How WWE ruined my life

I remember sitting with my grandmother and flipping through television channels. We finally settled on a sports channel showing World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). I was ten-years-old.

WWE used to be immersive with complex storylines and people fighting each other and scantily clad women. Everything a pre-teen wants. That particular day, the announcer of RAW, Lilian, walked backstage where they shot fake cut-scenes. She was arguing with some woman while I was sipping on my rasna, and suddenly the woman pulled down Lilian's pants.

These were the days when the cable guy used to switch to FTV after 12 midnight. So the censor board wasn't doing its greatest job. When the woman pulled down Lilian's pants, in addition came down her underwear and I saw her butt in its birthday suit.

My grandmother panicked and flipped the channel, but the damage was done. I had seen a naked butt on television, which was awesome. My grandmother was scandalised and probably felt that television was no longer safe for kids. I enjoyed WWE that day, but in hindsight, that was some pretty twisted shit for a pre-internet ten-year-old's consumption.

So here are three ways in which the WWE effs up kids:

1. Sexing up of everything

Kids, Trish Stratus wasn't real. Torrie Wilson wasn't real. The Rock's body doesn't shine like a sun on normal days. And having sex in the middle of the ring is an absolute farce.

The meaning of life isn't waiting to be uncovered by a juiced up fake fighter trying to tear another's clothes. What this does though is create an impression of sexiness in kids.

It basically takes the concept of checking out models in a magazine and blows it up. Now, owing to a generation growing up on WWE, more people work out than study in Tier 1 cities (Fake stat alert!) and everyone's expectations of what a woman and a man is supposed to look like is warped.

2. Violence

Go back a few years, be honest to yourself. We've all been there. Choke-slamming and spearing friends and siblings for fun, sometimes leading to actual damage.

The WWE glorified violence and that isn't cool. Giving a people a Gold Belt for beating the shit out of someone else with a chair, or punching them in the jewels or smashing their head with a sledgehammer isn't the best work/reward example for kids.

3. Gender

So I couldn't find the video for Lilian having her pants pulled down, but I did find this:

Just because she's there and wearing a skirt, the chairman of WWE tried to hide his bald head in her skirt. Obviously her skirt was ripped apart!

4. Poor Lilian.

Another major problem with the treatment of women were the Bra and Panties matches, where essentially, two ladies tried to tear each others clothes apart, where the loser would eventually end in her bare minimums.

5. No great for the feminist movement this.

Another treat for young adults were the weekly bikini contests. The problem is marketing these like an entertainment product.

Overpowering of women and having men tear the bearing apart doesn't help a society like India, where Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan have already encouraged "The Youth" to not give up on women as their "No" is basically a "Yes".

The WWE was great when we were young, but it was great for two reasons: adrenaline and titillation. Upon revisiting, it's worth thinking how it must have structured the views of kids.