Violence and entertainment mixed together

If anyone has watched television lately, there are two things that viewers enjoy: reality T.V. and violence. There is one source of entertainment that takes a little bit of both and mixes it together: Sports Entertainment. One family can be synonymous with Sports Entertainment: The McMahon’s. Roderick James “Jess” McMahon came up with the idea back in the 1950s as a former boxing promoter formed the Capital Wrestling Corporation which would eventually merge to become the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). From that point, Roderick’s’ son, Vincent J., would take over the NWA but would leave in protest and form World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). In 1982, Vincent J.’s son, Vincent K. (Vince), founder of Titan Sports, Inc, would take the reins of CWC from his father and transform it into the powerhouse World Wrestling Federation (WWF). This was the first time that wrestling would become worldwide, not just regional. Three years later, Mr. McMahon came up with an idea that would change the face of sports entertainment, mixing the glitz and glamour of the Super Bowl with the brutality and savageness of hardcore wrestling. It would be called “Wrestlemania,” and it has been a success for the over the past 20 years. The 23rd Wrestlemania will take place this April. A competitor was formed in 1993 called World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and would last until 1996, as it was a project funded by media mogul Ted Turner. WCW Nitro and WWF RAW would compete for ratings on Monday nights for the next three years; WCW would go as far as converting superstars from WWF to wrestle on WCW, a move that would infuriate Vince. With both shows competing on Monday nights, Mr. McMahon would endorse another wrestling show called WWF Smackdown that would hit UPN on Thursday nights in 1999. Eventually, with two WWF shows on the air, McMahon would overthrow Ted Turner, force WCW off the airwaves and combine the two brands into one: World Wrestling Entertainment. There has always been controversy in Sport Entertainment, and the main controversial subject has been that everything is staged and fake. Many viewers do not even care that everything is staged and fake; violence is the main reason that viewers of ages 18-24 tune in to WWE every week, and sometimes it is a question of if the violence is real or not. An example that can be used to support the fact that the violence is real is an incident that took place this past November at one of WWE’s Pay-per-views’ called “Armageddon.” The object is to climb a 16-foot ladder and grab the WWE tag team championship belt. Halfway through the match, one the superstars, Jeff Hardy, would jump from the top rope onto the bottom half of the ladder. The ladder would come up and hit a few superstars, but one of them would catch the brunt of that ladder. Joey Mercury would end up getting smacked with the ladder, and blood would instantly come gushing out of him. He would end up having to receive over 25 stitches to close up the cuts and was forced to wear a plastic mask whenever he would wrestle again; however, he has come back wrestled since the accident.Sport entertainment is filled with steel chair shots to the head, being put through wooden tables, enduring numerous sledgehammer shots to the cranium and whatever else the superstars can use around the arena to their advantage. To anyone who still thinks that wrestling is fake, the storylines may be staged, but things such as chair shots and being thrown into steel steps are real, and man do they hurt.