Ahh the difference between a comic movie and the WWE is how the WWE tries to blur realit for it's fans.
On August 18, 2003, from 9:00 pm until just after 11:00 pm, the specialty service TSN broadcast an episode of the WWE.
This episode, like many others, is a combination of wrestling matches interrupted by outside-the-ring and behind-the-scenes dramatic segments that, with the wrestling sequences, are woven to some extent into a story line for the whole episode. The episode started by naming, and showing pictures of, the wrestlers who would be competing that evening.
Two of them were then shown with a model, Stacy, standing between them, following which the announcer advised that the winner would get Stacys services for the night. A visual announcement to this effect was also flashed on the screen.
Twelve minutes into the episode,
Stacy was interrupted in the locker room by Test who used to be her previous owner. He began sweet-talking her but then changed his tone and advised her that, when he won,
Im gonna treat you like the little **** you are. At another moment, the announcer told the television audience that
Test had mentally and physically abused Stacy in the past.
Then, almost 40 minutes later, Stacy was shown in the locker room with Test and two other wrestlers, who were urging her to dance. She begged Test not to force her to dance. He told her that she had to do it and helped her to stand up on the bench and dance. He then said to his pals, Welcome to my lap dance party, boys and informed his companions to keep their money because this one was on him. When she started to dance, partly facing the wrestlers, Test told her, Turn your face around; nobodys looking at that anyway. They all then started clapping to accompany her dancing.
During another segment of the episode (which began in the second hour), the announcer talked to Linda, one of the customary WWE team, who had been injured and was staying at home. When her doorbell rang shortly after, Eric Bishoff, another of the regular WWE team, dressed in a suit came into the room and talked to her about his anger towards her son, an opponent wrestler. After the commercial break in the midst of the segment,
Eric began coming on to Linda. As a part of his approach, he then twisted her arm, asked her to show him where the bedroom was, called her the big breasted beauty, said, Youll enjoy it so much more that way, and kissed her against her will.
The segment that concerned the complainant in particular took place towards the end of the show. In an incident presaged by a scene an hour and a half earlier in the show, the later segment depicted a wrestler tied up and unconscious while another angry wrestler poured gasoline on him and stuffed his mouth with a cloth.
When the hostage awoke, the angry rival lit a match, ostensibly threatening to put him on fire. The threat did not materialize.
On August 18, the complainant sent the following complaint to the CBSC, in which he described those aspects of the episode that had troubled him (the full text of all the correspondence in this file is included in the Appendix):
I run a Community home for
4 adult Downes syndrome [sic, Down Syndrome]
men (typical 18 to 35 fans?) and they are addicted to WWF. I find the portrayal of women on the show to be demeaning to say the least and it appears to be getting worse as illustrated on the show of 18th Aug. suggestion [sic] of a striptease for hulking men in a locker room, but what really did upset me was the depiction of a graphic scene as follows. One wrestler is handcuffed by another angry wrestler and suspended from a contraption of some sort. He is then verbally abused, has a rag shoved in his mouth and this other creature then pores [sic] over him gasoline (at least that is what it said on the gerry can). He then continues to be offensive and lights a match with the obvious intent of immolating this wrestler but decides then not to. I find this an extraordinary example of gratuitous violence that should NOT be allowed on Canadian screens. Can this XXX rated depiction of violent behaviour be stopped, if not why not?
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has found that TSN=s broadcast of the WWE wrestling program on August 18, 2003 breached the provisions of the CAB Violence Code. By providing the appropriate number of viewer advisories in the video format but failing to provide them as well in the audio format, TSN breached the requirements of Article 5 of the Violence Code, which requires such information to be presented in both formats so that the audience can make the necessary viewing choices for themselves and their families. By failing to display the required 14+ classification icon at the start of and during the program, in accordance with the Canadian classification system, TSN breached the article of the Code requiring ratings information, which is also of assistance to viewers in deciding the suitability of the program for themselves and their families.
A typical day at the office for the WWE
I wonder if it is this kind of Mysogeny that programmed Benoit and Austin?
