WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 is being linked to the recent death of a young boy in New York. According to a report in the New York Daily News (via GamePolitics), 9-year-old Damori Miles jumped off the roof of the apartment building where he lived with a makeshift parachute he had made from plastic bags and string. A friend of Miles claims that he was attempting to pull off a wrestling move: "He tried to do a swan dive like Jeff Harding [sic] does in SmackDown. That was his favorite game. He played it all the time." Miles' mother told reporters she needs to "keep a better eye on what [my kids] are playing or watching. Kids are so impressionable." A WWE spokesperson offered their condolences to the boy's family, but noted that the game has an ESRB rating of Teen, meaning it's designed for those 13-years-old and older. The spokesperson also pointed out that SvR09 features neither parachutes nor wrestlers jumping off buildings, although some will argue that jumping off a 20-foot tall steel cage isn't exactly a far cry from jumping off a building.
Our Take: Without trivializing a poor boy's death, pinning things on a videogame doesn't really seem fair. The report quotes a neighbor who pointed out that the roof should have been locked, and that also doesn't take into account the fact that he was enrolled in special education at school. Regardless of how the incident is being portrayed, our best wishes go out to Miles' family.

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