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There was only one time in my life that I took a break from being a fan, and that was when I was 13 years old. This lasted for only one year. No matter what stigma comes with being a wrestling fan, I have never been ashamed to say I was one (even in the wake of Mae Young giving birth to a hand, and so on and so on). However, this past Saturday my friend and I took a ride to Philadelphia on a whim to catch some wrestling. My wife is pregnant and is not up to doing much these days (and she is not a fan), and my friend “received permission†from his wife to attend the show. So off we went.
I got to the arena at 6:40 p.m. and immediately got in line that was formed outside the building. My friend was about ten minutes away, still driving to the arena. As soon as I got in line, the first thing I noticed was the foul language using, alcohol consuming fans talking about the evening’s show. Believe me, I have used my fair share of four letter words in the past and still do today, and I do enjoy my beer, but I guess the language and excessive drinking in front of younger children (some looking no older than ten years old), bothered me. Five minutes after I arrive, three teenagers (two guys and one girl) appearing to be dropped off my one of their mothers, got in line. The girl has no jacket on and is freezing from the cold weather. Her two male friends leave her in line to go back to the mother’s car to stay warm. She quickly runs back to the car to grab a cigarette from either one of the two males or the mother.
Why is the teenager smoking, in front of what may be her mother?
I think the most absurdities happened when my friend and I got settled in our seats. We purchased reserved seats for the evening. In the first row were a group of approximately five kids (no older than twelve) and two adult women. I can say for sure that one of these two women was the mother to at least one of the kids. Her kids were settled in the front row seats, even though they purchased general admission tickets (you can tell this because they changed seats about four times, once someone would approach them with a ticket saying the reserved seat was theirs to use). Once the mother arrived (this being the first time I saw her this evening, assuming she came from the rest room), she began cursing non stop at these kids, mainly at this one boy who appeared to be her son, saying things in such a vulgar way because she had to walk past people to get to her seat. Her tirade continued when her cell phone rang and whoever she was talking to, she was cursing up a storm. It sounded to be in a friendly way…not hostile…just the words made me embarrassed; I think this embarrassment was for the kids with her. As the show begins and the wrestling action commences, this unidentified woman would jump up out of her seat for some of the wrestlers and scream things towards that as to how sexy they were and what she wanted to do to them. The two guys next to me, who had the privilege of sitting next to her this evening, just looked stunned at the stuff she was saying.
I do not write this piece to say for one second that I am perfect. I used to attend all original ECW events in Philadelphia and have said my share of profanities. Maybe I did so because the original ECW crowd contained mostly adults. This PWU show had a lot of children in attendance. I think everything I had seen this evening makes me wonder if I am too old to be a wrestling fan or at least attend shows live. I do not enjoy the WWE product today, so I mostly attend independent shows such as ROH and the two TNA shows in Philadelphia that were previously held. The TNA shows had a lot of kids in attendance, but the crowd was in no way comparable to the PWU crowd this past Saturday. I do not blame the promotion for this. The only thing I would question on their part is the vulgarity used by their wrestlers during their match. But this type of verbal usage also happens in the WWE, so to say it is not common place in this industry would be a lie. Also, I do not believe the PWU caters specifically to children.
Maybe it’s because I am going to become a father for the first time this year…I would not want my child to hear such profanities in public, smoke in front of me, or even curse along with me as this one kid did with his mother. There is more I could say about the people in attendance this night, but I think I have made my point.
Am I a snob, far from it; I just feel that the crowd attending shows today are becoming worse and worse. I am curious to hear what others think. If you would like to send your comments, please send them to crn7701@yahoo.com.
Signed,
Life-long wrestling fan (LLWF)
