This past Monday night, thanks to grandparent intervention, both my wife and I were able to sneak away from our parenting duties to take in WWE’s Monday Night Raw live at Atlanta’s Philip’s Arena.
In fact, not only did we get out of the house, but we were able to so with other adults.
If you’re a fan of professional wrestling then you know that for most, it’s a family thing. Most of us have fond memories of being exposed to the squared circle thanks to at least one of out parents.
Take my home growing up, for instance. After cartoons, Saturday mornings were spent with me, my brother and my dad watching random professional wrestling shows, be it on TBS, USA or local access.
This is the case for most of my friends who were into wrestling as well.
Judging from the crowd at Philip’s Arena this past Monday night, not much has changed about that. While there was a strong showing of childless groups of adults like ours, there was an even stronger showing of families. Behind us was a woman who’d brought her young daughter, beside us a family of four, in front of us a family of five. And for the entire show, you could watch parents and children high fiving each other, ooh and aah at the action, cheer faces and boo heels.
Hell, it was even endearing watching the guy two rows up with his young son, teaching the kid how to throw the middle finger. Not at the heels in the ring, mind you, but at other fans for cheering wrestlers they didn’t like.
I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t imagine what it’s going to be like to one day take my own son to a live wrestling event, just like my dad did with me.
It makes sense that wrestling fans would pass their love down generationally considering that’s pretty much how the business itself has thrived through the decades.
A father starts a promotion and then passes it to his son who then passes it to his own (or sells it as was the case of Vincent J. McMahon passing his promotion on to Vincent K. McMahon). Even amongst performers, this seems to be the case. Today, it’s not uncommon to see second, third and even fourth generation wrestlers. Professional wrestling has always thrived on familial support among promoter, performers and fan alike.
It’s also funny that this is essentially how the business still works.
In an age when the biggest promotion is a multinational entertainment corporation earning tens of millions of dollars a year and spends millions on marketing and advertising, a substantial segment of its fan base still comes from families promoting their passion to their sons and daughters. And that giant promotion?
Still predominantly family owned. It’s a sign that as mainstream as professional wrestling may seem at times, it still relies pretty heavily on the old ways of doing things.
And if my kid glancing up from play from time to time at the TV while I’m watching a match is any indication, it would seem I’ll very likely be a part of that old way of doing things myself.
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