For those who are unaware, Chandru Dhandapni recently sent out a very controversial tweet that had the Schmoedown community abuzz. The tweet included a picture of Mike Kalinowski, Mara Knopic, Rachel Cushing, and Kevin Smets with the Innergeekdom belt, and Dhandapani referred to all of them as “just a bunch of former champions (and soon-to-be-former champion) who have never successfully defended the Innergeekdom championship.” He got strong pushback from Dan Murrell, Shannon Barney, and Rachel Cushing to name a few. This tweet and Dhandapani’s actions raise some questions. How far can a heel go? Did Dhandapani cross a line? Or is he just doing a good job as a heel? Let’s dive into this.
No matter whether you think this post was uncalled for or not, everyone can agree on one aspect of this: Dhandapani is being an asshole. That is the whole point of the post, to make himself unlikable, cause others to root against him, and buy tickets to his match to see the fallout of the drama and hopefully see him lose. The question then becomes does being a heel excuse his actions, and some would argue it does. Dhandapani’s comments are strictly Schmoedown related, the picture he posted involves the Innergeekdom belt, and it’s perfectly within character for Dhandapani to act this way about a picture of Innergeekdom greats that doesn’t include him. Given the character he is portraying, jealously lashing out this way makes sense.
If this was just between him and Kalinowski, it would’ve worked. The problem is there are three other champions in that picture who were blindsided and hurt by the pointless negativity slung their way. Dhandapani took a very positive picture and used it to insult their legacies. The negativity radiating from that post is nauseating. On one hand, it’s a very effective way to increase the fans’ disdain for Dhanadpani’s character by going after beloved Innergeekdom players and their legacies. However, you cannot blame those beloved Innergeekdom players for having a problem with this tweet. After all, it seems as if they were blindsided by this and clearly hurt by Dhandapani’s actions. Knopic, Smets, and Cushing all had nothing to do with Dhandapani’s match against Kalinowski, and to be put into Dhandapani’s crossfire for no reason is unfair. Some may argue this is a part of the Schmoedown and they should be used to this. I immensely disagree with this. Just because they have played Schmoedown matches before does not mean any competitor can blindside them with negativity at any point. To quote the great Dan Murrell, “This assumption that everyone should always be okay with anything a heel says about them, especially when it’s a blindside, is dismissive of the fact we’re not all okay with deep character work.”
In my opinion, Dhandapani crossed a line with this tweet and clearly hurt people. However, despite this, I do not blame Dhandapani for crossing this line nor do I think any of the pushback he got is unjustified. Heels are meant to make others uncomfortable and be unlikable. And there are some moments where being a heel excuses certain behavior. Andrew Ghai had awful sportsmanship if you take his actions with face value, but the fans mostly excused it since it was all character work. Or some may compare this to Ben Bateman going after Shazam! before Who’s the Boss faced them.
The difference is once again all participants were either in a match or had a match coming up. It’s important to remember that the competitors within the Schmoedown do not get paid and this is not their primary source of income. To quote Murrell once again, “while the Schmoedown shares similarities with wrestling, we are not wrestlers.” Because of this from Dhandapani, all competitors will not always be ready for his character work. At the very least, Dhandapani should have asked for permission from the uninvolved parties before posting.
A cynical perspective may question if it even matters if Dhandapani crossed a line and hurt others. After all, Dhandapani already achieved his goal. His post garnered a large reaction, made countless gain more disdain for him and his character, and continued to advertise and add investment for his match against Kalinowski. This perspective does not account for the major risk of Dhandapani’s actions. The hurt Dhandapani causes matters, as it can cause others to drive competitors like Cushing and Murrell out of the league. As Murrell says, “if the preference is that those of us who aren’t as cool with it should retire and leave the game to the bigger personalities so be it. The players that are left can be free to insult each other as much as they want.” Players like Cushing and Murrell are just as important to the game as the big personalities within the game. Others may see the results of Dhandapani’s actions and may be deterred in competing in the Schmoedown. This is why Ghai often hung around the studio after his matches to showcase he was not the character he was portraying. It’s important for heels to be on good terms with their colleagues. Recently, Dhandapani deleted his tweet and I think that is for the best. Hopefully he also privately apologized to parties involved with this mess. Since no matter how fair you think the tweet was, people were hurt by it, and apologizing and deleting the tweet is the right thing to do in that scenario.
I do not believe there was any malintent with that post. Dhandapani has a history of going lacking restraint or going overboard with his character. The most recent example of this was the championship match against Mara Knopic. Harloff revealed on Backstage that Dhandapni was not supposed to go at Winston that hard during the match and went “too hard in the paint.” I think this tweet is another instance of Dhandapni accidentally going “too hard in the paint.” However, I have never met Dhandapani so I cannot speak positively or negatively about his character with any certainty. Either way, Dhandapani should be careful going forward. The fallout from this tweet may hint at there being some behind-the-scenes heat directed at him. Even though he is one of the most talented players in the league at both trivia and character work, he is walking a dangerous line because there comes a point where enough behind-the-scenes heat can cause any star to be forced out of the league.
