I don't mean to cause offence when I ask this, so apologies in advance if people get upset by this question... Wrestling is often shown on TV, it's clearly a popular sport and you can tell that the participants are well-trained, disciplined athletes. But... Everything I've seen is so obviously staged and fake that I don't understand its popularity as a spectator sport. Interest in most sports can be put down to personal preference e.g. many people love cricket, I HATE it - but one thing that can't be denied (whatever you may think of cricket) is that it's real. Wrestling is different so could someone explain the appeal? I'm not looking to start arguments, I'm genuinely curious. Thanks
I'm assuming you already know this, but there's two different types of wrestling. There's wrestling which is a genuine sport such as collegiate wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling that people compete in at high schools, universities and the Olympics. And then there's the fake "wrestling" like the WWE which is just pure sports entertainment. Completely different things. I think people watch the sports entertainment wrestling because they enjoy the drama and storylines rather than actual athletic competition. It's like a juvenile male version of soap operas. I don't really understand it, either.
Yes, I was referring to the WWE style that is shown on TV. I've looked this up online and one of the explanations given for its popularity is that it's exactly the same as watching a film or watching TV. But I don't think it is. In a film, the action is supposed to be convincing enough for you to be taken in by it - but with this form of wrestling, the acting is totally unconvincing... the reactions, the punches that miss by a mile that knock an opponent flying, even the commentary etc I can't enjoy action that looks this fake. For me, there's no sense of drama. But there's certainly skill involved in it.
Even though a WWE event is always a big one, with all the scenarios and theatre it goes with, I also can not understand why people love it so much - it is funny, true, but it is foolish. The only thing I admit is that the wrestlers really do some hard work and suffer serious injuries.
I'm one of those guys that always looked at WWE type stuff with a skeptical eye and frankly I agree with Samart's Teep that it's really soap operas for men. However, and that said, it's a hard act to pull off and these athletes regularly get injured pulling off the tricks they do. Not only that but I have to doff my hat to them in the sense that some of them have come out and proved themselves as genuine fighting forces. In Pride bthere were a bunch of pro wrestlers that competed, and while many (maybe most) of them got beaten up, some did not and some, like Sakuraba, managed to be legitimate fighting legends. Same thing has happened in the UFC.
many ppl saw it as kids and still watch out of nostalgia. id say most adults eventually lose peak interest. i lost interest around 06ish. It was a fun show and back then as a kid its really all there was on tv where you can watch over the top theatrics . it’s like a soap opera with dudes in spandex . it makes you wanna mimic the personality as a child and have charisma. You know its fake but you watch it to sort of laugh and suspend belief for 2 hours a day.
If the whole thing is fake then doesn't mean that each bout has to be carefully choreographed from beginning to end? Wouldn't that mean that every bout would require hours of careful preparation? If so, where would the wrestlers find time to fit this in along with all the travelling that's involved as they go from one show to another?
The extent of that varies. But generally what happens is they will have a few "high spots" meaning major points in the match, how it ends, someone jumping off the top rope etc etc, that are prearranged. Then the rest of the time they do stuff pretty much on the fly, they will talk to each other during the match, like calling a play in American football.
Thanks. How are they able to avoid injury if it isn't fully rehearsed? I would have thought they would have to know what moves are coming and exactly when in order to avoid injury.
They've just drilled everything so much that they can execute things relatively safely and smoothly on the spot. The more elaborate/dangerous stuff will be stuff they've pre-planned, then the more basic stuff is improvised. Lets say one guy whispers "duck the clothesline and dropkick me" then they will be able to do that within a few seconds. Another example would be if they're tired they could do some stalling stuff like one guy puts the other in a choke so they can both just kind of sit there for a bit pretending something is happening, its known as a "rest hold" when they do that.
I think it's really a testament to focusing on the customer in a business. It seems like they really understand something about their target viewer and they focus on delivering that. It's like a restaurant that only serves ice cream.
As Mike Tyson put it who is also a big fan of wrestling "Professional wrestling is a soap opera for men" If I don't want to watch MMA or Boxing at the time what's the closest thing I can watch that resembles it physically? Professional wrestling is the answer. There is much harder hitting styles of professional wrestling such as "Shoot style" Wrestling which was based on a more "Realistic" Style where they focused on submissions and harder hitting strikes, I'd suggest looking up the old UWF/UWFI Japan. Also don't get it twisted, it may be "Fake" But there's a lot of guys in the business past and present that could fight for real from Olympians to Martial Artists such as Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley, Steve Blackman, Sylvester Terkay, Lou Thesz, Allen Coage, Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Craig Pittman, Chad Gable, Ernest Miller, Jake Hager etc
