WWE Smackdown Possibly Taken Off Air Overseas

[DeadMan]

source:2xzone.com

The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission has called for WWE Friday Smackdown to be banned in their country. This on the heels of an investigation of the death of a nine year old boy in Bandung who allegedly died because of imitating wrestlers he saw on the show. The official cause of death for the boy was said to be repeated blows to the body.

In an article released by Reuters today, Commission member Ade Armando was quoted as saying, "We have SmackDown posters, shirts, cards, and other things. It has become some kind of specific culture with its own community. If there is no television show, we assume those other things will lose audience. So our conclusion is stopping the show altogether. We will not tolerate its showing anytime."

Lativi, a private broadcaster which carries the show, has moved the program from 9pm to 10pm, but has not indicated that they will drop the program. The Reuters article noted that WWE is also popular on the underground video market (bootleg videos of wrestling, concerts, movies, etc. is big in the country). The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission does not have the power to ban the show, but they obviously will be putting pressure on Lativi to drop it.


Glad I dont live over there

[Puma]

Wow that is dumb I think. Why not just send messages to not try this at home like they do on WWE dvds. The funny thing is that he died of imitating smackdown moves which is funny to me because Smackdown is not violent so how could you die unless you were an idiot.

[DeadMan]

WWE Responds To Indonesia Trying To Ban SmackDown

WWE has issued the following statement on their official website responding to the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission's attempt to ban SmackDown:

WWE first learned on Thanksgiving Day of sketchy and incomplete information that a father of a child in Indonesia was attempting to blame WWE's SmackDown program for the death of his child. Today, the chief of the Detective Bureau charged with investigating the highly suspicious nature of the child's death specifically stated in the media that the accusations of the family could not be taken at face value and that there is no reason to believe the death of this child had anything to do with watching wrestling.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that false allegations of this type have been used to deflect attention away from those directly responsible for the death of a child, and WWE urges caution in making such unsubstantiated, and now repudiated, statements, especially in light of the ongoing police investigation into the actual and true circumstances of this child’s death while in the custody of others.

The police noted an autopsy was forbidden by the child’s family for religious reasons. As a result the police have indicated in the media that because there is no permission to conduct the autopsy, they are currently asking for the child’s medical records from the hospital.

Although the death of any child is a tragedy, WWE is confident that the investigative conclusions will be that the death of this child had nothing to do with WWE programming.

“We are committed to working with the appropriate parties in Indonesia to address any issues, while still allowing Indonesian viewers the choice to watch WWE programming,” said Gary Davis, Vice President of WWE.

[Goldbergfanatic]

oh my god people are retarded!