CB’s World: Will My Future Child Be A Pro Wrestling Fan? A Look at WWE Fandom Being Passed Down to the Next Generation

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First and foremost, I wanted to wish everyone a happy unofficial kickoff to summer on this Memorial Day Weekend. And to those of you who are serving or have served our country, THANK YOU. That includes everyone from my 95 year-old Grandpa Bruno who fought in the Battle of Peleliu in World War II, my father who served in the Air Force in the Vietnam Era, and of course, everyone who has protected our country before or since.

In other news, my wife and I are expecting our first child in a few months, and we couldn’t be more excited. From a lifelong wrestling fan’s perspective, I have started asking the question:

Will my future child be a pro wrestling fan?

Before I explore possible answers to that question, one thing I know for certain is that my kid will be inheriting the following four New York teams that is sure to bring him or her more sports heartache than happiness: The New York Mets, the New York Jets, the New York Islanders, and the New York Knicks.

The fandom for these four teams has been passed down a couple of generations, and so I would like to apologize in advance to my child for all of the disappointment that Major League Baseball and the other leagues will bring. That being said, “LET’S GO METS!”

As for pro wrestling and specifically WWE — because who knows what else will be around in a few years — I have started to think about whether or not this is the type of thing that will be naturally passed down to the next generation.

A lot of my cousins with kids tell me that they actually stopped watching wrestling for about ten years, only for their kids to bring them back. Either that, or perhaps they used their children as an excuse to check out WWE again without having to explain to their friends why they are still watching.

Speaking of that, I still don’t understand the sensitivity that people have towards that question and/or the perceived “embarrassment” that people feel about being a pro wrestling fan. There are so many people out there with so many more questionable TV viewing habits — my wife, God bless her, will watch “Dance Moms” or “Tabitha’s Extreme Makeover” on any given day — and to me wrestling isn’t really all that bad in the grand scheme of things.

Anyway, back to my cousins and their kids. I think it’s awesome that they are able to share in the bond of watching wrestling together, and they have all gone to the various house shows or live events in the area and have had a great time.

I also know that my good friend Steven Gepp has talked about the bonds of wrestling he shares with his son, and that’s a really cool thing to hear and read about.

Now, I am the type of pro wrestling fan who has not really taken a break from watching, nor am I an ex-wrestler in my own right who has intimate knowledge of what it’s like to be in the ring. I have never missed an episode of Monday Night Raw (thanks to VCR and DVR technologies over the years), and I might be one of the last people who still watches TNA on as much of a weekly basis as possible.

Granted, part of that consistency is because it’s part of my responsibility to do so given my role here at Inside Pulse, but I also still like to watch from the perspective of being “just a fan” as well.

Will my child end up with any interest in wrestling? I’ll assume that at the very least, he or she will at least pick up on some of it and become a fringe fan.

Will he or she “catch the bug” and end up with becoming a lifelong fan? I don’t even know if that’s possible anymore, as I can’t imagine a 40-plus year-old John Cena catching my child’s imagination in a few years and I have no idea who would appeal to a 5 year-old in 2019/2020.

Will WWE give me an incentive as a new parent to introduce my child to the product … Do they even need to? They probably don’t need to do anything to keep me from tuning in at this point, so by proxy my child will likely have at least some exposure to the WWE Universe. How far he or she delves into that will depend on whether or not I see them engaged at all in what’s going on.

Will I even feel that desire to pass along what has been a true passion for me down by the time my child is old enough to understand what’s going on? I think this is the hardest question of them all to answer.

For example, my grandfather and my father are engineers who just love putting things together. To this day, my parents’ household is filled with model airplanes and matchstick models, among other hands-on projects.

That gene clearly did NOT get passed down to me as my tool of choice was always a pen and paper, or a keyboard, as I explored my passion for writing.

Granted, being a pro wrestling fan isn’t really rocket science, but one thing I was given by my parents that sometimes get lost today is the luxury of making my own choices in terms of my hobbies and interests when growing up. I loved playing soccer, my brother loved playing the drums, and not once did my parents force me to play an instrument if I didn’t want to.

So if I end up watching wrestling shows and my child is clearly uninterested, the last thing I am going to do is force them to pay attention.

Of course, it would be nice to be able to have that bond with them, like I had the bond of baseball with my father.

But hey, there are other things in life that will allow me to form that kind of connection if not pro wrestling, and that would be just fine with me.

That’s all from me — CB.

CB is an Editor for Pulse Wrestling and an original member of the Inside Pulse writing team covering the spectrum of pop culture including pro wrestling, sports, movies, music, radio and television.