The Public Perception of a Kid

I just read today about an interview done by Vince McMahon of the WWE on the Today Show where he called Benoit a "monster." Now, since this is the second post I have done touching on pro wrestling, let me say right here that I personally stopped watching when Owen Hart died during a show after falling to the ring from the rafters of an arena due to either faulty training or less than professional rigging used for the stunt he was performing. As I said yesterday, I live in the 21st century not the 3rd, so the death of another person is not sport or entertainment to me, even if it is accidental.

Now, Mr. McMahon's statements about Benoit may appease the adults of the world, at least the ones watching the Today Show or reading newspapers. But, frankly, that is not the audience he ought to be talking to. I rather seriously doubt the majority of the audience that is sitting down each week to watch the Monday broadcast of the WWE flagship show "Raw," or attending live events, or ordering them on demand are sitting down and also watching the morning quasi-news programs like the Today Show. So basically, the interview was a public relations exercise to try and keep the parents of the kids from saying "No, you can't watch that" and blocking it forever from their televisions.

Like it or not professional wrestlers, the same as other celebrities and sports stars, in many cases hold more sway over their perspective audiences than anyone else in their lives. I don't mean that the celebrities are the ones that are telling them to do their homework or mow the grass, but in a broader sense they are influencing the opinions of those who admire them, and many times much more strongly than every day peers or parents. And this is truly where the trouble comes in when we are talking about the use, or abuse, of steroids.

As adults, we tend to rationalize it by a variety of different means. We tell ourselves that the people using the steroids are adults, and they know the risks. This being America after all, who are we to tell another person he or she cannot do something. We look at it and say things like it's not for us, but if they want to destroy their bodies and minds, that is their choice. Unfortunately, we tend to forget as adults just how influential celebrities can be because we are in large part already set in thought patterns and have a pretty clear idea of what is right and wrong for us.

Kids, on the other hand, are easily influenced even when they think they aren't being influenced. The fact that they see celebrities doing drugs, drinking and driving, getting thrown in jail only to serve a third of the time, sports stars doing steroids to improve their game and their incomes... There are many things that are capable of influencing kids, especially when they have been exposed to them for the entirety of their lives. I don't mean to say that a kid watches a half dozen wrestling programs that he is going to start using steroids. But the fact is, if becoming a wrestler is the kid's dream, and he sees the obviousness of their use, then guess what? Yeah, he's going to find a way to get steroids. All he is seeing as that all these famous people are doing it, and making a bunch of money, so why not? Can't be bad, right?

McMahon's comments may be relavent to an adult audience, but it is funny to me that the adult side (the troubling and bad side) are being dealt with in a different venue than the perceived good and fun side. If we really want to protect the youth of the country, then the message of the bad side of steroids has to be constant, and it must be stated within the sport's or entertainment's normal venue. Otherwise, nothing is ever going to change.

Steroid Delerium

Now, seriously, how many people have been able to look at professional wrestling over the past 20 to 25 years and say with a straight face "Those guys aren't on steroids, they are just really active in the gym." It has been laughable for at least a couple of decades when you see the gentlemen that own the pro wrestling organizations get up and try to convince everyone that they have nothing to do with the use of steriods EVEN IF (since their lawyers state it hasn't been proven) there are even steroids in pro wrestling. Come on, any kid with a 7th grade education (which by the way is pro wrestlings main audience) can look at the spectacle and while the word steroid may not be on the tip of his tongue, somewhere the thought of "Somethin' jus' ain't right" is going to be there.

We had the big blow-up over steroids in baseball because someone finally figured out that the number of home runs hit during a season doesn't jump 20 percent over a five year period without pharmacutical help. That went all the way to Congress, though the story was pretty much the same as it has always been in pro wrestling. Owners claiming they didn't know and didn't condone, players saying they didn't know the risks or that it was illegal, everyone getting patted on the wrist while banking the extra proceeds.

Now, we find out that the professional wrestler Chris Benoit not only killed himself, but also his wife and young son. Pro wrestling's history is littered by early and untimely deaths. Some of the biggest names in the business have died, and the two leading causes are overdose and heart attacks before the age of 50. And all the while, the men who run the show (such as Vince McMahon of WWE) always find a way to squirm away from the idea of steroids having any part in it. Sadly, since there is no real oversight of pro wrestling since they are privately held enterprises, this is probably not going to change much in the future. Or maybe it will.

You see, until this past weekend, it was just the wrestler who died. It was easy for the organization employing them, and the public at large, to say "Well, even if he was using steroids, he knew the risk and took his chances. No harm, no foul. We are sorry, but on to the next match." Now, a 7 year old little boy is dead, and I will guarantee that not only did he not know the fucking risks, he didn't have a damn choice. Maybe now, after years of turning away, someone will actually start looking at the problem and figure out what can be done about it.

Now, I'm not going to say that pro wrestling isn't entertaining. It is scripted to be so, and they pull it off just as well for the guys as the writers of General Hospital pull it off for the daytime soap crowd. However, no one actually dies on General Hospital other than from old age because they have been on the show for a hundred years. What the people in charge of pro wrestling are unwilling to take a chance on is the fact that their shows would be just as entertaining without the steroid ripped bodies. However, I only see one way of getting pro wrestling to change, and that is through public pressure, and I don't mean some blog post.

Pro wrestling is a business, and as such is there to make money. Well, guess what, if we the public stop buying tickets to the events, stop shilling out the dough for the pay-per-view, and find something else on TV during their free broadcasts, pro wrestling will either have to change or go away. Like I said, it is entertaining, but not since the time of the Roman Empire have we considered watching someone die for "sport" entertainment. This is the 21st century, not the 3rd. And somehow, just because the gladiators of pro wrestling are dying behind the curtains rather than in the ring (which has been known to happen), just doesn't seem to make it alright.

As If We Needed More Proof!

Just in case anyone was left with any doubt, keep small children away from this blog! I am liable to warp their little impressionable minds, and OMG! I might even persuade a couple of the little rugrats to think on their own!