I don’t love pro wrestling (not since I was about 12 back in the Hulk Hogan days) but my son does and he pleaded with me to let him watch the WWE SummerSlam event today. He suggested going to the movie theater to see it as several theaters are screening it for wrestling fans. Due to a busy schedule and because it made more sense cost-wise we decided to order the PPV event for $40. It didn’t end well. I’m enraged, actually.

The event was listed as on from 8:pm EST to 11:pm and we ordered it through Bell ExpressVu and decided to record it on our PVR so he could watch it repeatedly if he chose to. The event ended early and there was still time before the event was to re-air on the same channel.  We didn’t change the channel immediately as we (myself, my husband and my children) were chatting in the living room after the event.  There was nothing on the screen that told us to change the channel either.

Suddenly the screen went from the VU logo and elevator-type music to an advertisement for a show called Girls Gone Wild.  Sure, there were some ‘censored’ banners over women humping each other in revealing clothes but it didn’t leave too much to the imagination and the talk was pure smut. “What if you could have your own panty raid with horny, sex-starved college girls?” was the first thing my kids heard. I frantically tripped towards the TV and got it paused and then managed to get it turned off and ordered my boys out of the room for a moment.  I phoned ExpressVu to express my extreme disgust. I’m quite sure the vast majority of people watching wrestling events on pay per view are young boys.   The PPV event was rated 14+, not 18+.

A few minutes later, as I was still on the phone with Bell, my husband checked back on that channel and there were bare breasts on the screen. It’s a good thing we didn’t leave our kids alone to watch this show!  Two people in the tech support dept told me that pornography is designated to specific channels only and not that channel but I could clearly see other shows airing on that channel in the same genre and I told them they would be welcome to view my PVR to see the recording of what my children saw.

I was assured they would investigate and see it didn’t happen again but I’m sorry that’s not enough. I requested a call from management during business hours tomorrow and said that not only would I not appreciate paying $40 for their showing my children pornography but that I wanted to make a formal complaint.