July 5, 1999

The Reality of Professional Wrestling - THE COMMENTARY

By Joseph Planta

Professional wrestling is more popular than ever. Its ratings are enviable and as someone who’s watched the erosion of network television’s ratings, pro wrestling on cable is where they’ve gone. I used to watch professional wrestling when it was in its prime, whatever that means. Ratings for the shows were good, but not as massive as they are now. They are even an acceptable part of pop culture, sports and entertainment.

Noel Hulsman made a terrific dissection of the WWF’s business in this month’s Financial Post Magazine, where he profiled Carl DeMarco who runs the Federation’s operations in Canada. DeMarco was candid about how they run their business and why they now cater to the lowest common denominator. Wrestling, at least the WWF kind, has become tawdry, cheap, demeaning and plain filth. DeMarco says that it’s what the public wants and so week in and week out they deliver. While they deliver on the crap, at the same time they make a billion dollars in wrestling related merchandise alone.

I am not a wrestling fan anymore, not because of what’s on on these shows, but because it just doesn’t interest me. I don’t watch Jerry Springer either, but I’m not one of these conservative schmucks who gets on their respective milk crates calling for their castration from television sets across North America. What should happen is that programs like these should fix their programming to fit the time slots they occupy. A story in the news recently solidifys my complaint, a 7 year old boy in Dallas, Texas accidently killed his 3 year old brother by imitating a move he saw on a wrestling show. The officials at WCW, showed no remorse and snuffed off the death as not their responsiblity.

Professional wrestling is going through a transformation phase. They’re making their content less about wrestling and more about entertainment. Fine, but when mothers and fathers who used to watch wrestling let their kids watch it now, and don’t know what in heaven’s name is on these shows, the kids are exposed to something they shouldn’t be. Pro wrestling is as dramatic as any Shakespearean play or as lewd as an episode of Melrose Place, most of the time a show consists of both parts. They don’t even try to hide the fact it’s fake, thus adding to it’s credibility. Boy, if I still watched wrestling, I’d be so thrilled it’s finally real.

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