This show is getting really bad, I live in Detroit and I almost made it through life without knowing that Wrestlemania came to town. Why don't you stick to serious topics like the show used to. Go back and listen to old shows from when Ray Suarez hosted (he went to on Newshour), maybe Neil can go on to host "Fox and Friends" they probably covered this and other deep topics too. Rich Detroit MI

Sent by Rich C | 3:21 PM ET | 04-05-2007

Mr. foley needs to comment on the situation in florida where a young boy used a wresting hold he saw on television to kill a child. This is what he advocates and I have seen what the earlier caller discussed re the language and behavior of people when see such violence. it's disgusting

Sent by georgia corwin | 3:40 PM ET | 04-05-2007

my husband and father-in-law loved it but all I saw was brutality .. what a through back .. I quess we still haven't moved out of the caves ..

Sent by Rita Kohr | 3:42 PM ET | 04-05-2007

Once again, I am forced to turn off my NPR program stream when Talk of the Nation comes on. This poor show actually moved me to post a comment - quite a feat TotN! Take a hint from KQED's excellent Forum program. They have real topics and discuss real issues.

Sent by Jamey Jacob | 3:48 PM ET | 04-05-2007

RE: the caller who was appalled at the behaviour of the children at a wrestling match:
I am not a fan of wrestling, and I hardly though I would ever want to defend it, but if this woman thinks that situations like this only occur at WWE matches, she must not go to the arena very often. I have seen similar, and worse, antics from parents and children at football, soccer, and hockey games. Luckily for me, my father was never one to rain down curses on the head of the coach or quarterback (which must have been hard, given that he holds season tickets to the Browns) but I heard it all around me when I would go with him to the games as a child. And, as an adult, I have seen 10-year-olds at soccer games waving about their middle fingers because they have watched their fathers do so for years. Is this hard to watch? For me, yes. Is it completely harmful and degrading to society? I doubt it. Will I take my children to sporting events, even with the threat of hooligans sitting around me, teaching my kids words I don't want them to know? Definitely.

~Katie
San Jose, CA

P.S. Wrestling gets a 45 minutes on NPR?! Seriously?! I paid money for this?

Sent by Katie | 3:55 PM ET | 04-05-2007

The only things they will not tell us- how to pile drive someone, gee thanks. Wrestlemania's got thickly muscled dumb guys, pretty- but hopeless women. The music pumps a painted crowd and I wondered if the NPR interview would ever end. No, it's not Rent, it's NPR & pro-wrestling, & it's to be scoffed at. A very un-amazing show was lined up for us- Mick Foley had his head patted, and then he almost left in tears when was told the truth on Wrestlemania's effect on children and adults. Yes, I am in disgust and leave it here. Please give us back the standards of NPR, or we just as well tune in on a commercial venue.

Sent by Marie | 4:20 PM ET | 04-05-2007

Hello Neal,

As a child I attended a few wrestlemania's. Until the day I found out that it was staged. I used to see it as a sport. Now that I'm older, I have more respect for Ultimate Fighting Championship then theatrics for the sake of so called entertainment.

Sent by Eduard | 12:15 AM ET | 04-06-2007

I have to agree-it pained me to hear 45 minutes of talk on professional wrestling on NPR, I don't care how popular it is. Why now? What news value does it have? I do want to say that I congratulate the woman caller who once had a boyfriend that loved the WWE and since got rid of him-good for you! I was in the same situation and should have done it much sooner!

Sent by Laura | 1:00 PM ET | 04-06-2007

Respectfully, my friends, let's all check our pseudo-intellectual, concerned-parent, elitist baggage at the door.

Look, I like to consider myself a relatively progressive, intellectual human being. I, like many of you, am concerned with the overall quality of life for the many people of the world, with the way our children are educated, with the growing problem of intolerance permeating our culture. I am well-read, college educated, politically minded, NPR supporter.

Oh and... um... I like pro wrestling.

For years, I felt ashamed. I'd hide my Ultimate Warrior VHS tapes beneath my bed when my oh-so-erudite Dostoyevski-reading friends came over to watch The Seventh Seal and lament the many evils of the world.

Guess what, guys? I'm too old to pretend I ain't interested. I LOVE pro wrestling, and I will not apologize for it.

I had hoped that the culture of liberalism to which I proudly belong would progress past the petty classism which has for so long held us back from truly connecting with everyone in America. I had hoped that one day, we would be able to tear ourselves away from our long meditations on the existential dilemma long enough to go have some dumb fun at a rodeo or a monster truck rally. I had hoped that we would trade our glasses of chiraz for cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Guess not.

See, here's what baffles me. Some kid, an absolute moron who is allowed near other children without supervision only through the negligence of his equally moronic parents, kills some poor child with a wrestling move and somehow this is the fault of a company who includes the word ENTERTAINMENT in its name? Sorry, soccer-moms, that didn't hold water with Mortal Kombat and it ain't gonna hold water here.

I am quite sorry that you all missed out on 45 minutes of Republican/Democrat squabbling so you could instead listen to a fun story about a fun American institution that requires a great deal of hard work and athleticism from its performers, but would it kill ya to lighten up a little?

Not all that does not glitter, my friends, fails to be gold. Life's too short to hate stuff that is this fun.

Sent by Douglas | 1:25 AM ET | 07-05-2008