Is Wrestling Real or Fake... Seriously, is This The Wrestlemania Theme This Year?

[Jacob Fox]

I don't know if most of you know who David Schultz is. Back in the 1980's, during the first wrestling boom, Vince McMahon was a bit obsessed with making people stop talking about wrestling being fake. When a man named John Stossel asked Schultz if wrestling was fake, Schutlz hit him twice in the head. WWE settled a lawsuit with Stossel and fired Schultz. Schultz has maintained to this day that he only attacked Stossel because Vince McMahon ordered it.

Schultz was not the only one to do something like this. Hulk Hogan did and Vader did too. Haku bit the nose off a man who called wrestling fake and then he beat up the man's three friends. Harley Race was known to have bloodied up a few guys who taunted him about the business being fake.

We all know what wrestling is now. It is not fake, and I take offense to anyone who thinks it is fake. Is it scripted? Yeah mostly. Are they really beating each other up? No, not really. But does that make wrestling fake?

No, it doesn't. Cheerleading is a sport. Is cheerleading fake? No it's not. Gymnastics are choreographed. Are they fake? No, they are not.

We know what wrestling is. It is people using well practicing manuevers to make it seem like they are fighting. And we know this for a fact since kayfabe died. Even though some people cling to kayfabe, they don't do it like they used to.

So, no, wrestling is not fake. The only way it would be "fake" is if we replace the wrestlers with CGI.

So why does it seem like wrestling being real or fake is the theme of Wrestlemania this year? I mean, Ronda Rousey is coming right out telling everyone wrestling is fake and that no one can beat her. It seems silly because if wrestling IS fake like she claims, no one has even tried to beat her. They are just doing their jobs. So her claim seems pretty stupid. But I know it is just a way to get her over as a heel.

On Raw this week, HHH broke kayfabe and made comments about the realness or fakeness of wrestling. Braun Strowman attacked a man who called wrestling fake.

Some people think Roman Reigns faked leukemia. I really hope WWE does not use that as an angle, but I have a feeling they will.

Real this, fake that. I mean is this really the best thing to be doing leading up to the biggest wrestling night of the year?

 

[Rosie]

It's like... We know what the nature of wrestling is. Call it fake, scripted, whatever, all I care about is that on the show it is "kayfabe" and if you are on social media and talk "out of character" don't act like an edgelord and say it is fake and you are a badass.

As for WWE in particular atm, if they are instructing Ronda to do that... Just stop. She is a champion essentially an ambassador to the company and it is shitting on the credibility of the Company.

 

[The Sheik]

Everyone knows wrestling is fake, even most children.. it's not really a secret anymore.. They should never mention it being fake on television, if that's what happened... Ronda doing it in some video is hilarious and easy heat.. because that shit bothers wrestling fans for some reason.

Look, these wrestlers fight.. they fake fight. None of the fighting is real.. which is why people call wrestling fake.. They're not tough guys, they act like it on TV.. A lot of people have issues with shit like that.

 

[Jacob Fox]

I disagree. It is wrong to call wrestling fake. Wrestling does not claim to be a competitive sport anymore. But fake is the wrong word for it.

But that's not really the point here. I agree, they shouldn't call it fake on TV because it messes with our suspension of disbelief. Having matches over the idea wrestling is fake or real is really dumb and they need to not do that.

 

[Jay-Ashley]

Wrestling is both real and fake. Are the fights fake? Yes. Does the guy taking a German Suplex really get hurt or feels pain after it? Yes. I think people, like Ronda, calling Wrestling fake show how stupid they are because it is like no shit we know it is fake just like every other sport in existence, but it entertains us the same way Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Pokemon, Digimon, and many more do. I don't know I have had this conversation so much that I either piss off the other person, or I just give up because it boring. Either way, Wrestling is both real and fake and is just a performance art.

 

[Rosie]

Wrestling is both real and fake. Are the fights fake? Yes. Does the guy taking a German Suplex really get hurt or feels pain after it? Yes. I think people, like Ronda, calling Wrestling fake show how stupid they are because it is like no shit we know it is fake just like every other sport in existence, but it entertains us the same way Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Pokemon, Digimon, and many more do. I don't know I have had this conversation so much that I either piss off the other person, or I just give up because it boring. Either way, Wrestling is both real and fake and is just a performance art.

Exactly. And there is a difference between breaking kayfabe like on twitter with a heel being nice to a fan, talking on a podcast about your career/life or talking about something OOC after it happened then saying "It's fake! Haha!"

Even in breaking character on TV, it is rare that it works. Aside from The Pipebomb with Punk and a few small incidents, it doesn't work, just look at the end of WCW.

 

[Redboy123@]

I don't think wrestling is a sport. Fair enough if people do. I just think if you remove the sporting competition from the activity then it isn't a sport. Wrestling has no sporting competition. Its highly competitive but not in a sporting sense. Cheerleading is a sport because it has sporting competition.

And that's the problem. Ignorant people think wrestling is fake because it isn't a sport. Thats the misconception. Wrestling isn't a sport but it isn't fake.

I suppose it is a sham though. These people ain't a fighting and there are no real winners or losers. So fair enough if people call it fake.

 

[Redboy123@]

Imagine watching James Bond and half way through the movie Daniel Craig breaks kayfabe in the middle of the movie.

Ronda Rousey is over as a heel. But I'm not entertained by it. And nobody is getting worked.

Blatantly saying wrestling is fake is not the way to promote a wrestling match.

 

[Jacob Fox]

So if a guy has no friends and he goes out and does 18 holes of golf by himself, it's not a sport. But if he does the exact same thing with a friend, it then becomes a sport?

 

[Redboy123@]

So if a guy has no friends and he goes out and does 18 holes of golf by himself, it's not a sport. But if he does the exact same thing with a friend, it then becomes a sport?

In my head it's still a sport because it still has a sporting element to it even though he's doing it on he's own. With wrestling there is no sporting competition. I can play squash on my own, it's still a sport. I'm still has that competitive nature

 

[Jacob Fox]

In my head it's still a sport because it still has a sporting element to it even though he's doing it on he's own. With wrestling there is no sporting competition. I can play squash on my own, it's still a sport. I'm still has that competitive nature

We'll just have a friendly disagreement then. I usually get really pissy about this topic for some reason but I know you and I won't convince each other haha. We've been on this road before

 

[Solid Snake]

Wrestling is scripted, not fake. I think calling it fake is just a jab at the fans because they know they will get pissed over it and discuss it.

I am not a fan of what they are doing. I think it is too easy and cheap. They have a team full of writers and this is the best they can come up with?

 

[Redboy123@]

We'll just have a friendly disagreement then. I usually get really pissy about this topic for some reason but I know you and I won't convince each other haha. We've been on this road before :emoji_slight_smile:

Good call. I would've drank your pissyness

 

[Jacob Fox]

Good call. I would've drank your pissyness

I am pee shy so I am not into water sports ?

 

[Snowman1]

Yeah, and it's so lame.

In 2019, I have no problem believing Roman Reigns and Joe Anoa'i are two different people. I have no problem believing Joe Anoa'i thinks Bobby Lashley's a cool dude IRL and they take a picture together in a car on Instagram. But I want to see a return to WWE treating every TV show character they have like a TV show character.

Don't like going here, but when Roman comes out and says "my name's Joseph Anoa'i, and I have to vacate my championship because of my leukemia flaring up, hope for the best, love and miss y'all, peace." and then a week after his return Triple H is on TV saying "but but I meant to celebrate the man himself, Richard Fleihr!"... That put a really bad taste in my mouth.

(Also, for all the credit he gets for NXT and how phenomenal that show is, he damn sure doesn't know how to get his own feuds right. )

Sometimes, all you need are two stars to sell a match, sometimes, you just need a great story. If you have both you get something magical, and sometimes the story writes itself a-la Kofi Kingston. We ALL looked back at Survivor Series and saw Becky with a bloody face throwing Ronda Rousey in that armbar and was like "oh shit, now it's on!" Simple. Effective. We couldn't wait for the match and... it was pulled away from us. That's how a lot of old-school wrestling promoters sold big matches. Tease giving you what you want, pull it away so you want it even more. It's what they kept doing with Daniel Bryan in 2013 to "bury him",, and it made us want to see him win the championship more and more... When we heard that match was being pulled, we all thought "Oh shit. Wrestlemania main event", and they listened and here we are... even as they're turning it into a convoluted mess and adding Charlotte Flair.

The thing was, this match could pretty much be sold NJPW style. Throw up a graphic, have an epic staredown, cut a couple of short backstage interviews and bam. Sells itself. The reason Becky's so over is because she says does cool shit and stays true to her IDGAF character. Keywords: stays. in. character. That works. Do more of that. When Becky Lynch shows up we all pay attention, because she's either aggressively roasting someone or beating the shit out of someone with a crutch or... The reason Ronda's so over is because she's using her MMA experience and adapting it to pro wrestling and getting really damn good at it. She's scouting bigger opponents like Nia and chopping down trees and putting on quality outings with the shitty Raw women's roster and even beating up HHH.

Literally the last thing this feud needed was this. Hell, you can allude to it by knowing Ronda would know about armbars with her MMA background by explaining how hers warps a bicep better than Becky's, but all this made me a LOT less interested in the Wrestlemania match. "Really? And all you have is this fake ass armbar that doesn't even actually work and look like you're holding a dick?" with a picture of you, yourself, screaming in pain in the locker room? That doesn't make me want to see her beat your ass, that makes me wonder why I'm watching this in the first place.