~SFW: Why I Love Wrestling~ (Patreon)

~Audio Transcript Below~

Why do I like Professional Wrestling? That’s the golden question, isn’t it? How did I even get into Professional Wrestling? What’s so special about it?

A lot of things. A lot of things are special about Professional Wrestling, to me. But I’m going to start from the beginning.

I think intrinsically, I’ve always had a vague understanding about what exactly Pro Wrestling is. Looking back on it now, it’s almost like it’s something that’s been playing in the background of my life, and only until recently I’ve actually gone and actively listened to what was going on.

From a young age I knew who Hulk Hogan was, I knew Macho Man Randy Savage, and I knew they were Wrestlers, but I didn’t know what Wrestling really was.

September 2016 was when that all changed. One of my best friends had been talking to me about wrestling, and I told him that ever since a young age, I may not have known what Wrestling necessarily was, but that my favorite was the Undertaker.

For those of you who don’t know who the Undertaker is, let me give you a brief synopsis. The Undertaker is probably one of the most revered Professional Wrestlers in the entire history of the sport. With almost a 30 year long career and a character that could work in no other man’s hands, the real life Mark Calaway made a persona that can be categorized as an undead voodoo priest with magical powers….work and be taken seriously to the point that just being in the same building as him feels like you’re a part of something special, something….other wordly.

So my friend thought it would be a good idea to send me a video of the Undertaker’s best entrances (entrances are very important in Wrestling mind you) and after I had watched it, a video popped up in my suggested videos. It was one of those list videos, where people list different facts about things you might not know, but this one, was about wrestling. Interested, I started watching, and it all went downhill from there. This channel was about everything wrestling, explained and delivered in an easy palatable way for someone who doesn’t know about wrestling. And you might think, “What is there to know? It’s guys fake fighting each other.”

You don’t know how wrong you are.

Ok yes, the wrestling may be scripted and predetermined, but it’s not fake. There’s a big difference. When people think about how fake wrestling looks, a lot of people look back to the eighties, when Wrestling was presented as real fighting. Looking back on it now, it’s almost laughable, but then, the secrets of wrestling were protected like the Arc of the Covenant. Wrestling was real.

Nowadays, those secrets are more like guidelines than solid actual rules. Honestly, to me, what they do is even more incredible than before. Some of the maneuvers now that wrestlers do are so fantastical that it’s amazing that they can do this day in and day out and not actually kill each other. That’s one thing about wrestling that’s so cool to me and makes me so angry when people tell me it’s ‘fake’.

These people are athletes, full stop. They train like athletes, they eat like athletes, they work, like athletes. They do these incredible stunts almost every day of their lives and they do it with such skill and finesse that it’s frankly mind blowing.

Yes, some wrestlers are better at making it look ‘real’ than others, that I can concede. But the thing is, it’s not like the things that they do don’t hurt, they absolutely hurt! They just hurt in the safest way possible. Also, there are always possibilities for things to go wrong, and when they do, these people know how to improvise. These people are actors, and while like I said, some of them are better at it than others, that’s what they are. 

That being said, another amazing thing about wrestlers it that they’re on the road travelling from show to show like 90, maybe 95% of the year. You’re seriously lucky to get in a half hour workout before sleeping for a couple of hours in an actual bed before you’re off to your next destination. Some of these people travel all over the world doing these things, and it’s incredibly grueling and taxing when you try to find the time to not only practice your fights, but there’s also appearances, autograph signings, interviews, photoshoots, more filming. It’s no exaggeration that Wrestlers are ridden hard and put away wet nearly every single day of their lives. Not many people can stand a life like that.

Ok, I might like wrestling for a lot of arbitrary reasons. The people are attractive and I like watching sweaty half naked people fight one another, sue me. I don’t call it, ‘sweaty man soap opera’ for nothing. I can also concede that most of the time, the storylines that come through wrestling are garbage or hard to swallow or are just plain uncomfortable to deal with and shouldn’t have happened, but when wrestling is done right, it’s right.

Where else can you find characters like the Undertaker or Triple H who have survived 20 plus years? That’s the thing, in wrestling, the characters are always evolving, always changing. Storylines pull them one way or the other, but they need to be able to stay relevant and reinvent themselves to appeal to crowds and audiences at home. What other type of entertainment can claim that they have continuing overarching storylines that span over a decade? It’s almost mind boggling to think about really. Seeing the rise and fall and rise again of these people who want nothing more than to entertain people like me.

I have nothing but respect for every single person who has ever stepped into a squared circle. I’m someone who is incapable of liking anything with half my ass. I like it fully with all my heart, and devote so much of my time to it.

There are few things in the past that have caught my attention and my focus the way that wrestling has, and the thing is, the longevity of my love for wrestling is almost tangible. It’s been a little over two years since I started watching wrestling, and there are times I feel cheated, because this was something that was under my nose this entire time. I came into wrestling late in the game by most people’s standards, but I have a feeling that this is something I’m going to enjoy for the rest of my life. I could literally go on and on about characters, about behind the scenes things, about trivia and things that I’ve learned in the past two years, but I’ll spare you that now. I know I have so much more to learn and I’m excited to do so. Wrestling has filled me with joy and sadness and all other emotions in equal measure. Something about wrestling just...clicks with me, just feels right. Some things, that I can’t even explain. But wrestling is important to me, it’s given me something to look forward to and to love and to follow for what I hope is the rest of my days. I love wrestling because to me….wrestling is real.