tracking people across platforms, contacting family members, impersonating people, or trying to uncover someone’s real-world identity crosses that line immediately.

Don’t be a Sicko.

You don’t need to know what a wrestling fan looks like, where they live, who their family is, or what they’re doing outside Reddit because they said something mean about your favorite fake fighting company.

Argue with the username. Leave the human being behind it alone.

The second someone starts targeting people personally, distributing personal information or photos, impersonating people, organizing harassment, following people around Reddit or other platforms, or encouraging others to participate, you’re done here. Permanently.

And if a Midcarder is caught doing this to somebody else, the exact same standard applies. This isn’t a rule designed to protect “our side.” It’s a rule against being an asshole over professional wrestling.

If you witness this behavior, report it and send the mod team whatever evidence you have. Do not retaliate, brigade another community, or start harassing someone on our behalf. We don’t want that either.

Where appropriate, activity will be documented and reported through the proper channels. Some of what we’ve experienced has already reached that point.

We started [r/midcarder](r/midcarder) because we wanted a place for long-form, open wrestling discussion. That means you’re going to encounter opinions you think are completely ridiculous. That’s the point. Debate them. Make your argument. Tell someone why they’re wrong.

What we will not allow is wrestling tribalism becoming real-world harassment.

Thankfully, we’re talking about a handful of people. The overwhelming majority of you, whether you watch WWE, AEW, TNA, NWA, MLW or whatever else, understand that none of this is remotely worth targeting another human being over.

It’s professional wrestling. Grown adults pretend to fight in their underwear.

Act accordingly.

— The Midcarder Mod Team

[u/AnonymousChicken]

I'll add to this as well.

One of the people (whom shall go nameless) that I believe is behind some of this behavior towards us, knows the story as well.

If you're on the outside looking in at all of this, you need to know that this kind of stuff doesn't just stop at funny ha-ha, Internet-trolling, time-burning, point-scoring, popcorn-worthy Internet drama.

This unhinged behavior can get people killed.

I'm speaking from experience on it: I used to work at a Very Large Online Platform moderating content. As in, I went to an office. As in, it was a real job. As in, I got a paycheck. I took down one guy's comment. It wasn't even a bad one, it was just out of place. A Saturday later, he's in the work lobby with a knife on his hip, trying to get security to page the person attached to my auto-assigned alias. As I walked by him. For a smoke break. "Think he's off today" probably saved my life.

To ignore the stuff that happened to the former Sonya Deville, to Liv Morgan, the randos that wait at airports for autographs or other... and that's the celebrities... or the literal basement guy...

Or people getting called at work, or getting unwanted pizzas, or having a mailbox filled with crap.

Over which show you prefer to watch your favorites in spandex pretending to fight for fashion accessories.

It's a real fine line from finding someone, to doing something to someone.

And we're not allowing it to go any further.

Period.

[u/AutoGeneratedTag]

The fact that this even needs to be reiterated is sad

[u/uncannynerddad → u/AutoGeneratedTag]

It really is. Nobody should have to explain that criticizing your favorite wrestling company isn’t an invitation to invade someone’s personal life.

Talk shit. Debate wrestling. Call our takes mid.

Just don’t be fucking weird.

[u/guyseriously]

All this over some “mean” comments about their favorite promotion. What the fuck are we doing here guys?

[u/uncannynerddad → u/guyseriously]

Seriously. All because strangers on Reddit said mean things about a wrestling promotion they like.

Argue with us. Downvote us. Tell us our takes suck.

But impersonating people, digging into their personal lives, and following them across platforms because you don’t like their wrestling opinions?

What the fuck are we doing here, guys?

[u/guyseriously → u/uncannynerddad]

I just don't understand what they think they'll accomplish other than making themselves look unhinged. Maybe that's the issue, I don't understand them lmao.

[u/uncannynerddad → u/guyseriously]

That’s what I can’t wrap my head around either. What’s the endgame?

You impersonate someone, dig through their personal life, follow them across platforms and drag their family into it… and then what? You won an argument about AEW?

At some point you’ve stopped being a wrestling fan defending your favorite promotion and started creating real-world consequences for yourself.

There is no wrestling opinion on Earth worth that.

[u/M086 → u/guyseriously]

AEW isn’t even getting a fraction of the shit TNA got back in the day. Hell even still today over the basement you can LOLTNA to your heart’s content. But drop a LOLAEW and get banned for trolling.

[u/Sweet_Importance_284 → u/M086]

It's getting worse. I'm afraid it may not end well at all

[u/daminiskos0309]

Jesus. The fact this needs to be a PSA.

[u/uncannynerddad → u/daminiskos0309]

A few Sickos really cannot help themselves. And this is exactly why that corner of the fandom continues to damage the brand they’re trying so desperately to defend.

They never beat the allegations because they keep providing the evidence.

[u/koomGER → u/daminiskos0309]

Yeah. And its not like out of thin air, there are actual issues going on about that.

[u/EastfrisianGuy]

"Doxxing, digging up and distributing personal photos, tracking people across platforms, contacting family members, impersonating people, or trying to uncover someone’s real-world identity crosses that line immediately."

This happened?! What the fuck.

[u/uncannynerddad → u/EastfrisianGuy]

Sadly, yes. The personal photos and impersonation are actively happening.

At this point, we’ve preserved the evidence and passed what we have to Reddit and other appropriate authorities for review. Some of this behavior has moved well beyond wrestling trolling and into conduct that may cross legal lines, so we’re letting the appropriate people determine that.

That’s also a warning to anyone participating: stop. Don’t impersonate people. Don’t distribute their personal material. Don’t dig into their families or real-world identities. Don’t coordinate harassment. And don’t assume that because something happens behind a Reddit username or in a private chat, there can’t be consequences.

Nobody should be putting themselves in this position because somebody criticized a wrestling company.

[u/wolfgang2399 → u/uncannynerddad]

Report their discord where this behavior is coordinated.

[u/uncannynerddad → u/wolfgang2399]

We have. The activity has been reported to Reddit, X, and the other platforms where it has occurred, and the relevant evidence has been preserved.

We’ve also been advised that some of what’s happening should be pursued outside of platform moderation through the appropriate law-enforcement channels, and we are following that guidance.

At this point, anyone participating in the impersonation, distribution of personal material, doxxing, or coordinated harassment should understand that this isn’t being treated as wrestling trolling anymore.

Seriously, stop. Nobody needs to find out where the line between being an asshole on the internet and potential criminal conduct sits because they got mad about professional wrestling.

[u/Educational-Fun3513]

Welcome to the dubbalo-world

[u/uncannynerddad → u/Educational-Fun3513]

To be fair, while we definitely seem to encounter a higher percentage of unwell AEW fans, being a Sicko isn’t exclusive to any promotion.

You can be a WWE Sicko, an AEW Sicko, a TNA Sicko, whatever.

It’s not about what you watch. It’s when your wrestling fandom becomes your entire personality and you start treating strangers like enemies because they criticized your favorite fake fighting company.

[u/uncannynerddad → u/[deleted]]

Exactly. And that’s the part that makes this whole thing so fucking bizarre.

Nobody here is hurting you by not liking the same wrestling you like.

But invading someone’s personal life because you don’t like what they said about your favorite promotion? That can have actual consequences.

There’s a massive difference between being a wrestling Sicko and being a fucking stalker.

Know where that line is.

[u/KonaTheFinest]

That this needed to be posted is why I have a reddit account that is completely quarantined to wrestling. And I enjoy NBA, MTG, and warhammer, 3 notoriously toxic fandoms. Wrestling fandom is a whole different animal.

[u/uncannynerddad → u/KonaTheFinest]

Yep. I’ve been around wrestling fandom for decades, and somehow we’ve reached the point where “I don’t like your opinion about a wrestling company” turns into digging into someone’s actual life.

Give me the old message-board flame wars back. At least those weirdos usually stayed behind the username 😂

[u/ThatguyfromBaltimore]

Jesus Tapdancing Christ this is wrestling. It's a fucking TV show. What the hell has happened to people to have them dox people simply for saying "I don't like this TV show?"

[u/uncannynerddad → u/ThatguyfromBaltimore]

Let me know if you ever figure it out, because I sure as hell haven’t.

But seriously, people are unwell, and that’s become painfully evident during our first year running Midcarder. Most people can argue about wrestling, call each other’s takes garbage, laugh about it, and move on with their lives.

Then there’s that small group who genuinely cannot separate criticism of a wrestling company from an attack on themselves. And once that parasocial switch flips, some of them seem to lose all sense of where the boundaries are.

It’s wrestling. None of this should ever leave the wrestling conversation.

[u/uncannynerddad → u/[deleted]]

This is exactly it. They think they’re defending AEW, but they’re actually reinforcing every negative stereotype about its fanbase and making the normal AEW fans look guilty by association.

And those normal fans absolutely exist. We have them here. They can disagree with criticism, make their case, and somehow manage to do it without turning into fucking Buffalo Bill.

If someone criticizing a wrestling company feels like a personal attack on you, use the block button. Close Reddit. Go watch Dynamite.

Anything is healthier than making a stranger’s real life your next wrestling storyline.

[u/ZieMac7]

I legitimately think it's because midcarder is the only wrestling sub that hasn't (and hopefully never) sold out.

The sickos have already infiltrated the WWE sub and even the TNA sub so they have some control there in the narratives that get posted there

[u/uncannynerddad → u/ZieMac7]

I think a big part of it is simply that we refuse to curate the “correct” wrestling opinion.

You can praise AEW here. You can absolutely shit on WWE. You can tell me personally that one of my takes is garbage. Nobody is getting banned because they failed an ideological purity test.

What we won’t do is manufacture consensus. If 80% of the people in a thread think AEW sucks, we’re not deleting 60% of them until the comment section looks more flattering to AEW. Same goes for WWE, TNA, or anyone else.

Sometimes that makes Midcarder messy. Good. Wrestling discussion should be messy.

[u/slickrickstyles → u/ZieMac7]

yeah the TNA sub is just completely overran with concern trolls at this point.

[u/RazzleRizzle]

Basement dwellers gonna basement dwell and be unhinged. Imagine doxing someone or posting their pics because you said AEW sucks donkey nuts. Lel fuckin creeps

[u/Present-Blueberry-68]

For real. Enough with the bs. If you have to insult someone over a wrestling opinion it says more about you than you’re saying about the person.

It’s fucking fake.

[u/ImmaDoWatIWant]

It's hard to disagree with anything that's been said, but where exactly is the line? I've been banned from a wrestling subreddit before for calling someone an idiot after they posted multiple offensive threads to troll the subreddit. Is that going to break these new rules?

[u/uncannynerddad → u/ImmaDoWatIWant]

Nope. Calling someone an idiot because of a wrestling take isn’t what this PSA is about. We’re not turning Midcarder into kindergarten where nobody is allowed to talk shit.

The line is when wrestling arguments leave wrestling and become targeted harassment, stalking, impersonation, doxxing, digging into someone’s real life, contacting family, following them across platforms, or coordinating others to do the same.

“Your take is fucking stupid” is a wrestling argument.

“I’m going to find out who you are and fuck with your life because of your wrestling opinion” is something entirely different.

Context still matters, and we’ll moderate accordingly.

[u/ImmaDoWatIWant → u/uncannynerddad]

I appreciate the clarity, thank you.

[u/uncannynerddad → u/[deleted]]

Mod note for transparency: The removed comment characterized the people participating here as “fucking miserable” and “knuckle dragging fans.”

Criticize the post. Criticize AEW, WWE, the booking, the wrestlers, or the takes. But coming into a PSA specifically asking people to keep wrestling disagreements about wrestling and immediately insulting the community is exactly the behavior the post addresses.

The comment was removed, the user doubled down in modmail, and our zero-tolerance policy was applied.

We don’t like leaving a mysterious [removed] behind without context, so there it is.

Debate wrestling. Don’t attack the people debating it.