Professional Wrestling Is Bad for the World

Sure, it’s a metaphor for America. But not one to be proud of.

So here is something I have been wanting to say out loud for a while and would now like to: I do not like professional wrestling, and I think it is bad for the world.

I did not grow up in a household that watched professional wrestling, and while I have many friends that I respect who did and who therefore have an appreciation for it that I do not, it should be noted that my children are not growing up in a household like that. If my kids are going to become professional wrestling fans, they are going to have to choose that on their own. I hope they don’t.

(I swear, I become a little bit more like Max von Sydow in this clip every day.)

In recent years, as people who grew up on Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, John Cena, Kurt Angle, so on, have reached professional age (and those figures have crossed over into the mainstream, culminating, inevitably, in Hogan tearing off his shirt at the Republican National…