Hardtime #87: The Child's Point Of View
Submitted by RIPbossman on Saturday, September 30, 2006 at 5:36 PM EST





Hardtime #87: The Child’s Point Of View

Ok everyone, first off, let me apologize for not responding to most of the emails I've gotten for my last few columns. I just don't have time right now to respond to all of them and do each one justice, so if you haven't received a respnse, I'm sorry. It doesn't look like I'm going to get around to responding to all of the emails that I've gotten, but I will try to do some. I know I said I promized I would respond to EVERY piece of feedback I got... but I guess I sadly have to break my promise.

If you have any feedback for this column, you may send it to david12345575@yahoo.com You might not get a response, but I do promise to read every piece of feedback that I get.

Onto the column...

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“Let the little children come to me, and do not turn them away.”- Jesus Christ.

Doing my student teaching in a Catholic school, I get to hear many quotes from the Bible during Religion class. And a few weeks ago, I heard this quote. It stood out to me, and made an impression on me. Not in a religious sense, but in a philosophical sense. Should we really become like little children to live life to the fullest? Let’s explore this concept a little bit.

Little children often times ask many questions and wonder why things are the way they are in life. But usually when or if they get an answer, they can’t fully comprehend the situation. They can’t fully comprehend the positives of a situation. But then on the flip side of that, they can’t fully understand the negatives of a situation, either.

During 9/11, what do you think would have went through the mind of a small child who lived in a different part of the United States than where the terrorist attacks took place? I honestly have never dealt with children who were old enough to remember 9/11, (And feel free to correct me if you know a child who does remember it and had a different reaction to it than the one I’m about to talk about) but I would imagine that the child simply thought that something very bad happened, nothing more, nothing less. They wouldn’t understand that their country had been attacked so severely and their freedom might be in jeopardy.

Horror. Tragedy. Heartbreak. Children are able to go through these emotions. It might come from something truly heartbreaking as losing their mother or their father, sister or brother. But it might also come from one losing their teddy bear, or dropping their ice cream cone on the ground. In my opinion that has been formed from working in a Kindergarten for the last few weeks, I’ve began to realize that for most children, their world revolves around small things on a day to day basis. What day and time their favorite cartoon shows come on can be the thing they look forward to all week long, and going to see the doctor to get a shot can be a kid’s worst nightmare.

Kid’s don’t worry about the technical stuff in life. They don’t care what kind of income their parent’s bring in. They don’t care about what kind of car you drive, they don’t care about crime in the neighborhood, global warming, what kind of house they live in, taxes, death, or anything else that we as adults care about.

And it got me thinking of how this relates to us as wrestling fans. You might be thinking “This has nothing to do with how we watch wrestling.” But in fact, I’ve realized that it has everything to do with it.

I remember when I was little and my biggest concerns regarding wrestling was whether or not The Undertaker was going to come into my room at night and scare me half to death. I remember how sad I felt when Hogan lost to The Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania 6. I felt such joy in my heart when Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth reunited at Wrestlemania 7.

My concerns watching wrestling back then was whether or not Hulk Hogan would keep or regain his World Title, whether or not Bret Hart would beat Mr. Perfect for the Intercontinental Championship, and wondering why Ric Flair’s “Real World’s Title” was always censored. (I didn’t realize it was the WCW title at the time). It wasn’t that I was simply concerned with these issues as a youngster: I was ENTHRALLED by them. I would go to school and have serious concern that my favorite wrestlers wouldn’t be able to beat the “bad guys” on the upcoming Saturday Night’s Main Event.

And what are my concerns now as a wrestling fan? I’m concerned with Cena’s improvement in the ring. Edge’s ability to put on a good match, Bobby Lashley’s ability to work the microphone. Whether or not Triple H is using politics backstage to influence his pushes and the outcomes of his matches. Anything and everything that has to do with the technical side of professional wrestling is what I’m not concerned with.

The only times I completely got lost in wrestling in this day and age is when Chris Benoit won the title at Wrestlemania 20, and when Tommy Dreamer lost to Justin Credible at ECW Heatwave 2000. The only heels I truly hate is Edge, and that’s because of what he did to Matt Hardy. The only face I truly get behind is Chris Benoit, and that’s because he’s a hardworking, down to earth person.

And honestly, I’m not having nearly as much fun watching wrestling today as I did when I was little. And I know I’m not alone when I say that. Anytime I read through a Wrestling Discussion Thread in the LOP forums, all I seem to read is negative things.
And not coincidentally, all the messages feature people talking about this wrestler having too much of a push or that wrestler being too political backstage.

Before I go any further, let me just state that I am not saying that discussion threads and backstage wrestling news are bad things. Any well educated person will watch the news every day and discuss it amongst his or her peers. Well, why wouldn’t a well educated wrestling fan do the same?

But the point I’m trying to make is that even with the business being as exposed as it is, we should still try to separate fantasy from reality, or should I say reality from fantasy. What I mean by that is there should be a time where we should be totally lost in the product. For those of you who watch wrestling on national tv as much as possible, that can be anywhere from six to nine hours a week.

So from now on, instead of being so happy that Booker T finally has a World Title reign in WWE, despise him because he’s a selfish, egotistical jerk. Instead of hating John Cena because he’s not a technical wrestler, cheer or boo him just because you like or hate his character. Instead of criticizing Batista’s and Bobby Lashley’s mic work, be in awe of how impressive their physiques are.

Who ever said being a mark was such a bad thing? There’s a time and place to talk about the technical side of wrestling. But just like people watch Seinfeld, you don’t talk about all the show’s flaws during the show. During the show, you become enthralled with the characters and storylines. Just like you should be enthralled with wrestling when it’s on.

Watch wrestling as if it is the biggest thing in the world to you. Become like a child again.
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I hope you enjoyed that. If you have any feedback for this column, you may send it to david12345575@yahoo.com









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