I’ve been a pro wrestling fan for as long as I remember. My earliest memory of the WWF, as it was known back then, is Paul Bearer threatening to reveal The Undertaker‘s deepest and darkest secret – the fact that Kane, the Undertaker’s brother, was still alive. I remember being completely fascinated – these two larger-than-life characters, battling it out to see who was the Devil’s favourite demon. Yes, I was morbid back then as well, but that isn’t the point. I remember loving the adrenaline rush that came from watching the good guys come back from a terrible beating and still triumph. I remember loving the characters and the personas, and how they would seem more like superheroes and less like human beings.
Then I grew up.
And I realized that, even though I had become older and wiser, I still loved pro wrestling just as much as I did when I was a child.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe the actual wrestling is real. I think there was a part of me that always suspected that it was fake. Maybe it was because it seemed too good to be true – if these guys could do all this stuff, then why didn’t Superman himself exist? Also, I think it may have stemmed from the fact that I’ve taken some nasty bumps in my life, and those hurt like hell. So there was no way in hell that they were actually getting beaten up and popping up like that.
A lot of people dismiss pro wrestling as something for children or those too stupid to realize that it’s fake. But I see it more like a physical form of theatre – a gritty stage where oiled-up musclemen use their bodies instead of their faces to act out a story. I still love the characters and the action, but it’s the idea that fascinates me now.
First off, wrestlers are supreme athletes. They are, quite often, trained in multiple forms of martial arts. They then undergo specific wrestling training – how to take bumps, how to use the ring, how to communicate moves to their opponents during a match. Contrary to popular belief, a pro wrestling match isn’t scripted, beginning to end. The wrestlers most often go in simply knowing the outcome and the manner of the ending. They, along with the referee’s help, script the entire thing on the go. That, in itself, is admirable. Do me a favour and swing your arm. Hard. Like you’re throwing a punch. Now imagine doing that, and more strenuous things, again and again over a half hour period. You also have to make sure that your opponent is physically safe. And on top of it all, you have to decide the direction that the damn match is going to take. Now that takes skill.
Some of the things that they do in pro wrestling are exciting. Some are dangerous, and some are just plain death-defying. I remember watching The Undertaker, once again, throw Mankind off the top of the steel cage. He fell thirty feet onto an announcer’s table made of plywood. As legendary commentator Jim Ross put it, “with God as my witness, he’s broken in half”. It really did look like he was dead. Horror and sadness ran through my mind when I saw it, because it seemed physically impossible that Mick Foley, aka Mankind, would ever walk again.
And then there’s the talking. A lot of wrestlers are brilliant in the ring, but their talking ability, or mic skills, are terrible. And to be a successful wrestler, you need to connect with the fans. You’ll never get the push that you want if you can’t get the fans to love (or hate) you. And that’s where the showmanship, the in-ring psychology and the talking comes in. Hulk Hogan is one of the most famous wrestlers in history. But, if you ask any wrestling fan, he probably also has some of the worst in-ring wrestling skills in the world. He’s big, slow and clumsy, and was so even in his prime. But because he could connect so beautifully with the audience, he became one of the biggest stars in the sporting (not just wrestling) world. The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels – these people have been so beloved by the wrestling fans, that the line between real and scripted really does begin to blur.
There are wrestlers who go the other way as well. There are people who have made an entire career out of making people hate them, and they have been so very good at it. When a wrestler is good, he’s a face. And when he’s bad, he’s a heel. Some of my favourite heels have been The Iron Sheik, Triple H, Randy Orton and, more recently, CM Punk. CM Punk came out and gave one of the greatest speeches (or promos) of the modern era when he let out all his frustrations on air.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OS9wZGb_3g
How do you take an obviously fake fight, and get people to care about it? How do you still manage to surprise people who, with access to the internet and a glut of information, are sometimes too smart for their own good? Some call it stupid, both the wrestling and the people who watch it. It is anything but. It takes a whole lot of intelligence to run a wrestling company – and that’s evident from the dozens of wrestling associations that have folded up. There are even a lot of intelligent wrestlers – the man who jumped off the cage earlier, Mick Foley? He’s written books that have made it to the New York Times’ non-fiction bestseller list. There is some suspension of disbelief, but that is true while consuming any sort of entertainment. There are some who call it escapism, but I don’t think that’s it. I think there is a deeper reason why fully-grown men and women love wrestling. If you’d like to delve further into this world, I’d suggest watching Beyond The Mat, Wrestling Road Diaries or The Sickness, three documentaries that shed a lot of light on this oft-overlooked behind the scenes world of pro wrestling.
This is what fascinates me. The punches may be fake, but the pain is sometimes real. The matches may be scripted, but the injuries are real. The outcomes may be decided, but the blood and toil that these men put in is damn sure real. And therein lies the rub – pro wrestling isn’t really fake for the fans. The emotion, the stories, the pain – all of it is real. Take any sports icon in the world, and think of his last game. The tears, the applause, the emotions – they’re all real. Now watch the video below. It’s Ric Flair’s last match in the WWE. You think all of things were fake for the people who saw this match?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSp2U5U9LY4
Pro wrestling may not make sense to you, but I (and a lot of other people) get it. We always have, and always will.