A nine-year-old has died from jumping off a roof allegedly trying to imitate his favourite WWE star Jeff Hardy.
Damori Miles made a parachute out of string and plastic bag and attempted Hardy's signature 'swanton bomb' finishing move.
According to his friend Shakar, 11, Damori had seen this type of stunt when playing the Smackdown vs Raw video game.
Whilst my condolences go out to his family I have never seen Jeff Hardy perform a swanton bomb from a roof with a parachute on.
To link the WWE with this death seems slightly unfortunate for Vince McMahon and I'm sure fingers will be pointing his way.
His 11-year-old friend confirmed that he was attempting to copy Hardy and I think this source is a little unreliable when considering there are so many other games, films and television programmes that feature dangerous actions.
Young children need supervision and guidance when following far-fetched programmes that appear to be real.
If a parent doesn't have an interest in what their child is doing they cannot know what they are being influenced by.
How and why this lad was inspired to jump off a building puzzles me because this would suggest he had no idea of the difference between fantasy and reality.
In this day and age children are bombarded with far more unsuitable material for their age than they have been in the past.
For some it would be harmless but for others who are more easily lead, it is dangerous because their mind isn't developed enough to understand you can't do certain things in real life.
It really depends on the individual and their parental back up.
For example when I was nine I thought everything about wrestling was real and I'm sure this kid was no different.
I was guilty of doing moves on my brother and hurting him and vice versa but we were never tempted to do anything really silly.
I would say in general the WWE is far more child friendly than ten years ago and really believe that this child's actions were caused by something else.
Read the full story here.
Friday, 17 April 2009
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With wrestling appealing to the masses, children all over the world are practising these moves for real.. where professionals dont actaully get hurt (unless they ar unlucky) and in this case, children die or get seriously injured. I think they should sue WWE a bit like how fat people sued mcdonalds.. im sure they would get millions, in america anyway. hens 4 life x
ReplyDeleteSuch a shame, I have a mate who works in British Amateur wrestling and can understand how difficult these moves are to 'Perform'. But, this ALWAYS has the potential to happen with the huge youth popular culture that Wrestling has.
ReplyDeleteI was probably the biggest Jeff Hardy fan when I was a kid, and if I could have possibly managed to execute anything other than a figure-four leg lock, my unfortunate older brother would have got a Swanton Bomb as soon as I walked in the door.
ReplyDeleteBut I understand what you mean, it's ridiculous that fingers will be pointed in Vince McMahon's direction.
Once, my brother kicked me in the head by accident when trying to do a scissor kick on a balloon.
And I was concussed.
But my Mom didn't blame Alex Ferguson for my concussion, she blamed my ridiculous brother for scissor kicking a balloon indoors....
Conclusion: There's a 'Don't try this at home' message played at events all of the time.
So if people are going to be stupid enough to ignore it, kids or not, then the only fingers that should be pointed should be at them.
....or their parents.
I agree that the WWE should not take any blame for this unfortunate incident. Jeff Hardy is one of the most exciting 'superstars' in action today, and his high flying antics are one of the major draws in wrestling.
ReplyDeleteThis lad was clearly a bit 'iffy' in the head, so in all honesty, he would probably have done something equally idiotic in years to come. At least nobody else was injured in this freakish incident
This a terrible story. What was the poor child thinking?
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line from your article is:
"Whilst my condolences go out to his family I have never seen Jeff Hardy perform a swanton bomb from a roof with a parachute on."
I think that the finger is being pointed at WWE soley because the boy's friend, 11 year old Shakar, has said that he was intimidating his favourite wrestler. Realistically he could have been climbing the roof to collect a ball and simply fell in an acrobatic matter.
Seriously though, I am a bit disappointed that Shakar didn't try and put a stop to proceedings as surely even an 11 year old boy will realise that a parachute will not have time to open and be affective from a small height.
Very sad. RIP boy.
this is such a shame, when i was a kid we all did this type of wrestling but never in the manner this naive child. R.I.P
ReplyDelete