WWE's missed opportunity

Exasperated parent and Evening Post journalist Paul Hindle experienced the stage-managed world of WWE first hand in Nottingham last night.

IT'S been a tough few months for the usually slick operation that is World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

In June wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife and son before hanging himself.

When his autopsy suggested he had been injecting steroids the shadow of drug abuse, never far away from professional wrestling, reared its ugly head again.

Then in August former WWE star Brian "Crush" Adams was found dead in his Florida home - and he was subsequently linked to a pharmacy under investigation for steroid prescription.

WWE appeared to act quickly - suspending ten of its wrestlers while the steroid issue was investigated and insisting it randomly tests its 180 athletes at least four times a year.

So with this lurking in the background, the WWE roadshow rolled into Nottingham Arena last night.

And when muscle-hewn superstars Chris Masters and Matt Striker were put up for interview, it seemed like an ideal opportunity for WWE to set the record straight.

Not so.

Masters and Striker may have wanted to talk, but their bosses weren't letting them.

Journalists were briefed beforehand not to ask about drugs and, indeed, anything controversial, like the merits of stage-managed bouts and faux violence, was off the agenda.

A shame, as Masters and Striker were eloquent and would have been quite capable of putting a lucid argument for wrestling being clean.

It's a message I, as a worried parent of a nine and ten-year-old growing addicted to the stage-managed world of WWE, wanted to hear.

I am not alone in seeing my children get hooked on WWE and adopt its stars, such as the Undertaker and The Great Khali as role models.

With impressionable youngsters hanging on WWE's every word, the organisation has a responsibility, and indeed a wonderful opportunity, to steer children away from drugs and tragic wastes of lives such as Benoit and Adams.

Blog posted by Paul Hindle on Friday October 19