Why Wrestling Vol. 1

"Is Wrestling real or is Wrestling fake?" has been a question asked by almost every person who comes upon the sport of Professional Wrestling. In my nearly 18 years of following the sport, I can't give you exact percentages, but I can answer the question with one word. Both. Wrestling is real, and it's fake. But then most would ask, "why we should even care?" Well, wrestling is here, and it's infiltrated our modern society, it's dug roots into all forms of media and even other arenas such as family life and politics. It's here, and if you get past the initial disregard for it, it is interesting as well. So now I present to you, my first in a couple of installments on "Why Wrestling?"

Volume 1 -- The Fans

Many who read this column will remember their younger years when they watched a program of wrestling and saw the "Immortal" Hulk Hogan as he strode into the ring wearing his trademark Red and Yellow, his theme song blaring "I'm a real American, fight for the rights of every man." As kids we looked at him and we saw a hero. Someone who went into the ring and defeated bad guys. Those same people who remember that, also remember when they realized Wrestling was fake. Someone had told us that the punching wasn't real, that all they did was air kick. All those kids hated Wrestling from then on and still hate wrestling to this day because "Wrestling is Fake". But a select few slipped through the cracks, and still enjoyed it, and became fans into their teenage and adult years. The casual fan would watch the program and enjoy getting riled up as the bad guy berated your home town, and then the good guy came out and beat him up. Thus showing the bad guy he had no idea the kind of awesome people you'd find in City of State. But then there were the smarter fans, the ones who infiltrated the internet when it came onto the scene, and made themselves a part of the industry. They made and broke wrestlers, promoters and ideas which were being used in the industry. I've found myself becoming a part of that latter group.

When I look at wrestling as a whole, I don't just see the two hour programs you watch on television, I see everything else that goes on, the backstage stuff, the writing, the promotion and the ways in which people come and go like a light switch. many have called Wrestling a soap opera for guys. Yes, that is an accurate description to a point, however wrestling has something in which no other type of media has, the ability in which the fans have to change the landscape of the drama. For kids it was the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, the books in which you were presented with a situation and you could choose in which way to go. Wrestling has this ability more so then any other fan based media forms. Let's take some examples. First off the man I mentioned before, Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan came onto the scene of wrestling long before he became famous. Did you know that before he adopted Hulk Hogan he had been known as "The Super Destroyer" and "Terry Boulder"? Not many people do, because he wasn't famous. He had to take his time like anyone else. But in Wrestlemania III Hulk Hogan became a star when he body slammed Andre the Giant. The fans erupted. The fans told promoters that this was who they wanted to see. The fans made the difference for Hulk. Without the fans he wouldn't have gone anywhere. This was the greatness of the now defunct company WCW in a later incident--they took the ultimate hero and turned him into a villain, garnering people to flock in droves to spit on the ground Hulk walked on. For Hulk had betrayed America. The fans propelled him to super-stardom and now you can see him everywhere. Everyone knows his name.

One other example is one which the world at large has not heard of: the case of Mike Mizanin. Mike first appeared on the tenth season of MTV's The Real World. He would talk on the show of his desires to be a professional wrestler and how he even had a personality made called "The Miz". The fans wanted to see that so Mike went to the WWE and eventually became a wrestler on their show. However, even with his loyal MTV fans, most didn't trickle over to wrestling. Mike was fading into obscurity. That is until the WWE put a poll up on their website of who was to challenge for the ECW title against then champion CM Punk. What no one but the hardcore fans would know is that WWE corporate had plans to take the title from fan favorite CM Punk and give it to John Morrison. They expected the fans to vote for John Morrison. They put three men on the poll, Morrison, another big contender, and the fading into obscurity Miz. Well the fans knew that a vote for anyone but the Miz would be a vote against Punk. Because of this The Miz won the poll in a landslide decision. The fans fought back. They said they still wanted CM Punk to be champion, so they chose someone whom they knew the WWE would not allow to become champion. The one who benefited from all of this? The Miz. He suddenly was able to make a name for himself because from what the WWE saw, apparently the fans liked The Miz. Now he's a middle to top name in the company.

So in this we see, yes, for the most part, Wrestling is scripted, score one for fake. However, the fans have somewhat of a say in the outcome. Score one for Real.

Is Wrestling Real or Fake?

Real -- 1
Fake -- 1

Stay Tuned for Volume 2.