Welcome to the weekly column where I take a look at what my 5 soon to be 6 year old son watches then comment on it. Usually I write about things he discovered on his own and my outsider thoughts on it. But this week something interesting happened.

Last Sunday night, Bear and I were at home and my wife was at work. A perfect opportunity to watch that night’s WWE event, Extreme Rules. My son had no interest in watching wrestling, but also had no interest in the TV that night. He had a new game going, a bunch of action figures out, and the usual kids and toys chaos. I watched the pre show, had the main show going for a bit, and he was in his own world. Until…

Now if he was a teenage boy I would understand why Alexa Bliss got his attention. But he’s five. Sure, he will say a girl is pretty and has a favorite girl in class. He flirts. But all of that is at the appropriate level of a five year old. The same age when boys and girls say they want to marry mommy or daddy and live with them forever. No concept of being an adult and how relationships work. It’s sweet sentiments as far as their minds can comprehend at that age. Yet there’s no denying he was glued to the match. That’s when I remembered something.

See, not that long ago Alexa Bliss looked a bit different. While she was in NXT she had this blue fairy gimmick. Complete with pixie dust. It was cute and adorable for a kid friendly program. Which wrestling can be, but isn’t all the time. It’s also a character with a limit. There’s only so far Tinkerbell can go as a serious contender. Along the way Alexa turned heel while in NXT. Joined up as manager to a tag team. Then got called up to the main roster out of no where and was expected to fail. Instead she is a multiple time champion with a good shot at the Hall of Fame when it’s all over.

Years ago while Alexa was in NXT I was sitting at home watching the shows. This was during a very scary time for all of us. I had been laid off and could not find work for over a year. With an (at the time) one to two year old. A family. House, car, all that fun stuff. I would apply for everything I could find until I couldn’t find anything more that day. Then stay at home with him while my wife worked. During all of this I was watching a ton of wrestling (and reading comics, etc) because I needed that comfort. I needed something to enjoy because everything else sucked.

Alexa Bliss to me at the time was another new character in NXT. No feelings either way, but I was willing to see how her career went to see if she became something. However the little boy who previously only cared about me, his mom, a couple toys, and the Wiggles noticed her. He went right to the TV and stayed there for her entire match. Maybe there was something cartoonish about it. Maybe she had a nice smile. I don’t know the internal thoughts of a two year old who doesn’t know how to express such things himself yet.

I wasn’t completely sure it was Alexa that got his attention, so I tried other matches from previous weeks. Sure enough, he only reacted when she was on screen. He continued to for weeks until my schedule started to change and I was unable to watch all the wrestling every week. Super heroes, monsters, and right now Pokemon all showed up. Anytime I tried to bring wrestling back he refused. Calling it “booger wrestling”. Buddy, why do you call it booger wrestling? Because I don’t like it, so it’s booger.  Tough to argue that logic.

Then here we were years later, and here comes Miss Bliss. Again, he was transfixed by the screen. He stayed there until the end of the match, which Alexa lost. That was the end of his interest for the evening. Maybe if she won he would have been willing to continue. I’m hoping she has a match on SummerSlam so we can try this again.