Don't Try This At Home—Does The WWE Really Care?

Please do not try this at home.

That message is paired with a short video package and airs during each WWE program.

The message is simple, it portrays the dangers that wrestlers face in the ring and how these moves should be "left to the professionals".

At first glance, it appears that the WWE is being responsible in trying to warn its audience of the risks surrounding the actions required of a professional wrestler.  This warning is given with good reason, as professional wrestling's target audience is now comprised of mostly younger fans.

With all due respect, that message is a load of BS.

The WWE uses that message to cover its ass from parents who are afraid that their children will try to recreate the moves of their favorite wrestlers.

If the WWE really was concerned about the safety of children, then why do they constantly show those flashback video packages?

The packages I refer to focus on a wrestler and show various aspects of that wrestler's life. The one part that always catches my attention is where they show the given wrestler as a young child holding a makeshift championship belt and practicing wrestling moves that they have seen on TV with other family members.

John Cena, Edge and the Hardys have all been featured in these vignettes.

This is a bit confusing to me in that the WWE wants its young audience not to mimic what they are watching, yet they are showing their most popular wrestlers doing exactly what the WWE is supposedly frowning upon.

Personally, I have no problem with backyard wrestling or anything along those lines. I plan on writing an article about that subject in the future and have a feeling that the WWE does not mind kids imitating their product either.

No one wakes up one day and decides they want to be a professional wrestler.

That is the point of the vignettes. They show a popular wrestler talking about how he would mess around with friends from the neighborhood, imitating his favorite wrestler and the kids watching these stories today get the idea that they too can be like John Cena or Edge.

The "please don't try this at home message" falls on deaf ears.

The WWE knows that it has to outwardly portray a concern for the safety of its younger audience, but I want to close with the following: Just for fun I Googled John Cena and found 7,920,000 matches.

I'm sure the WWE is really upset that its biggest cash cow went into his backyard and wrestled with his brothers when he was young.