Why I Watch Wrestling

So I get to know a lot of people online and in real life and eventually it comes up that I will be away for a weekend so that I can go to a local wrestling event or be staying at home watching a WWE Pay-Per-View. Now for you guys this isn’t a shocking thing because you have most likely seen all of the WWE and WXW blogs I have done but those that haven’t always seem surprised when they find out I like wrestling. The first thing I usually hear from them is “You do know it’s fake right?”

Fake…I have come to hate that word, too many people use it for too many things and not usually when it’s right. Fake is great when you have something claiming to be real but it isn’t, but when something doesn’t claim to be the thing you think it is then it isn’t fake you just don’t realize what it truly is.  For example when I worked at Busch Gardens in Tampa I worked in a store that sold large and small glass gems, we called them glass gems, the signs said glass gems, but at least 20 times a day this conversation would happen:

“Hey are these real?”

“Sure they’re real glass”

“Glass?  Man these are fake!”

No they aren’t fake they are real Glass Gems cut to look like diamonds, seriously people do you think BG would sell a pound diamond as big as a softball for only 12 bucks? Well this is what happens with wrestling now a days.

So wrestling is fake huh? Did you know that back almost 30 years now, the WWE (then WWF) called what they do Sports Entertainment? Even back so far as 1935 some sports columnists were using a similar phrase to describe what the wrestling world had turned into. But what does Sports Entertainment mean? What it means is that YES they are a SPORT but they are more so ENTERTAINMENT instead of competition. So right there, in their very own description of themselves, they are telling fans, hey we are not a normal competition, there’s something different about us.  You see to me, the world of wrestling is a combination gymnastic, strength show, mixed with a soap opera, Now the soap opera part I can mainly do without, the backstage talk and the 20 minute promo’s bore me to be honest. The rest of it, however, amazes me. To see a man lift someone else that is 200+ pounds and slam them to the mat, to see a giant of a man move in ways that honestly shouldn’t be possible for someone so big, to see some guys seemingly defy gravity, it’s simply amazing to watch.  Sure the outcome may be pre-determined, but please don’t say wrestling is fake because these guys give us their all in the ring and do some amazing things. Don’t believe me? Well watch the videos below and I’ll show you why I am amazed at what wrestlers can do!

Did you know a person standing at 7’2” can easily walk along the top rope of a wrestling ring without falling? Now we’re not talking 3’ thick rope here these things are only around 1” in diameter maybe a slight bit bigger but look at what the undertaker can do!

 

Did you know a WWE ring is 20’ by 20’? Did you also know that some people can stand on the top turnbuckle and leap all the way to the other corner to plant their feet into the chest of someone sitting against the ropes? You probably don’t believe me, and I don’t blame you, but check out this video of Shane McMahon son of the WWE’s owner doing exactly that!

 

Shane isn’t the only one to try and defy gravity however. There are a lot of superstars in any wrestling organization that are all too happy to use a high risk high flying maneuver as their finisher. Such as the NXT Alumni turned WWE main roster player Adrian Neville seen here doing something you usually only see off of a high dive. Now note the top turnbuckle is only 5’ off of the mat!

 

It’s not just the fact that they are defying gravity that makes some of these moves so amazing but the ability to know exactly where they have to fly to make it through obstacles to hit someone with pinpoint accuracy is also amazing! Check out this move where Sami Zayne Jumps between the ropes from the outside of the ring to land a Hurricane DDT on Cesaro. Please note a WWE ring is 5’-6’ off the ground, Sami dives between the 1st and 2nd turnbuckles missing the ring post narrowly. The first turnbuckle is a foot off the mat and the second is only 3 feet off the mat. He has to make a dive at least 6 feet high possibly 7 feet high with a margin of error of only one foot before hitting his opponent. Sounds insane yet Sami has done this several times in the NXT, check it out!

 

There are also feats of strength that are amazing.  Sure these wrestlers are muscle bound guys, but to lift a 600lb man onto your shoulders, hold him there for a few seconds, and then slam them is in my eyes amazing!

 

This is just a small bit of why I find the wrestling world so amazing. I know I could never do a third of what they can do, or hell probably any of what they do! So to see other people do this time and time again amazes me. Not to mention this can be a dangerous thing to do, you always hear about wrestlers getting hurt and some have even died performing in the ring! So don’t disparage what they do by saying it’s fake, it’s exactly what they claim it to be – Sports Entertainment – and these people put their very bodies on the line for their work to try and entertain you. So if you keep an open mind and don’t think of it as fake, perhaps you too will enjoy a good wrestling match either on TV or at a local indie wrestling match!