Friday, March 12, 1999
Wrestling grabs more kids
Parents, experts worry about impact of watching WCW and WWF
BY CINDY KRANZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[wrestlers]](/editions/1999/03/12/wrestle_200x173.jpg)
WCW wrestlers Bam Bam Bigelow, rear, and Goldberg.
|
Call professional wrestling crude. Call it fake. Call it theater. But above all, call it wildly popular.
Professional wrestling shows have skyrocketed to the top of cable ratings, and live matches are being staged for sold-out crowds across the country. In Cincinnati, tickets are gone for Monday's performance at Firstar Center and selling fast for an April 10 show at Cincinnati Gardens.
Once a predominantly blue-collar male attraction, pro wrestling now draws an increasing number of white-collar professionals, women and children. One-third of the television audience for pro wrestling is made up of viewers age 17 and younger, according to USA Networks, which owns the USA and Sci-Fi cable channels.
STUDY EXAMINES WRESTLING CONTENT
|
Indiana University and Inside Edition cooperated on a study of 50 World Wrestling Federation Raw episodes between Jan. 12, 1998 and Feb. 1, 1999. Here's a sample of incidences:
• Grabbing/pointing to one's crotch: 1,658 times.
• Giving the finger by wrestlers/audience: 157 times.
• Simulated sexual activity, alone or with others: 128 times.
• Occult/satanic activity — references to/simulation of: 47 times.
• Simulated alcohol/drug use or possession of: 42 times.
• Urinating, talking about/appearing to: 21 times.
• Appearance of character as prostitute: 20 times.
|
Many parents and child development experts worry this growing fascination with pro wrestling is bad for kids, because they see youngsters imitating the violence and profanity.
“The language is very bad. The sexual innuendos are very bad,” says Dr. Janice Wilkerson, psychologist at St. Joseph School, Crescent Springs, Ky. “The bottom line is it's about threats, verbal taunting, threats of physical violence and violence — sort of all the ills of society wrapped into one nice little presentation.”
That's entertainment
The Hulk Hogan and Jesse “the Body” Ventura era of the 1980s was tame compared with the retooled '90s version so popular among kids and adults alike.
Now, the spectacles of World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) carry more outlandish costumes and crude language, pierced body parts, chairs flying and women with breast implants and chunky heels beating up each other and their male counterparts.
The soap opera story lines keep fans, mostly males age 12-34, coming back. On March 1, a record 4.7 million households tuned in to WWF, the more explicit of the two wrestling federations. WCW's Nitro Live show, which films here Monday, grabs its share of fans as well.
USA Network runs WWF matches five hours a week, three hours in prime time. Bonnie Hammer, senior vice president of programming for USA Networks Original Production, attributes WWF's rise in popularity in the last year and a half to WWF owner Vince McMahon.
“Their story lines have become far more fun and interesting and unpredictable,” Ms. Hammer says. “They've developed their stable of characters as bigger than life. They've created an attitude with humor and edginess.”
What's more, pro wrestling is siphoning off fans from traditional sports fare, such as ABC's Monday Night Football. “We don't go on strike,” she says. “The players don't get traded. You come back to guys you love to love and love to hate. They're there every week. It's fast-paced.”
Professional wrestling is a comic book come to life, says Jeffrey Brown, assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University. “There's some very clear cut heroes and villains to cheer with,” he says.
Dr. Wilkerson says kids like the tough, cool image that pro wrestlers portray.
“They like the outrageousness of it — that grown men dressed in bizarre costumes and weirdo hairdos can pretty much get away with what they want,” she says. “That's appealing, especially to adolescents.”
Kids think it's funny
Tristate students from elementary schools to colleges write papers about pro wrestling and wear character T-shirts. Bill Goldberg of WCW is a favorite.
It's huge at St. Bernard-Elmwood Place High School. Girls, as well as guys, wear pro-wrestling T-shirts and follow the “sport.”
On Monday, 35 students gathered at the house of junior Ricky Elliott in St. Bernard to watch pro wrestling. The students routinely take turns hosting wrestling gatherings on Monday nights or pay-per-view parties.
“My Grandma even watches it,” Ricky says. “She's 62. She's probably taping it right now.”
The students know all the wrestlers and all the moves. The guys think the Nitro girls are hot. The crowd cheered when Goldberg entered the ring.
“I watch it because it's a guy's soap opera,” says 17-year-old junior Adam Mattingly. “It leaves you in suspense. It shows you new moves you can try on your friends.”
Pro wrestling has spawned the Backyard Wrestling Federation (BYWF), an underground network of teens who gather in yards nationwide to emulate what they see on television. Moves that could cause serious injuries are outlawed by the BYWF.
The federation president doesn't know of any formal BYWF groups in Cincinnati, but anecdotal evidence from St. Bernard students suggests teens do informally try the moves on each other.
Guys occasionally wrestle with friends, Ricky Elliott says. “Sometimes it hurts, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes, it gets out of hand.”
Even St. Bernard's amateur wrestling phenomenon — the first girl to qualify for a district high school wrestling tournament in Ohio — likes pro wrestling.
Sarah Van Skaik, an 18-year-old senior, attended a couple pro-wrestling events last year and has watched on television. Some moves are similar to wrestling, she says, but they've been altered for pro wrestling.
“It's entertaining,” she says. “You know it's fake, but it's still entertaining for some reason.”
Pitfalls and dangers
It may be billed as entertainment, Dr. Wilkerson says, but there are pitfalls and dangers.
Fears of child development experts and parents were fueled by a recent Indiana University study, released last month, of 50 WWF broadcasts. The study found only about 36 minutes is spent wrestling during the two-hour show. The remainder is story lines filled with profanity, simulated sexual activity and drug use and miscellaneous sordidness.
The study, commissioned and reported by Inside Edition, was limited to content and didn't draw any conclusions on pro wrestling's effect on kids.
“I think it's always helpful when a parent talks to children about what they're watching. That would certainly fit for this, too,” says Walter Gantz, the Indiana University Department of Telecommunications professor who did the study.
When John and Becky Greiwe of Anderson Township see pro wrestling on television, they change the channel. They have four boys aged 11, 9, 8 and 6, and a 3-year-old daughter.
“It's the whole idea of violence,” Mr. Greiwe explains. “It affects children. They do imitate what they watch. If I permit them to watch, I'm indirectly permitting them to have that same behavior.”
Dr. Wilkerson is alarmed by the number of adults who say their kids know pro wrestling is fake, so it's OK to watch and mimic since it's all in fun.
“I think parents simply need to look at it and say, "Is this an influence I want my child to have?' or "What's being portrayed here? Is this the way I want my kids to speak? Is this the way I want my kids to act?'”
Teen-agers gathered at Ricky Elliott's house didn't think pro wrestling is any worse than movies they see.
Kris Bushelman, a 17-year-old junior at St. Bernard-Elmwood Place, says he hears kids use a popular WWF profanity at school, but it's all in fun.
If parents don't like pro wrestling, Kris says, they need to supervise their kids. His parents don't let his little brothers, ages 10 and 8, watch pro wrestling unless he can watch with them.
Mr. Brown, the pop culture professor, characterizes pro wrestling as more theater than threat.
“It can be negative, but of all the things kids in the world can possibly see and be involved in, it's one of the safest negative things around,” he says.
“There's always these moral panics that television or film are corrupting children. In the 1950s, they were burning comic books because they were turning kids into juvenile delinquents.”
Pro wrestling has always been over the top, he says, but it's even more so now because other TV boundaries have loosened up. Sexual content, profanity and violence on shows like NYPD Blue and The Jerry Springer Show led the way for pro wrestlers.
There's no evidence locally that pro wrestling has caused a wave of injuries or bad behavior in schools. Children's Hospital Medical Center has seen only one rough-house injury in the last few months. A spokeswoman for Cincinnati Public Schools conducted a spot check with principals which revealed no incidents that could be associated with pro wrestling.
Still, some worry that if kids do try body slams, pile-drives, or other wrestling moves on the playground, someone could get hurt.
Sarah Van Skaik says it's OK for kids to emulate the moves to a point, provided they are informed about pro wrestling. “As long as they know it's not real — that it isn't really possible to do those things. If you do, you're going to get killed.”
Teen wrestling matches canceled in California
Building cable system from ground up
Suburbs find room for more
Hamilton Co. looks at big picture
Wrestling grabs more kids
Cincinnati, Columbus race to house manatees
Omitting special ed kids may have aided Ky. scores
CPS hired teacher unaware of sex-abuse charges
Panel's mission: Funding rail line
Charges pile up against mom accused of killing 7-year-old
Mayor-turned-bank robber gets 7 years
Torched school on verge of return
Vietnam memorial wall replica returns to N.Ky.
Activity called key for Ohio riverfront
Family, faith help heal woman's wounded heart
Foster moms tell of girls' emotional scars
'Hood tour brings variety of sounds
Judges to look at felons' role at CCC
Ky. lawmakers fret over Turfway future
Workers fought fire in paper plant, delayed calling for help
Acting-out boosts police training
Barge barrels into bridge
Butler may not budge on jail
Driver dies in rollover
Falmouth rejects plan to fix budget
Jurist found dead at his home
Leftover dirt should save pile of money
Mother in wheelchair acquitted
Petition drive on for change
Police: Beware of African hoax
TRISTATE DIGEST
