Originally posted by glbisthewaytobe
no there is a distinction. one doesn't advertise itself as a sport, and never has. it wasn't until 1981 that the cat was out of the bag publicly. so for 29 years it was billed as professional wrestling. when it isn't wrestling. it doesn't even closely resemble wrestling.
Do you know how it started out?
It used to be real, shoot wrestling. Punches and kicks weren't really allowed (like modern MMA), so it was really boring. Matches would last for almost an hour a piece. Then, in travelling carnivals, they started to promote these characters who had unusual gimmicks/strengths, etc. They would put characters against each other in a choreographed, fake wrestling match. This ended up being really popular with the crowd. It soon became to take a life of it's own when they started using body builders as characters. The next thing you know, professional wrestling, as we know it, came to be.
In modern day, pro wrestling isn't viewed as a sport by any fan over about 13 years old. It's essentially like watching an action movie - except, it's live and it's a continuous series. Even to pro wrestling 'smarts', the show can still be addicting. This is why you see some of the stuff you do nowadays with the crowds hijacking the shows. It's what you see with guys like Daniel Bryan. The audience, for some reason, really liked this mid-carder that the writers thought was overwhelmingly mediocre. It was the crowd that pushed for Bryan's stardom. The writers let the audience have their wish, but then quickly tried to gain control again by making Daniel Bryan lose and returned him back to mid-card status. The fans were not ready to give up so easily, though. They kept going crazy for Bryan and practically forced the writers hands into adding him into one of the biggest WrestleMania matches and, possibly, a shot at the world title in the same night.
So, what I'm trying to say is, even to the people who know everything about the business (and how fake it is), the show is still entertaining. It's this crazy dynamic where the audience realizes how much power they have in the show and tries to get the writers to do what they want them to do. The writers do, for the most part, but still come up with storylines that spite the audience. It's this kind of up and down which is thrilling for the smarts.
I'll be 29 in July. I started watching wrestling really early on, earlier than I can remember. I was probably around 11 or so when I knew it was fake. Although, at that point, I didn't care at all. It's almost like I knew deep down, but I was able to suspend disbelief. At around 13 was when I really knew it and faced the facts. So, what did I do? I started my own backyard wrestling fed. We put on shows for over 100 people. I did that until I was about 16. All the while, I was still watching the product on television. I was growing less interested in it because I was getting more into MMA and the fakeness + bad writing was getting to me. I would still tune in to get ideas for writing for our fed... and just to see what the hell was going on. By about 18, I had stopped watching it completely.
For years, it was all about college, chicks, drugs, booze, playing in bands etc. I'd maybe watch 1 show a year - just because I had been a big fan when I was younger and was interested to see what was going on. In 2006, there was a WWE house show (that I referenced earlier) and my friends all decided to get wasted and go to the show. We sat front row and raised hell all show. (Not bad drunks fucking with people/causing problems.) We got really 'overzealous' on purpose over the show, helped add to it/the atmostphere, started all the chants, and trolled the wrestlers. We sold the bad guys and got them over as the fuck. We brought the shyness out of young kids who may have been too scared to cheer/yell at the wrestlers. It was amazing to see these kids to get into the show... I used to be one of those kids. It was people like us who had did the same thing years ago, when I was young. To me, it was kind of like a passing of torch.
Since then, I've attended a few house shows here and there. I may watch one or two shows on television a year, but the younger ones in my family watch it, so I'll occasionally catch pieces. I've also bought the WWE video games (not every year) over the past few years. They fun to play and create characters. So, that kind of keeps me into it.
Overall, that's what pro wrestling means to me. Maybe that will give you a better clue as to why people enjoy it.
