I have been told that wrestling is fake fighting with fake blood, fake stories and I've even had someone tell me the ring is fake.
From here on in let's call these people Sheeple. That is what they are, right? Just a bunch of know it alls who want to ruin your fun. Sheeple for some reason will nonsensically spew their closed minded opinions for as long as you want to defend your own opinion.....They seem to have a lot of spare time and energy for this, so be careful if you want to take them on.
Now when I have some one telling me that I'm a childish fool for liking WWE or pro-wrestling I don't feel the need to justify my self, but I do feel the need to give them a few reasons to think about wrestling a little different. Not wanting to be a salesman, spokes person or ambassador but just giving a couple of facts that may make Sheeple look at it in a new way.
It Doesn't Hurt
First and most prominent argument that people tend to go with is that the "fighting" is staged and choreographed. Yeah sure it is predetermined and spots are planned, even some the moves and throws you see may have very little if any impact. But can you imagine a WWE match where every punch, kick and throw is real? It's called MMA and I, for one, am not a huge fan of watching men completely knock the snot out of each other.So that means WWE doesn't hurt, right? EGH-UGH! Of course it does, the men and women that entertain us fans on a weekly to nightly basis go through ridiculous amounts of physical abuse. The recent case of Edge having to hang up the boots and retire in such Hollywood story fashion was down to injury. The injury was not like a one off career killing moment but more of a breakdown after years of using his body to entertain us.
Edge is one of many wrestlers who have had to retire due to their bodies being one bad landing away from a drastic life altering injury from taking bump after bump, night after night for a good 300+ days a year plus travel.
OK, OK Sheeple I hear you! How could anyone possibly go night in night out getting beaten up for real all year long? Not even Mikey Whipwreck could really do it. Boxers and UFC fighters could really max out 2-3 big fights a year but our guys must be fake because they get up the next day and do it all again.
It's true our guys are entertainers, working for a entertainment company, but they take some serious damage. The history of pro-wrestling is littered with injury, from the "small" finger breaks, to the Sids of the ring going all jelly legged, to the Brets and Edges having to walk away for good.
Pro-wrestling is predetermined, the matches are called but the action takes its toll in a big way and as cliche as it may seem, the risks are very real.
It's all soap opera with added baby oil
Yes. Baby oil. My only answer to that is there is less now than in the 80's and 90's.
But the soap opera part does have some weight behind it in all fairness and truth. Just like I have already pointed out for the Sheeple, wrestling is pre-planned, predetermined, choreographed, scripted so can it not be soap?
I'm sorry to tell you sXe_Punker20-1's, CenationsGurl16's and WWEfanmaniac's but wrestling you watch is not a documentary. The stories, rivalries and feuds you see are written to make you think it could all be real because of the blurry line they create between fact and fiction, sometimes these lines get ripped to pieces with the likes of the Montreal Screw Job, Austin vs McMahon, Edge-Lita-Matt Hardy love affair all of which make art imitate life and life imitate art.
With todays vomit inducing batch of "reality" TV like Jersey Shore, Made in Chelsea and tripe like Wife-Swap it has become increasingly harder to seperate what's real and what's not on TV.
So WWE maybe scripted like a soap opera but can be as real as any reality show on TV today, if not more so due to the fact that the people performing these stories can some times have their very real lives played out on screen.
Is It Real?
Even as a life long fan, I don't think I have the vocabulary or law school teachings to give an accurate conclusion for myself let alone the Sheeple of this world due to the often blurry line of reality that wrestling carries. Sure I can agree that a huge part of it is on paper before it hits our screens but such a huge compelling part is still kinda real.
Well maybe not as much as happy chappy here.
The fact that wrestling does have this blurry line I think leaves it open for us to make up our minds on its authenticity. I will still give Sheeple a gentle reminder of what these performers go through physically and some of what you see on its programming can be as close to life as any reality show out there.
One thing these Sheeple do need to learn is,
Even if wrestling is fake, it doesn't hurt for anyone to suspend their belief of reality to enjoy what they're watching. Just like most humans do when watching Eastenders, Days of Our Lives, House, Breaking Bad, Bridget Jones' Diary or Die Hard. Every now and again we just like to leave our real world and immerse ourselves in something we enjoy. It's just wrestling has more baby oil.
