Growing up, I was addicted to professional wrestling, mostly the WWE. I remember seeing my first match between the Big Bossman and some two-bit performer named The Berzerker. To me, these guys were larger than life (probably because they weighed around 500 pounds collectively) and I was hooked from day one. The WWE wasn't as big a media conglomerate as they are now. When I was a kid, you could buy shirts, action figures, magazines, posters, and VHS tapes. That was about it. Nowadays, WWE has attacked the movie industry with their own production studio. They sell music (in fact, I can probably name only a handful of performers who don't use a song made by a well known band). They produce five hours of television every week and have even separated themselves into two brands by splitting their roster down the middle. Point being, the WWE is worldwide. Their impact is huge on kids, especially since they now openly market themselves to children and their TV shows produce a PG rating. Long gone are the days of beer drinking renegades, trashy women, foul language, and pointing to your crotch. Nowadays, it is a clean cut super hero who preaches hustle, loyalty, and respect fighting a cold snake-like villain. It has become cartoonish again for the first time since the late 1980's.
Growing up. My dad would just tell me that wrestling is fake and that these men and women were highly trained athletes. Vince McMahon even says wrestling is staged. But what about UFC? They promote themselves as this generation's version of boxing. A 100% real combat sport with no scripts, no faking, all beat downs and blood. Their biggest star is arguably Brock Lesnar, a former pro wrestler. UFC is WWE's biggest competition, even though both sides dispute that claim. UFC, and mixed martial arts in general, aimed at the 18-49 demographic. They claim they are an adult form of entertainment. Yet, at the mall the other day I noticed something strange. UFC now distributes action figures.
They make kid's toys. They created kid's clothing. The made "play" gloves. That doesn't seem to me that they are marketing to adults. Their TV show on Spike TV airs at 8pm. One full hour earlier than WWE's Monday night show, 2 full hours before WWE's all-woman Tuesday night show.
Children are a powerful demographic to control but when do we draw the line? It is bad enough that baseball has its steroids scandal, that football condones DWI arrests, that hockey is a game played by toothless goons, and basketball celebrates their biggest star as a goodie goodie even though he cheated on his wife.
Kids have a hard time finding role models that deserve to be role models. My father can't turn to my 10 year old little brother and say that UFC is fake. He can't explain to him that they are just acting. They aren't. Yes, I am bashing UFC. Deal with it. At least with wrestling, I can point at who is responsible should something unwarranted reaches a child's eye. They have a script they follow. UFC doesn't. This isn't some Katy Perry Seasame Street controversy. This isn't kids playing video games that depict violence. This is real violence. Real blood. Real flesh being ripped apart in a human dog fight that Michael Vick would be proud of. And somehow, it is celebrated as the hip thing to watch in sports circles. "Ooo that wrestling stuff is fake!" they will holler. Yes, it is. It's no different than a movie, except that wrestling is live. At least when a guy gets hit with a chair in wrestling, he gets up and walks to the back. In UFC, on their TV programming they hype guys getting knocked out for good. Take a look for yourself on what they promote and tell me that you'd approve of your kids watching this on TV, buying their merchandise, and becoming a life long follower:
Cursing, trash talking, impending violence, threats, glorifying broken body parts, among other things. Think this is a good outlet for kids? I'd hope not. So why are they selling kid's merchandise? I'd love to find out. It will only get worse too. UFC is only getting bigger. They are exploring the possible markets overseas. Their pay per view events are growing in number and UFC 100 drew roughly 1.5 million buyers, that event featured Brock Lesnar in the main event.
To recap: Wrestling is fake, UFC is real. Wrestling markets towards kids with a PG product. UFC markets to kids with what should be a Rated R/TV-MA rating. UFC is going international and their PPV's are rapidly expanding. I guess the only thing we can feel safe about is our daughters. Dana White, president of the UFC, has openly stated that woman's fighting doesn't appeal to him. At least he has some morals. But he does want MMA to be an Olympic sport.
Ain't that a kick in the head.
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