Well, the secret’s out. A few years ago, the Worldwide Wrestling Federation utilized a new strategy. Namely, that organization admits that wrestling is pretty much just entertainment rather than sports because the events are staged. That’s right. It’s all fake, and now everyone knows it.
The WWF made a good move with that, I think. Once upon a time, ’’professional’’ wrestling associations maintained that the sport was genuine. While this fooled a few people, the ’’sport’’ lost a lot of credibility with the majority of people who paid attention to such things.
So, we’re left with the idea that wrestling is merely entertaining. But, is it good entertainment? That all depends on your tastes, I suppose. I rather view it as kind of a crude soap opera, and hate it passionately.
Of course, wrestling is, in theory, a contest in which the stronger combatant prevails by ’’pinning’’ the other to the mat. If we’re left with the idea that all this stuff is entertainment and the ending is pre-ordained, then wrestling becomes a mere show.
And, wrestlers know this. So, they play it up to the hilt. Wrestling, of course, is rather a crude play in which good is pitted against evil and themes such as betrayal are explored. Indeed, wrestlers fight over women. ’’Good’’ wrestlers turn on their own and go to the ’’bad’’ side, and vice versa. Wrestlers stand about a foot away from television cameras and holler about how they’re going to bash the fool out of an enemy. While all of this is going on, the fans pick their favorites. And, they cheer wildly.
My brother-in-law is a wrestling fan, which is odd because he was a pretty darn good wrestler in high school and got a wrestling scholarship to a college in Iowa (University of Iowa or Iowa State University -- I can’t remember which). He never went to college, but joined the military and came up with a good pro wrestling character (I only mention this because this tale helps explain the appeal of wrestling).
He figured he could grow out his hair, dye it blonde and call himself Sampson. The gimick, of course, is that he would lose his strength if his hair was cut, so you could have moments of high drama in which it appeared that Sampson might lose his hair.
That’s pretty damn funny, and Sampson is a character that could have been successful on the wrestling circuit (pronounced ’’wrasslin’’ here in Arkansas, by the way). And, that shows the appeal of the sport -- cleverly-conceived characters struggling against the situations in which they are thrown makes for some successful entertainment any day of the week.
Don’t ever confuse the WWF and the other look-alikes with ’’real, ’’ legitimate wrestling, though. If you do that around the wrong person, you might get to find out first-hand about genuine wrestling and be quite sore for about a week.