Jim Waxmonsky and Eugene V. Beresin

About the author: Jim Waxmonsky is a resident in the McLean/Massachusetts General Hospital Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Program and a clinical fellow in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Eugene V. Beresin is the director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Training Program for Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean Hospital and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Professional wrestling is often criticized for exposing children to excessive violence, sexual imagery, and profanity. However, a more serious threat lies in the potential for children to mistakenly perceive pro wrestling to be sport rather than entertainment. Most sports are healthy activities that instill positive values in children. However, wrestling is not sport—it could even be dubbed the "Anti-Sport" because it reinforces values diametrically opposed to those considered...