WWE: The Real Youth Movement Is Not What You Think

I watched my son cry this weekend. I’ve seen him cry many times before but this one was different.  I saw him cry when he fell off of the couch and landed hard on his head. I saw him cry when I took away his video games. I saw him cry when we saw the sharks at the aquarium.  

He’s five, he cries. He sat across from me at the table and began to turn bright red. His bottom lip begins to quiver and he bites it to slow it down. His eyes began to well and he tries not to let anyone else notice. This was a man cry.

Dolph Ziggler had just lost a title match to Edge and my boy was pissed.

I began to wonder where my passion for the business had gone. I cannot foresee any match in the near future that would so move me that I would be reduced to tears.

I still consider myself a fan. I would still defend the business to skeptics. I still watch the programming. I still read the dirt sheets. I still enjoy the business, but I don’t see myself being so emotionally involved as to lose control.

The same can’t be said for my son. My son has been hooked hard by the business and he is all in. My kid goes crazy for every false finish. He often lets out a Joey Styles like

“Oh my GOODNESS!”

My boy cares who wins. He knows all the entrance songs word for word. He sings them CONSTANTLY. It really gets weird in the grocery store when he sings about the voices in his head. We tend to get some looks. He is emotionally invested now in the business and he loves every second of it.

The real question then is whether the PG rating is hurting the business? You may not like it but it is building for the future. This is the WWE trying to ensure the viability of the company for the next 20 to 30 years. The same thing has happened each of the last three decades.  

I know there are those amongst us that miss the barbed wire and the thumbtacks. You can still see all of that by the way with one of the best big men in the business. The Monster Abyss in TNA is the new King of Hardcore.

You might miss the bikini matches or the HLA. Okay, so I miss that too. If you subscribe to Maxim or have an internet connection you can find all of the puppies you need. The lack of these things hasn’t seemed to slow down the entertainment value of the show as a whole.

I’ve seen many things for the first time again through the eyes of my children. I feel like I have a new passion for so many things I thought I didn’t care about anymore.

In the end it’s the future of the business that matters. 

The product will take a wild turn again in the future. This business is all about cycles. When it comes around to craziness again there will be those that complain just as loudly as the people who complain about the PG rating. I do know one thing: I know that this business is in good hands as long as the younger generation loves it as much as we do.