TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
The Specialists
PARKS BLOG: WWE is still relevant (to kids, at least) Oct 28, 2009 - 9:05:11 PM
Today, after two days of wrestling live in Buffalo in Rochester, I had to go into a Rochester City School to observe classes for one of my graduate school courses. In the second block class, a student who I had overhead talking about wrestling before came up to me and talked to me about last night's Smackdown for about a half-hour. He said he was at the show, but fell asleep (not a good sign), but it also made me wonder if he was there at all and perhaps just saying he was. He had me list all the Smackdown matches that happened that he missed. He was a big Jeff Hardy fan and wanted to get a tattoo on his arm like Hardy's. Suffice to say, he was disappointed to learn that I was a fan of Chris Jericho and C.M. Punk. He was in seventh grade.
After that class, I had about a half-hour off, so I went to the library to read the newspaper. A few tables over, a group of guys were talking about wrestling - the show in Rochester, I believe. I heard one of them ask if the announcers really knew what was going to happen before it happened or if they were sort of along for the ride like the fans. They were probably high-schoolers.
And in early October, I was in a Special Ed class when one student mentioned how he was going to Smackdown in Rochester. In that class, a counselor handed out a paper that had hints for what to do to NOT succeed in school. One of them was something to the effect of, "watch a lot of TV (especially wrestling)." I was slightly bemused, and slightly offended. When the counselor went over it, she did say that it was OK to watch as long as you didn't do the moves in school.
So at least for the school I'm in, WWE's PG product and catering to kids, so far, is working.
PWTorch VIP members have first-look access to all of Torch Smackdown specialist Greg Parks's latest blogs in the newly upgraded VIP Forum. His blogs are published first in the PWTorch VIP Forum, and Parks interacts with other VIP members and Torch staff and contributors in the blog comments area afterward. Some of Parks's blog entries will be exclusive to the VIP Forum.
Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
