Watching a well-built young man take a death-defying fifteen foot leap through a wooden table onto another man’s prone body can be a thrilling experience. The fact is if you are a fan of professional wrestling today you have grown used to these stunts as if they weren’t as spectacular as they sound. Professional wrestling’s recent boom in popularity began in the late 90’s, but unlike it’s past success it is not as safe as once was. While all theatrics the stunts have continued to push the limits to levels that have never been seen before. The results of this constant risktaking can be seen in the early retirements of many of pro-wrestling’s brightest stars and rookies who never had their chance to shine. In previous years wrestling was dominated by giant masses of muscle who were not very athletic, but had the looks of Greek gods. To achieve these looks steroid abuse was rampant from the mid 70’s to the early 90’s. World Wrestling Federation promoter Vince McMahon’s infamous steroid trial did little to help wrestling’s perception as it fell into it’s “dark age” in the mid 90’s. When mainstream America started watching wrestling again in the late 90’s they were surprised to find mature storylines and much more athletic wrestlers. In addition to this they also began to appreciate a new style of wrestling, a wrestling labeled as “extreme” wrestling.“Extreme” wrestling was not your typical wrestling match in which the gladiators would exchange moves and holds as they built the match to it’s climax. In this type of wrestling, the competitors had replaced the generic moves with high-impact moves, steel chairs, barbed wire, wooden tables, and jumps and falls that resemble movie stunts.This new type of wrestling has been criticized as being just as dangerous to an athlete’s health as steroids were to them in the past....
