Trading Shots: The airing of grievances, from pro wrestling and fan negativity to April Fool's Day jokes

You know what really irks MMAjunkie columnist Ben Fowlkes and retired UFC and WEC fighter Danny Downes? Don’t worry, they’re going to tell you in this week’s Trading Shots.

Fowlkes: I can’t take it anymore, Danny. I’m sick of it. What “it” am I referring to this time? This it. Also this one. The one where we work ourselves into fits about which fighters might flee for pro wrestling, the same way we once worked ourselves up about which wrestlers might make the jump to MMA.

I get it. There’s a lot of crossover between MMA fans and pro wrestling fans, which means people will click on these stories, which means nobody – not this website or others – is about to stop. But it’s driving me crazy.

Why? Because for one thing, these people aren’t going to become pro wrestlers. You know it and I know it. They’re not hitting the road for 300 days a year in a pair of spandex. They aren’t living out of a suitcase just to be a staple on “Raw.” Someone like Conor McGregor or Ronda Rousey or Cristiane Justino, they might, at best, show up at an occasional wrestling event and hit a clothesline or two. They’ll still probably end up with less pro wrestling experience than Donald Trump in the end, so why do we insist on talking like it’s going to be a real thing for them?

It’s like a pro wrestling career is the new Hollywood acting career. Which is to say, a few fighters might dabble, maybe one will actually commit to it (shout out to Matt Riddle and Gina Carano), but mostly it’s all hot air. Acting and pro wrestling are both difficult crafts that take years to learn. Stop insulting them by acting like it’s something MMA fighters could just take up if they got tired of their own sport. It’s annoying.

Now that I’ve gone on that extended rant about my aggravation of the moment in the MMA world, I feel obliged to let you have the floor in a similar fashion. What’s bugging you? And please tell me I’m not alone with this pro wrestling thing.

Downes: So we’re making this a complaints column, huh? I guess I don’t see how that differs too much from your normal work, but I’ll play along.

I’ll agree with your pro wrestling gripe, but from a slightly different angle. There are some commonalities between pro wrestling and MMA. Lots of your friends in the so-called media regularly comment on both. It would make sense that there would be some intersection, but people force angles for the sake of throwing WWE into the title.

During WrestleMania weekend, you’re bound to see lots of outlets jumping on the wresting bandwagon. I’m sure Good Housekeeping has a story on its website trumpeting the “10 Slow Cooker Recipes That Will Help You Body Slam the Work Week,” but these wrestling/MMA hybrids occur all year long.

Somewhat hypocritically, my current complaint is about all the complainers out there. Especially in the echo chamber of the Twitterverse, things have become just plain not fun. This isn’t necessarily a new development, but it was readily apparent this past week for Bellator 175.

Yes, “God’s Street Soldier” Quinton Jackson weighed in a few pounds north of light heavyweight, but I thought he did well. First, look at him. He looks better at 253 pounds than I do at retired lightweight (aka middleweight). A little softer than usual, maybe, but I don’t know if he even qualifies for “dad bod” status.

Secondly, go back and watch the fight. Jackson fought off the majority of Muhammed Lawal’s takedown attempts and won the standup exchanges. He did slow down by the third, but so did Lawal. If you were following online, though, you’d think that “Rampage” walked in there fresh off a cameo appearance on TLC’s “My 600-lbs Life” and fell asleep in the middle of the cage.

It’s fine to dislike things (some people can even make a living doing it), but there has to be a purpose. Lots of fans and media have problems with specific fighters for many justifiable reasons (Jackson included). At a certain point, though, you become a Danny Downer. Who wants to hang around that? I bet even someone like you would agree with me, but I’m sure you have a couple more grievances to share.

Fowlkes: I think people jumped on Jackson’s weight for two reasons: 1) He only found out the fight was at heavyweight a little over a week before, then showed up way over what he’d previously believed to be the weight limit for the bout, and 2) His motivation is always a question, so all those extra pounds are bound to make people wonder how hard he trained.

I agree that he didn’t do terribly in the fight, but that seems like a relatively low bar to clear. And if you don’t like fights that MMA people can make fun of on Twitter, then you don’t like approximately 60 percent of Bellator’s business plan. That’s the whole goal here, man. Create matchups that people can’t not watch, even if a big part of why they’re watching is so they can crack jokes with their social media pals.

And anyway, complaining about complaints is a weak way to go in this complaints column, Danny. What’s next, you’re going to show up to a job interview and tell them that your biggest weakness is that you work too hard? Here, let me show you how it’s done.

You know what sucks about the MMA community? How bad we are at making April Fool’s jokes. Why is it that fighters only seem to know two ways to go with this one? It’s either fake retirement or fake fight booking. Every. Single. Year.

Tim Kennedy doesn’t seem to get the part about fooling people, and instead went with borderline attacking them, but at least he’s grasping for some originality. WSOF fired up the Photoshop for a Ray Sefo gag, so you have to respect the attempt at artistic expression.

But everybody else? Let’s just say it’s kind of sad that I long for the days when the UFC showed us how April Fool’s was done.

Downes: I’m sorry if you don’t enjoy me bringing a little positivity here. I will say, I used to consider myself a cynic, but working with you has shown me how deep Diogenes’s rabbit hole goes. Also, complaining that April Fool’s jokes are lame? That’s like criticizing the Olive Garden because it doesn’t have authentic Italian dishes. Wait! You mean your nonna from Naples never made Crispy Chicken Ravioli in the old country?

Not sure if this will qualify as a hot take on Fowlkesian levels, but the thing I hate the most right now? That the life of the professional fighter hasn’t improved. For the sake of the argument, I’ll limit the discussion to pro fighters at the highest level. The UFC minimum may have increased over the years, but that hasn’t kept up with the costs of a career.

The fact that we casually discuss fighters who have other full-time jobs to make ends meet is ridiculous. McGregor and Rousey are millionaires, but the average UFC fighter is lucky if they get to fight three or four times a year and pull in $30,000 when all is said and done.

More than that, I hate the fact that we still haven’t come to grips with the health implications of this sport. As the previous generation of stars (and curtain jerkers) ages, you’re going to see a lot of sad stories, but we’ll brush it aside. Brain damage is terrible, but watch this guy get KTFO’d! I, too, don’t know how to deal with this cognitive dissonance, but at least I’m willing to admit it.

I also hate that any time we bring up fighter health and pay there’s the endless chorus of justifications for promoter greed. Nobody asked these people to be fighters, so who cares, right? We keep kicking the can on confronting these issues, but we’ll have to deal with it one day. And when that day comes, it’ll be too late.

But hey, April Fool’s Day jokes, amirite?

Fowlkes: Wow. Nice to see that Danny Downer showed up after all.

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Danny Downes, a retired UFC and WEC fighter, is an MMAjunkie contributor who has also written for UFC.com and UFC 360. Follow them on twitter at @benfowlkesMMA and @dannyboydownes.