Ah yes it's that time of year where you youngsters are heading back to school and my older readers are happy you are back in school. But Johnny what does school have to do with wrestling you ask" Well, I am glad you asked fellow readers of mine since every year on the first day of school I have the kids I teach write down their likes and dislikes. Last year I had 4 kids who marked down they watched wrestling. The year before I had 7 kids who liked wrestling. This year guess how many I had" A whopping one kid! So I asked the rest of the class if anyone could name 3 current wrestlers. One kid said Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan. To which another kid replied with and I quote "he said current not dead!" Another kid said "I think some Ice Cold wrestler who was bald was the first ever wrestling champion" (Yes that thud you heard last week was my head banging against my desk). Although nobody could name three current wrestlers the class was quick to name 3 X-Games athletes.

This brings me to my question for all of you readers. Is wrestling slowly dying" I recall when I was a kid in grade school and practically every boy in class liked watching wrestling or could at least name 3 wrestlers! I used to stay up late and watch wrestling and even rushed home to see wrestling on TV after school! I ended up working my ass off one summer just to buy a VCR so I could tape wrestling shows I happened to miss. I faked an illness so I could watch The Clash of the Champions instead of having to go to the class play. I even went as far as bringing hedge clippers to school and cut off some kids rattail at lunch recess. Needless to say my Brutus the Barber Beefcake impression resulted in a trip to the Principals office and a couple of days suspension. Hopefully none of you cut hair like I did but I am willing to bet that most of you reading this know where you were when the nWo formed or when Warrior pinned Hogan or when Austin fought Vince on RAW. Most of you can describe the event in detail. My point here is we all have some great memory that involved wrestling. For me one of the many memories was going to a WWF Superstars taping for the first time when I was a kid. I knew that this would be seen by lots of people and I felt like I was on top of the world.

So where did we go wrong" Why are the current crop of kids disinterested in wrestling as a whole" Was it the edgier content that hooked us (and still does) but unfortunately drives away the kids of today" Has wrestling evolved to the point of trying to retain us older fans with edgier content and forgotten about future fans" Are the characters today too real and lack the escapism I had as a kid" If Harry Potter was just a normal kid with two family members fighting over him *cough* Eddie and Rey *cough* would the book be as popular" Most kids today already have family problems so why would they want to "escape" by watching a custody battle" Are the wrestlers of today not connecting with the kids" Maybe video games and online gaming interest kids more" Are kids too busy chatting and instant messaging online" Are the X-Games taking the place of wrestling" Perhaps your average kid can't afford a PPV every month" Maybe us fans should be doing more to get others interested in wrestling or could it be that older fans that are turning the kids away" Are us older fans to blame for wanting wrestling to grow up with us" Some of us still watch and enjoy Disney movies that are geared toward kids. So why couldn't we be happy with wrestling that is geared towards kids"

Not to sound like some prophet but when the "attitude" era started I said it was a short term fix and does not take into consideration the long term effects. Now it seems the long term effects are slowly creeping up. Though I am willing to admit there could be other factors at play here. Okay, I admit that the current state of wrestling is somewhat stable but what about 5 years from now" I'm willing to bet in 5 years the number of kids who like wrestling will be less than it is right now. What about 10 years from now" Can wrestling truly survive by catering to the same fans and neglecting the future ones" Will we be stuck watching the same wrestlers 10 or 15 years from now since there will be few new ones to take their place" In 20 years will we see Hulk Hogan headline a PPV" (further proving my theory that he is a robot). In 50 years will most of us be trying to explain what wrestling was to our grandchildren" Will we get strange looks from our grandkids when we do try to explain it"

Maybe I am overreacting here and this would be one of the few times I wish I was wrong. What was it that got us excited about wrestling as kids and why does it no longer exist today" For me it was the escapism and only having a few must see PPV's a year. What was it for you" What got you hooked on wrestling" If you were a kid today would you be a wrestling fan" Are you a kid who likes wrestling and if so what got you hooked on it" Would you change anything about wrestling to attract the younger crowd" Are you as concerned as I am about the long term future of wrestling" Judging by the previous intelligent responses I have gotten from past columns I feel fairly confident that my readers can shed some more insight into this issue. Shoot me an e-mail and let me know your thoughts.

When Johnny LaRue is not watching old wrestling tapes he can be reached at [email protected]..