A bad example for kids? (WWF Superstars)

Member Name: Humbug

Product:	WWF Superstars
Date:	21/08/01 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Entertaining, Professional, Colourful

Disadvantages: Violent, Cheating, Gang War

Now most sane adults know that the WWF wrestlers are highly trained professionals who sometimes suffer horrific injuries even though the moves are choreographed. Hopefully, most of the readers realise that the 'fights' are fixed and requires a lot of rehearsing to make the exciting fight scenes work.
It's also true to say that the WWF wrestler has to be an actor as well as a sportsman. Half the time, the wrestler just stands in the middle of the ring and talks to the audience, or has to take part in some farcical scene outside the ring.
My biggest worry is that the violence and cheating shown on WWF, although fake and done for entertainment purposes, shows susceptible kids that it's OK to cheat, to gang up on someone who is supposed to fight one on one. It shows crazy weapons being used, like ladders, garbage bins, metal chairs and even guitars. Of course the referee allows these weapons (must be in the 'rules' somewhere).
Is the 'American Way', to cheat? OK, as I've said, it's only entertainment, but for years we've had censorship that protected minors from seeing unnecessary violence or sex. It's the responsibility of organisations like WWF to show some restraint here.
I suppose I'm old fashioned, I like my villains to be dressed in black and to snarl at everyone. The goody comes in dressed in white and ALWAYS wins. In retrospect, that's a form of cheating too, since it's not real life. But at least it taught right from wrong, which unfortunately the WWF seems to have forgotten about.
Personally, I used to love the WWF. I enjoyed all the crazy characters like The Undertaker (remember Paul Barer and the Urn?), Hulk Hogan and Macho Man. The wrestling didn't seem to matter, it was the antics of these super characters that had me in stitches.
But when they started to have soap operas in the middle of the ring, fake fights out in the street, 'double-crossing' in the office,
where a camera just happened to be - and worse, much worse - the culture of gang warfare, 3 or 4 men 'beating up' one man with chairs, attacking a man in the dressing room, or showing kids how to cheat in the ring by 'distracting' the referee, it gets to be worrying.
Am I alone in my concern about the gang mentality in WWF? It is a changing world and most things change because the values we had then do not fit the modern world now.
Call me old-fashioned, but I believe in Fair Play, Right against Wrong and to teach our kids those values. Oh well, where's my stallion. Time to head for the hills.
Hi Ho Silver and away!

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