Misconceptions of Professional Wrestling - Part 1

Now, this gets on my nerves quite a bit, and it has done since I was a kid. That of course is people referring to professional wrestling as ‘fake’. I can safely say that is the most uneducated and ignorant thing you can say about it.

The word ‘fake’ would imply that none of the moves performed in professional wrestling actually hurt, or none of the wrestlers ever get injured. In a sense they walk in as fresh as a daisy and walk back just as good as they came out, but just a little more tired and sweaty. And if you think that’s what happens in professional wrestling, then you’re very stupid.

 

I think where people get their lines crossed is by the fact that professional wrestling is a performance. The matches are predetermined, and the promos and interviews are sometimes scripted (I’ll talk about that in part 2).

 

So, I don’t know how much you guys know about the professional wrestling business and what happens behind the scenes, but I shall give you a brief outline. A creative team (or writer) will come up with storylines and characters for each of the wrestlers, and will try and get each of them over with the audience. A booking team (or booker) will book matches to take place on various different events, most of the time to progress a characters storyline. And finally there is the agent. This is typically a former wrestler who goes through the finishes of matches with the participants. Two famous examples of agents are Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco.

Realistically, nobody actually wins or loses, or nobody actually becomes champion. But, in professional wrestling it is very hard to get noticed. Even, if someday you make it to the big time, which of course is the WWE, there is no certainty that you will get over with the fans or stand out enough for them to give you a push to be a main event star, or someday carry the belt. So, I guess in a sense it is an accomplishment to become champion, as it means the higher powers have faith in you to be at the front of their company.

When I was a kid, I would tell people I was a fan of professional wrestling, and typically I would get the uneducated response of “how can you like that fake stuff?”, which I used to ignore and just not say anything, but now it just kind of pi**es me off of how ignorant people can be. The truth is the moves which are used take tremendous amounts of training, precision and athleticism to perform, and many of them are extremely difficult also.

There is very little room for error in most of the moves they do, as lots of the more complicated moves if not executed correctly (or botched) can result in causing serious injury or even death.

Probably, the most famous example of a botched move was Brock Lesnar’s shooting star press at WrestleMania 19 against Kurt Angle. Previously, Lesnar had performed the move successfully in his development stages, but this time he underestimated the distance from Angle and wedged his head and neck by hitting Angle’s rib cage resulting in a serious concussion. Now, Brock Lesnar is massive. He is six foot three, and weighs 265lbs. So, the fact that he can execute a shooting star press, a move which was previously banned due to how dangerous it was, and is usually only done by cruiserweights, really shows his athleticism. 
 

The first video is Brock's successful attempt, and the second is his botched attempt.

The shooting star press is one of the most impressive moves in professional wrestling, but how many people perform the move today? Oh, that’s right, nobody. The last person to perform it would have been Evan Bourne, but he has been out from the scene for quite a while now. Surely, if professional wrestling was ‘fake’, wouldn’t everybody want to perform that move?

 

The fact is the wrestlers are going out there sacrificing their bodies, and potentially risking their lives in order to entertain a crowd. I appreciate everything professional wrestlers do, as not anybody can be a professional wrestler, it takes a certain type of person.

 

I hope you guys enjoyed part 1 of this article and gained maybe a bit more respect for what professional wrestlers do. The second part of this article will be uploaded tomorrow. Before you leave I would appreciate it if you would watch the video below. Thanks!

 

 

Catch you later,

 

Giordano