Day: March 1, 2015

Dear World Wrestling Entertainment,

I regret to inform you that you are blowing a solid opportunity. Despite my repeated attempts at dissuasion, my three boys insist that professional wrestling is God’s gift to boys. They watch your shows religiously. They trot down the stairs shouting Yes!Yes!Yes! and performing F5’s on various stuffed animals. They buy in to your brand. The problem is that they are starting to see through your story lines.

This is not about wrestling being fake. The kids are smart enough to know that the moves being performed are incredibly high risk and have tried them on each other enough to know that there might be more than a little fabrication at work here. They don’t care. What makes them care is a good storyline with a guy they can cheer for and a someone worth booing. That is really beginning to fade in the WWE. In truth, the only thing keeping them tuned in is the hopes that some aged superstar will pop up and remind them that the legends in the video game are still at their old tricks.

The new breed of wrestling story lines do not work. My boys age from 5-10 and are already tired of the authority. Brock Lesnar is Yeti–they’ve seen glimpses and one real match but nothing worth becoming fans over. John Cena is, well, nobody here has a clue what you’re trying to do with that guy. The boos are confusing the 5 yr old and he is quickly loosing interest.

I get it. The story lines are up to the final say of Vince McMahon, a man that once fueled his trump-like ego by actually becoming a wrestler and defeating the superstars he helped prop up. Thankfully he’s too old for that so he sends out Hunter Hearst Helmsley to do it for him. Seriously, nobody wants to ‘Play the Game’. What these kids want is clearly drawn lines and a variety of superstars and matches that propagate the two main shows. They want to see multiple tag teams fighting for something that matters. They don’t want to see the same two teams battle every single night. They want to see new stars and old mix it up. They want surprise and mystery and comedy. They want to be wowed.

In the words of your rising superstar, ‘Feed me More’ and make sure what you’re feeding me isn’t more of the same. I’m done trying to make my kids give up wrestling and tired of explaining why the WWE brand sucks.

 

The caption on CNN read, ‘Why Taylor Swift took viral bikini photo’. Mind you, this isn’t one of those click through ‘one weird trick’ sites, this is C freaking N N. Or maybe this is CNN. 1.6 million people viewed the bikini photo. I’m guessing less viewed the ridiculous attempt at journalism about the photo. What does it all boil down to? A famous skinny girl took a pic in a bikini with a handful of friends and tried to make it about the oppressive nature of paparazzi. Personally I think its got more to do with our national sexual repression. Of course, that is just the way I carve out my little slice of reality.

It all boils down to the way we each perceive reality. I don’t deign to assume my perceptions are any more or less accurate than anyone else’s. I will admit that I color my perceptions based on life training, want, and need. It is that colorization that leads to silver linings, to spousal abuse and anger-fueled rants, to drunken admissions, to drunken attacks; to beer goggles. We largely allow ourselves to see the world the way that best suits our mood, ego, and subconscious wants and needs. Being aware of that is the best trick any of us can learn. Once we know how we trick ourselves it makes it easier to set about learning how and when not to.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. My 8-9 team and their parents reminded me today that coaching is something I truly love and am rewarded by doing.