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Taking Professional Wrestling To The Mat

Media Column
Academic Psychiatry, 25:2, Summer 2001 125
Taking Professional Wrestling to the Mat
A Look at the Appeal and Potential Effects
of Professional Wrestling on Children
Jim Waxmonsky, M.D.
Eugene V. Beresin, M.D.
Professional wrestling (PW) has gained a firm foothold in American culture and appears to
be here to stay. Children comprise a large portion of its audience, much to the dismay of
many parents and clinicians. Society has struggled with how to respond to their children's
fascination with PW, a novel hybrid between sports and entertainment. Parents expose
children to sports, thinking they will learn healthy ways of managing conflict and aggression.
However, PW is not a sport. Its values are the exact opposite of traditional sportsmanship;
it demonstrates to children that cheating and verbal intimidation are effective
problem-solving techniques. Because PW resembles sports, children risk applying its values
to legitimate sports, as well as other realms of life. Parents can prevent this association by
differentiating PW from sports, and the entertainment industry can prevent it by stopping
their aggressive marketing of PW to children. (Acad Psychiatry 2001; 25:125–131)
Dr.Waxmonsky is a resident in the McLean/Massachusetts
General Hospital Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Program and
Clinical Fellow in Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. Dr.
Beresin is the Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Residency Training Program for Massachusetts General Hospital/
McLean Hospital and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at
Harvard Medical School. Address reprint requests and correspondence
to Dr. Waxmonsky, Department of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, WAC 725,
55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114.
Copyright
2001 Academic Psychiatry.
There is no denying that professional wrestling
(PW) is firmly entrenched as part of modern culture.
In 1999, the most-watched cable television show
was...