Nevertheless, I do agree with dispensing with the WWE.

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE A MAAAAN"

I think every boy wrestles with his manhood every once in a while. It probably relieves more stress than it causes.

So these profs would rather we be a nation of pussies. I bet they really would have got their panties in a bunch over Roman gladiators.

I started watching WWF during a business trip when I was 29. It's a celebration of the id and, I've bought both opera tickets and Wrestlemania tickets in the same transaction -- both are really the same thing just different formats.

I'd really like to see what the end-game looks like for these profs. Do we all walk around with our nads chopped off and high on anti-depressants?

College makes you dull.

I'm not against the violence, I'm against the catering to the idiotic element of the American adolescent.

And please stop comparing wrestling to the Coliseum fights of Rome. Those were actual representation of man's inner beast, fighting for survival.

Modern professional wrestling is little more than sweaty men fondling one another, with an occasional chair being thrown, or something.

On the serious, I love wrestling. It's basically working-class performance art. It writes large all of the ambivalences about gender and class and race that are part and parcel of American life in the 21st century, and deals with it in a way that is entertaining but also very honest.
Guys like these fellas are upset that wrestling is aggressive and sexist and racist, and believe me, it is, but it also really shouldn't be taken seriously by anyone. It's theater, and should be engaged critically just like every other medium. If you want to compare it to anything, think of it as a soap opera with elaborate freestyle stuntwork. It's not for everyone, but neither is opera, y'know?
These guys are just focused more on the "well, if we criticize wrestling as violent and dangerous, we get beaucoup funding/we get on CNN/we get published in reputable journals" part more than the "this is a unique and strange art form that has its own language and its own contexts and its own rules and should be evaluated as such" aspect, because that isn't where the fucking money is.

Not backing down from confrontation is a bad thing now? No wonder we're all pushovers.

You really have to work hard to make wrestling look evil and sinister, and this video didn't work hard enough.

I like the way they somehow link wrestling to society's greater problems. Wrestling doesn't create real life violence. It creates incredibly unrealistic violence in the tradition of Tom and Jerry. Only with horrible dialogue. I don't really watch it, so let me ask, don't they have women's wrestling as well? Why are they complaining about that? I've seen some Amazons go head to head on those commercials, I'm pretty sure.

Wow. These comments are a fine example of why the new poetv is a vast improvement.

Anyway, pro wrestling can be pretty stupid (though often charmingly so) but it's mostly harmless, and we're well past the point where anyone thinks it's even approaching a real sport anyway. Trying to get rid of it is no different than trying to ban violent video games or movies - it's a useless, simple-minded response to complex social problems. Reality is never going to be improved by attacking fiction.

Beside, do you think the Undertaker would be able to just go out and get a normal job? No one ever thinks of the Undertaker.

yeah, now i can log on to read a bunch of losers having lame rambling philosophical discussions of internet video clips

These are the same type of people who would argue that he-man causes people to turn to satanism.

SHUT UP HHH! Stone Cold IS a man and he's gonna show you! Get him Stone Cold! Give him a stunner!

I love how their "research" into pro-wrestling doesn't include the fact that it's been around since before television was invented and that it's practiced around the world by completely different types of organizations than the WWE. It's got a fascinating history if these hippy douchebags would take five seconds out from cataloging every time Vince McMahon orders somebody to kiss his ass.

Also, "growing number of female stars?" There hasn't been a fucking decent female champ since Trish left.

"I submit that the entire Undertaker Vs. Kane Hell in a Cell match could have been replaced with Kane and the Undertaker talking about their hurt feelings in the ring for a half hour! Think of the ratings!"

This is one of those situations where I don't know whether a video deserves five stars or one star based on the same parameters.

An edgy t-shirt once said "Don't hold strong opinions about things you don't understand." These people don't appear to even remotely comprehend what wrestling is or why people watch it, which makes their entire argument hilariously offbase. I guess this is like when Jack Thompson refers to the Columbine RPG as a "murder simulator" or those TV news reports reference the Emo Emu.

Ignorant banning vs wrestling: which is a greater threat to society?