How Lacey Evans Fooled Almost Everyone

The Lacey Evans video that's been making the rounds was a great lesson in the popularity of social media and in human behaviour.  As one person wrote on Twitter the other night, it's amazing how many people scream that wrestling is fake, but also think a staged incident is real.

The WWE wrestler's video was seen by over two million people in two days and her traffic stop south of Edmonton was mentioned on WWE's Monday Night Raw.

There are still questions about the RCMP officer in the video, but I hope he's not punished for having some fun.

The Famous Cellphone Video

Last weekend I saw a cellphone video shot by WWE wrestler Lacey Evans.  The WWE calls its wrestlers “Superstars”, not to be confused with “Divas”, as female wrestlers used to be called. I digress.

You can take a look at it below. It was really well done. Evans’ was in her “Sassy southern belle” character in the video and I chuckled as soon as I saw it.  She plays a bad guy, or as they’re called in the business a “heel.” What a great way to stay in character, complain to a police officer and enrage an entire country.

Was it Real or a Work?

On Sunday morning I got involved in Twitter discussions about the video after I noticed several people complaining about Evans, calling her stupid and telling her not to come back to Canada. They were annoyed that she spoke so rudely to a police officer.

So many people didn’t understand what happened. She got a speeding ticket, realized it was a chance to make some lemonade out of lemons and shot the video before posting in on social media. I speculated at the time that the officer cooperated with her.  I didn’t know that then, but it seemed reasonable that he played along with her, based on his statements in the video.

To me, that wasn’t the important part. The video was so effective that people thought it was real. The speeding ticket was real, but she used it to stay in character and shoot a video to promote her WWE character. It was brilliant.

I’ve watched wrestling for decades and the easiest way for a heel to get some cheap heat (anger from the crowd) is to complain about the city they’re in. It happened in Edmonton at the WWE event on the weekend where a heel said that he thought Calgary was bad, but Edmonton really is the armpit of the earth. Bad guys used to also complain how ugly the women are in a particular city, but that’s not socially acceptable anymore and it’s rarely done. That used to bring real heat. They pick on other things now like losing sports teams.

As soon as I saw the video I knew it was a “work” (another wrestling word that means it wasn’t real.

Won't Get Fooled Again

On Monday afternoon, the RCMP issued a statement confirming that it was a legit traffic stop and ticket for speeding and then also confirmed the officer was in on the video. Evans told him who she was, asked him to cooperate with the video and he agreed.

Predictable outrage on social media followed. People were upset that an RCMP officer went along with her gag and a few people asked if he got paid by Evans for his role.

Relax people. The officer did his job, made sure the ticket was handed out and did nothing different than he should have done. I’m sure this wasn’t the first time he had to deal with an irate driver who didn’t think they deserved a ticket, so it was easy for him to do.

I think some people are miffed about what the officer did because they were fooled by Evans’ video. Far too many people thought Evans was serious about her dislike for Canada and the ticket she got. After all, she does like to use the word "nasty" a lot.

I hope the officer isn’t punished for his part in the video because he did a great acting job.  Just like Lacey Evans did. He’s the most famous officer in Canada because the video has received over two million views.

Lacey Evans fooled everyone. Well, almost everyone.