Popularity of Professional wrestling is to a large extent not viewed too favorably by parents. While children love this phenomenon, parents find certain wrestling styles to be offensive and disturbing. In many homes, children are banned from watching professional wrestling on television. This does lead us to the question of - Is all the fuss justified, or is professional wrestling really just a soap opera for boys?

Everyone knows by now that professional wrestling is a sham. Viewers long ago gave up the idea that it was for real. Actors pretend to be wrestlers and it doesn't take much skill. The only real aspect is that someone could actually be hurt.

The fuss has little to do with whether or not professional wrestling is real, but parents and others worry that it's sending bad messages. It's definitely violent, no one can deny that. Recently, professional wrestling is venturing into new territory. It's always targeted racial and ethnic backgrounds, but now there is physical and verbal abuse directed at women in the world of wrestling. This is the part that's bothering many people.

Over the years the male wrestlers have had female companions with them. They are generally women wearing few clothes, showing enhanced body parts, big hair, and too many layers of makeup. A few years ago a pimp-like character entered the ring with a group of female prostitutes. Sometimes these women would perform disparaging acts, shocking many parents.

Even if the children had no idea what was really being portrayed, many adults believed that shows with children in the audience should take more responsibility for the content. Before long wrestling was banned in a lot of homes. Parents have been wondering why the already violent sport featuring people with wild names, changed into something even worse. They decided that their children shouldn't be exposed to this behavior.

A second issue in this controversy was the fact that professional wrestling was being shown on TV in the early afternoon. Kids were often home from school while their parents were still working. Parents believed the networks should schedule these programs later. The parents would then have the option of either turning off the television, or at least explaining to their children what was going on.

Despite the controversies, wrestling continued to gain popularity and all events in the US and Canada would have stadium filled to capacity. Major matches were also shown on big screens in large movie theatres. In the recent past, wrestling mania has slowed a bit but it continues to be very popular with kids.

Apparently it doesn't matter what adults think of wrestling, it seems obvious that kids will continue to like it. It's been with us for a long time now, and the kids love the wrestling paraphernalia that comes with it. They also like to act like their favorite wrestler. If parents are available to tell there children that it's all fake, and not to try any of the moves, it's probably pretty harmless.