Return of WWF Super Stars of Wrestling

Be warned parents: WWF Superstars of Wrestling is back on trend!

Or, as corrected by my eight-year-old son: ‘It’s not WWF anymore mum, it’s WWE’.

This all came to my attention when Miss Eight rushed through the door one day after school last week declaring that her brother had copped a blow. It must’ve hurt – it is the first time in his schooling career he has been reduced to tears.

But by the time he came in a minute later, I realised my sympathy was a surplus to requirement as he was well over it. In fact, upon closer scrutiny, it transpired that he had even got his own back.

Let me just say here that I am anti-violence and the school certainly doesn’t condone it. In fact, when I next set foot in the school the following week, the teacher approached me to let me know how they had dealt with it. Amongst other ways, she was adding wrestling to the class treaty.

So, it was here I learned that this new wave of rough and tumble stemmed from the return of the Superstars of Wrestling.

Back in the day it was big! We’d earn our pocket money and walk up to the dairy to buy our bubblegum which came with collectors Superstars of Wrestling cards, which we’d swap if we already had. By memory, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Hulk Hogan and Ravishing Rick Rude were favourites. Why I was into this, I don’t know. The wrestling itself didn’t interest me, but, like the Garbage Pail Kids series, which some boring old adults subsequently banned for their indecency, it was just another craze to get swept up in.

And now, it would seem, one of them had made a come-back.

At a guess, some kid likely came across it online and has given a demo to his peers, who have raced home to Google it themselves and study their own moves to try out on their buddies in the playground.

But being amatuers, this hasn’t gone too well, resulting in tears, fall-outs, sorry notes, parental consultations and tellings-off.

Apparently a RKO is the most popular move, and I only became aware of this after questioning my boisterous boy as to why he kept body slamming himself onto the beanbag.

“I’m practicing the RKO,” he replied.

“What does RKO stand for,” I asked.

He drew a blank at that so I Googled it and discovered it does not stand for Repeat Knock Out, thank goodness, but rather the initials of a wrestler. (Although, when I investigated further, the meaning sounded just as bad).

But before I could intervene and try to steer him in another direction, it turned out the boys had already moved on from this wrestling business. Besides the fact the school have banned it, according to Master Eight who listed off the names of friends who’d been reduced to tears, there were just too many casualties.

They have now, thankfully, returned to the much safer game of tag.