Part 2: Is Wrestling Fake?

Part 2: Wrestling is it Real, Fake or Something Else?

By Justin Blakeman

A few months ago I was walking my trash out to the dumpster before WWE’s Payback pay-per-view started. Since it was pay-per-view Sunday I had on my Seth Rollins t-shirt, which drew the attention of some random guy. As I was walking to the dumpster I heard him call out and ask, “how can you watch that wrestling crap? Don’t you know its fake?” I’m sure at some point every wrestling fan has been asked this question and there are a number of different ways you can answer it. One of my personal favorites is the vintage, “I watch for the story lines and Character development ” line. As I thought over the question I decided to turn the question around and the conversation went as follows.

Me: Do you like The Walking Dead?

Dumpster Guy: Yea man I love that show!!

Me: Awesome it’s a great show, but you do realize that Atlanta isn’t over run by zombies’ right? You know that Rick isn’t running around bashing in zombie heads?

Dumpster Guy: ……  

Me:  “That show is fake man!!!  How can you watch that stuff! ”

The conversation went on for a few more minuets but afterward I started thinking and nearly every movie or TV show that we watch is fake or scripted in some way. So why is it that wrestling is the only show that gets called out for it? You don’t go into the movie Ant Man expecting Paul Rudd to really shrink down to the size of an Ant. We don’t watch Walker Texas Ranger because we think Chuck Norris is really going to roundhouse kick some guy.

So why do people get so bent out of shape because John Cena is taking a staged punch? In my opinion watching wrestling is just like watching Walking Dead or The Big Bang Theory, We watch these shows because we enjoy them! It’s not about it being real or fake it’s about being entertained (Insert your own Sheamus jokes here) and wrestling really entertains me.

Despite being scripted wrestling is still a live show and anything can happen on live television. In the first part of this series I talked about how John Cena broke his nose on recent episode of Raw.  There will always be that element of realism involved with wrestling and you honestly never know when things like a broken nose will happen. Because of that and clever storytelling we often don’t know what is real and what is scripted. That is one of the main things that keep’s me coming back. I enjoy not knowing what is going to happen next or trying to guess what I think will happen.  

So just remember the next time you go to ask a wrestling fan why they like watching that “fake” stuff just take a second and think about all the stuff you like to watch. Remember that most of the things you enjoy watching on TV are very similar. And to be one hundred percent honest with you, don’t knock it till you have watched it for yourself! Give wrestling a chance and let it win you over like it has won over some many others.

I hope you have in enjoyed reading Part 2 in our series Wrestling is it Real, Fake or Something else? So far we have looked at the real side and the staged side of wrestling. In the final part of our series I will talk about the “Something Else” part of wrestling.  This one may take me a little longer to write because I am not sure where I want to go with it yet but keep checking in and be on the look out for it!

Thanks for reading and supporting JWN we really appreciate it!! Until next time wrestling fans!

Photo Credit: http://syntheticremarks.com/?p=4200