Is Pro Wrestling fake or real?

EN1320 Comp1 Research Paper
IIT-Tech

As long time avid fan of pro wrestling I always get ask is pro wrestling is fake? Sure pro wrestling is a male oriented soap opera, that storylines and matches do have predetermined outcome. Predetermined meaning the refs, wrestlers and bookers know who is going to win or lose a match before the actual match starts. Yes the hazards can be real inside the squared circle because if a wrestler receives or takes a “bump” the wrong way. It could be a career ending injury that wrestler might not even wrestle again. That being said every pro wrestler trains day in and day out to insure nobody gets hurt in the squared circle. For the untrained eye or people who don’t follow wrestling do not factor that in.

Now the question that is always topic of debate about pro wrestling is it a sport or entertainment? Pro wrestling is part entertainment part sport because Greco Roman wrestling style it uses. The moves preformed like headlocks, suplexs and slams come from the Greco Roman wrestling style. Pro wrestling uses “Gimmicks” meaning the persona, usually artificially created; one has in order to draw fan interest. Here is where the entertainment comes into play for pro wrestling. Without the entertainment aspect of it, pro wrestling would boring, stale and not really fun to watch. Who wouldn’t want to watch a guy named “Dude Love” an overweight guy wearing tie dye, sunglasses and talking like a throwback 1960's hippie? Catchphrases like “OWWWW Have Mercy!” and “I know you want to kick some heavy duty booty!” I know I would but it is not everyone’s cup tea I get that.

In pro wrestling anything can happen at any given time this why I am going to debate it is real. Outsiders will often label professional wrestling as ‘fake’. While it’s true that the punches and kicks don’t normally connect, it is still an incredibly high risk profession. It takes a tremendous toll on a person’s body, and unfortunately, nobody has yet discovered a method of faking gravity. Case in point for a wrestler named Christopher Nowinski. Christopher Nowinski had short lived career in WWE/WWF due to a post-concussion syndrome. In the month of June, 2003 Christopher Nowinski sustained a serious concussion from pro wrestling.

Christopher Nowinski later retired from pro wrestling to focus on co-founding and becoming an executive director of the Sports Legacy Institute. Sports Legacy Institute a non-profit organization dedicated to solving the sports concussion crisis through education, policy, and research. What a post-concussion syndrome is a set of symptoms that may continue for weeks, months, or a year or more after a concussion – a minor form of traumatic brain injury. Concussions can be a common injury for wrestlers of the square circle. A wrestler known as “Cactus Jack” aka Mick Foley has sustained a legion of injuries including eight known concussions. Before Brock Lesnar became a UFC heavyweight champion he wrestled for WWE. In his Wrestlemania XIX match with Kurt Angle he attempted to do a shooting star press from the top rope. What happened next was a “botched” spot as we called it in the wrestling business. Botch means to attempt a scripted move that does not come out as it was originally planned due to a mistake, miscalculation, or a slip-up. A quote from Brock Lesnar himself “My boot slipped off the wet rope, I under-rotated, crashed in spectacular fashion, and gave myself a massive concussion. I damn near broke my neck.”

Another common injury to pro wrestlers is tearing their quadriceps muscle. Wrestlers such as Triple H aka Paul Michael Levesque has had their quadriceps muscle torn. A night in 2001 on Monday Night Raw in San Jose, California ,Triple H during a match with Stone Cold Steve Austin as his tag team partner .They were facing off against Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit for the WWE tag titles. During the match "Y2J" came in and cleaned house. He sent "Triple H" to the outside with a clothesline over the top rope and then reversed an Austin Lou Thesz press attempt into the Walls of Jericho. That's when Triple H came back into the ring to make the save but awkwardly planted on his left leg while doing so and tore his quadriceps completely off the bone. The severity of this injury cannot be overstated. Injuries like this have ended athlete’s careers and his eventual surgery and recovery time was eight long months for Triple H. “The quadriceps tendon is injured most commonly from a forced eccentric contraction (contracting while lengthening) against an outside force. This can happen during high-energy accidents such as motor vehicle crashes and during sporting activities, or during low energy injuries such as falls from a standing position.”

You do read about pro wrestlers dying in square circle but that is somewhat due to heart attacks. Wrestling night in and night out can way a troll on a wrestler’s body. This is why you hear of wrestlers taking pain pills for pain. Steroids are another big issue with wrestlers abusing drugs. Stronger faster quicker is not always the answer when it comes to pro wrestling. There are consequences for their actions when they abuse drugs. Chris Benoit would be good example of what drug abuse can do to a person. There are dozens and dozens of articles already explaining this. One thing I like to point out is the death of Blue Blazer aka Owen Hart. I do remember this as a kid quite vividly. Why? Because it happened May 23rd 1999 in Kansas City and remember watching local 10 news story about it,

Owen Hart died due to freak stunt in pro wrestling; He would occasionally descend from the ceiling attached to a zip wire. Then usually getting stuck a few feet off the ground and needing help to get unshackled. This was jab or dig at another wrestler called Sting, Sting originated the descending from the rafters in WCW first. May 23rd 1999 at the Over the Edge pay-per-view, Owen Hart’s shackle accidentally released within moments of him stepping off the catwalk in the rafters. He plummeted approximately 80 feet, landing chest first on the top rope just by the turnbuckle, and slumping into the ring. Later on Martha Hart Owen’s widow took legal action against the WWF and the manufacturers of the shackle device. This had opened accidentally, sending Hart to his death at the age of 34.

You cannot tell me this fake or just part of the show you simply cannot. In case of Owen Hart’s death it was a freak accident gone wrong period. So here I am many years later and still a huge wrestling fan. I still get pissed when someone calls pro wrestling fake. "Fake" to me is an ugly term. Can't we be satisfied with "predetermined outcomes"? Then again, it might depend on your definition of "fake” is. Inclusion the matches have a predetermined outcome but the hazards are real. At any given time a wrestler can get injured by preforming the moves they do in the ring. This why WWE says please don’t try this at home to encourage kids and teenagers not to become “backyard wrestlers”

References
13 Wrestlers Who Died In The Ring. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://whatculture.com/wwe/13-wrestlers-died-ring.php

MEET CHRIS | Chris Nowinski. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://chrisnowinski.com/meet-chris/

Pro Wrestling: 15 of the Worst Injuries to Happen in the Ring | Bleacher Report. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1100570-pro-wrestling-15-of-the-worst-injuries-to-happen-in-the-ring
The 25 Most Gruesome Injuries in Pro Wrestling History | Complex. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.complex.com/sports/2014/02/gruesome-injuries-pro-wrestling/owen-hart
Quadriceps Tendon Rupture - SportsMD. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sportsmd.com/knee-injuries/quadriceps-tendon-rupture/
Concussions/ Head - SportsMD. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sportsmd.com/concussions-head-injuries/