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A question for parents


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Have you informed your children that pro wrestling is a work? In the last 8 or 9 months, I have started to let my 6 year old watch RAW / SD and PPV. 

 

He figured out that it wasn't quite legit, and asked me straight out if "these guys were actually fighting". I try not to lie to him, even about trivial bullshit, and I clued him in on the fact that while it is a contact sport, it is not truly combat.

 

It has not taken away from his enjoyment of it at all, and I have been trying to wrap my head around if someone had told me it was worked at that age. I'm pretty sure I would have been destroyed. I figured it out when I was like 10 or 11, and I stuck with it for another 25 years and counting. 

 

Weirdly, before he saw whatever it was that made him think it was theater, he never had any doubts about the validity of the little bit of lucha he has seen, which I always thought was a style that sort of allowed you to understand it was more performance than combat.

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On the parenting stuff, I think "Help your child understand what they're watching" is a good thing regardless, and I'm not personally a fan of "Santa Claus" type lies, however well-intentioned they might be, so yeah, chalk up my (completely childless) vote for "tell 'em".

Weirdly, before he saw whatever it was that made him think it was theater, he never had any doubts about the validity of the little bit of lucha he has seen, which I always thought was a style that sort of allowed you to understand it was more performance than combat.

On this, I feel like regardless of your understanding of fighting, lucha is like classic Hong Kong martial arts in that, however far it truly is from real combat, it LOOKS so damned impressive that you're not sitting there questioning what you're seeing, you're just enjoying it.

Whereas with Raw, not only do you question the reality, you question the life choices that led to you watching Raw yet again.

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I never tried to tell Xav wrestling was a shoot. He doesn't really have any interest in wrestling on TV though. He enjoyed All-Star house shows when we used to go to them.

 

He likes the New Day though. He loves that everyone knows Xavier is a real name now.

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I never tried to tell Xav wrestling was a shoot. He doesn't really have any interest in wrestling on TV though. He enjoyed All-Star house shows when we used to go to them.

 

He likes the New Day though. He loves that everyone knows Xavier is a real name now.

Not that it isn't, but it's a little funny that he's using a wrestling name as proof of this.

I mean, never mind Xavier Woods being a made-up name, dude is on a team with "Kofi Kingston" and "Big E" ffs.

EDIT: TIL that Kofi is his real first name. Well then.

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I'm not a parent, but my little brother is 6 (different dads), and I often wonder when I should tell him. Right around the 3rd set of full force YES! kicks to the back of my bad knee when I visit home is usually when I come closest. I figured it out on my own when I was 9 and I stumbled on to 1wrestling.com through a banner ad on ECW's site, so I might just let it happen that way for him too

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True or false: Austin Watson went with Xavier Woods as his WWE name so he could be named after two Universities?

 

He could have been named Yale Princeton.

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I was smartened up on wrestling by my uncle when I six when he told it real but fixed.  It worked for me and I used that logic on my kids when they watched as tykes.  You want them to appreciate the artform while not lying to them.  

 

And fuck Santa Clause.  I couldn't wait for any of several children to turn old enough to realize that BIG DADDY buys the gifts!  Fuck the fat jolly motherfucker for taking credit for my blown Christmas bonus.

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My sister has four children ages 2-5 and she outright told them how wrestling works. She also never told them Santa or the Easter Bunny was real.

These are the same kids whom they and their group of friends used deductive reasoning to scientifically explain to me why there was no such thing as the tooth ferry and spend time playing Kerbal Space Program. So these are smart kids who would have figured it out anyways.

I wonder what would happen if I taught them Magic The Gathering...

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Yeah, my wife is big on the whole Santa gimmick, so that one was out of my hands. But I wanted him to be able to watch wrestling with an appreciation of what they do, but not be worried that his favorites are getting the fuck beat out of them every night. I can remember how worried I was about Steamboat after the larynx crushing incident, so I would like him to understand that in a situation like that, he need not worry.

 

Luckily, he has gravitated towards Brock Lesnar as his main man, so he doesn't have to worry about the beatdown aspect too much. He has also tied his wagon to The New Day, because he likes Woods playing the trombone, and he caught me watching UpUpDownDown a few months back, so he is super geeked that the guys from his favorite team are into video games. 

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True or false: Austin Watson went with Xavier Woods as his WWE name so he could be named after two Universities?

 

He could have been named Yale Princeton.

 

Which university is Woods?

 

 

William Woods University?

Woods College of Advancing Studies?

Crown Woods College?

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My daughter went to the indies with me at the tender age of seven.   Big guys in colorful costumes doing battle and good eventually triumphs over evil.   It is a live action comic book and she enjoys the spectacle and ritual like anybody else.  She cheers the faces, boos the heels, and informs the ref that he is doing a shitty job of not watching the hair pulls.

 

Suplexes being totally fucking dangerous, I explain the action to her like any responsible parent would and help her understand what's going on.

 

It is like a big stage play.  With punches.   That makes it the best kind of stage play. 

 

Characters may die in stage plays but actors don't, so no fucking elbow drops on your friends, Princess.  Those things hurt... for really real.

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I started watching wrestling when I was 10 (it was shortly before WM1).  I always knew it was worked but I have no idea how I knew.  Maybe my dad, a boxing fan, told me at some point.  I assumed it was common knowledge.

 

I don't tell my daughter it's fake when we watch it together, but then again, she's only 7 months old.

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Daughter is 3 years old so she's started getting a bit more aware of her surroundings.

 

Haven't shown her yet, but I'm sure I'll start her on some Chikara or something before seeing if she wants to try something else...

 

I know for definite that my wife wont like it. so it may be something that gets kiboshed; who knows...

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I told my son that it's a work, in that they know who is going to win and lose before the match. However he still thinks the moves they do are legit because I don't want him trying to F-5 some poor kid at school.

 

Because my son knows it's a work he still thinks that when people he doesn't like win, it's because they disobeyed Vince McMahon or Triple H and won when they were told to lose.

 

My daughter is too young to understand the idea of a work so she just enjoys the spectacle of wrestling.

 

Both my kids love Finn Balor and my daughter wants to be Sasha Banks so I think I'm doing alright as a father

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Both my folks let me figure it out myself. My mom grew up in Chicago, which was basically the TV wrestling capital of the universe in the 40s-50s, so that stuff was always a big part of her life as a kid... she likes to say I'm channeling her grandpa, the kind of guy who would yell at the TV while Gorgeous George was giving his opponents what for and the like.

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I was smartened up on wrestling by my uncle when I six when he told it real but fixed.  It worked for me and I used that logic on my kids when they watched as tykes.  You want them to appreciate the artform while not lying to them.  

 

And fuck Santa Clause.  I couldn't wait for any of several children to turn old enough to realize that BIG DADDY buys the gifts!  Fuck the fat jolly motherfucker for taking credit for my blown Christmas bonus.

 

My kid is four and thinks the mailman Gary is bringing her all these sweet toys. I PAY THE AMAZON BILL DAMNIT.

 

I haven't told her either way, she likes to kinda sorta watch it if I am watching it but usually that lasts about ten minutes before it is back to the Ipad to watch other kids play with toys exactly like the ones Gary the mailman brought her.

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I kay fabe my kid (now age 9) . Let her figure it out like we had to. Didn't hurt anybody - in fact, probably makes it better.

I took her to MitB '13 with a group of chums, and she was legit crying when Heyman turned on Punk. She used to get swag from Punk (long story, Chicago connections, namedrop) and was very upset. When everyone watched to see what I would do, I was tempted to reveal the work, Instead I told her not to worry, adversity happens and makes one stronger, and that Punk would get revenge. When we got home we looked at the pics of him getting stapled shut, and she watched the following feud with interest.

I told her not to make any sudden moves around Sabu's merch table (because of his savage desert nature) when she wanted a picture with him , and when she did the Sabu pointing up pose with him he cracked up.

To be honest, she takes everything I say with a grain of salt. She likes CHIKARA, and sees the cartoonishness of that and can process it fine. Lucha too, she compares all these styles and "gets" it. Frankly, I am more leery of the ugliness (of actions not appearance) of many indy crowds and do not want to expose her to that.

Kids are smarter and hipper and stronger than most folks, including parents, give them credit for. 

- RAF

p.s.- I am very anti-Santa. Why should that rotund goy get all the credit?

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My 4 year old daughter LOVES Bailey and my boys (9 and 6) are fans of the Lucha Dragons, Kane and Mark Henry. I haven't told them it's not real and at this point I don't think they have worked it out. They seem to get right into it.

 

Im happy to let the illusion continue though. There is something almost magic about them buying into the matches and stories 100%.

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My 12-year-old girl knows that I announce one sport where they are really fighting and another where they are working together to put on a show.

 

Surprisingly, it took her quite some time to tell them apart. When I go to a show, she'll ask, "Is this the real one?"

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