T&A the Spandex way
By Randy Striegel
T&A the Spandex way
By Randy Striegel
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The
sport of rings
Like a smack upside the head with a splintered two-by-four, professional wrestling has slammed its way back into the American limelight. And in six simple words, the mystery behind wrestlingâs stranglehold on the American public becomes frighteningly clear: "It doesn't matter what you think." Not coincidentally, those same six words comprise one of the several poignant slogans of arguably todayâs most popular wrestler: "The Rock" from the World Wrestling Federation But the two most successful wrestling federations on the market today and the WWF, and the Ted Turner-owned World Championship Wrestling and narrowly escaped the three-count as the 1980s drew to a close. |
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After apparently peaking
in the late '80s behind the successes of such wrestlers as Hulk Hogan,
"Macho Man" Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior, professional wrestling
followed in the footsteps of pop sensation Debbie Gibson: Nobody knew where
it went, and nobody cared.
New Kids on the Block and acid-washed jeans replaced muscle-bound "no necks" and multi-colored Spandex as America's latest trend. The New Kids fell silently off the charts in the early '90s, however, and a familiar face emerged from the lingering cloud of hairspray. |
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reclaimed its status as on official "trend," much to the chagrin of parents
from east to west. But to combat the possibility of a second and possibly
terminal fall from public grace, writers from both the WWF and WCW began
to incorporate controversial story lines and scantily clad bimbos into
the wrestling programs. Television ratings
soared.
In recent years, the popularity of professional wrestling, the WWF and WCW in particular, has ascended to heights previously thought unattainable for a "sport" that admitted to being fake. So maybe The Rock was right. Maybe it really doesn't matter what you think. Or does it? Allegations of steroid use that have plagued the
industry since day one remain a constant papercut in the eyeball of professional
wrestling. Andwith recent increases in violent behavior among America's
youth, fingers point to wrestling as a possible influence.
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