Parents' Guide to WWE Friday Night SmackDown!

Each episode begins with the lower-ranked wrestlers, whose moves are so obviously choreographed and whose personalities are so relatively dull that it can be difficult for a non-fan to tolerate. As the action progresses, the characters get more compelling, and the wrestling begins to look more realistic, even though it's accompanied by over-the-top mugging at the camera and oh-so-dramatic throes of pain. Professional wrestling has an enormous fan base. As one might assume, the fans are generally young and male, though a glance into the stands at these events, which are filmed live, reveals plenty of women and children in the audience. Fans of the show -- and the genre -- say the personalities (and their intricate, soap opera-like storylines) are what attract them, rather than the fighting, though there have been reports of youths copying showy wrestling moves to tragic ends.

The invention of women's professional wrestling (the Divas) has theoretically put women on the same footing as men in the WWE, but overt sexism and exaggerated machismo is part of the game. Ladies are often used to escort male wrestlers to the ring or pose seductively by the ropes. Characters are so over-the-top that some would say they're poking fun at the personalities they inhabit -- overly macho men, most obviously. But viewers too young or too cynical to tease out the subtleties of this interpretation will see it as simply an outlandish celebration of violence and testosterone.