“A lot of Wrestling sucks. But when it’s good, it’s fucking great.”

Max Landis

1

I’ve been a fan since the late 90’s. My favorite storyline was between The Undertaker and Kane in the WWF

In the story it included the following: Undertaker murdering their parents in a fire and Kane setting him on fire. And not to mention a match they had where they had to set each other on fire to win.

Man, some stuff 90’s was intense. My point is it left an impression on me. For better or worse.

Fast forward to today. They still have storylines like that. They are more tame, but they can come across as cheesy or hokey. Was it like that back then? Yes but it was more in your face. And I think people believed in the stories more back then. And that’s the problem.

2

You see, pro wrestling (especially the WWE) is an unique form of entertainment. It’s a showcase of athleticism and acting. It’s a combination that just works. It’s a basic human instict to see conflict. Hell it’s in animals DNA to fight. Humans just found a way to do it for real and/or for our entertainment.

When I was a kid, I had no idea that Pro Wrestling wasn’t real. When I found out, it didn’t make me angry. It made me want to learn about the inner workings of the business.

3

How it’s precented today, pro wrestling is a segmented drama. You have matches where it’s a showcase of a wrestlers talent (usually called a squash match) or you can have matches where the ownership of a company is on the line. Yes. That happened. There are matches where you can use barbwire baseball bats and light tubes to damage your opponent. Yes. That does happen. There are matches for every style. Something for everyone.

But in today’s pro wrestling, it doesn’t matter what kind of match you present. It all has to do with why the match is taking place. Let’s go back to the Undertaker for a second. The matches he had with Kane were insane and maybe off-putting to the casual viewer. But if you stuck around and watch it on TV you were told why. “These brothers hate each other!” You would hear on commentary. Within a minute or two, you got everything you need to follow what was going on.

And they follow this formula to this day: See something eye catching, told why and you had to watch to see what would happen next. It’s basic but it works. Every wrestling company that has been on TV has followed.

And if you watch frequently you will be confused sometimes Pro Wrestling isn’t something you can analyze 100%. There is no deeper meaning. It’s dumb. But in a fun way where you be thinking “man that was great”

But some won’t. And if you don’t you’ll end up not watching. Granted, there have been feuds (a story between two or more wrestlers)and moments were it can be really hard to defend it. If you don’t believe me, ask a long time fan about Katie Vick.

Pro Wrestling at it’s best is kinda like the Harry Potter novels. At first he’s a innocent but strong kid. And over time he gains the power and strength to defeat the bad guy. Take out the magic (witch does happen in wrestling) and the quidditch, and it’s basically the same thing.

4

Your probably wondering if I’m going to discuss all the real life issues surrounding pro wrestling. I’m not going to discuss all of them. But I’ll mention one: What happened with Chris Benoit. Im not going to go into detail because it’s too depressing. But I will say that it has made the WWE a better place. Yes they still haven’t fixed every issue (ask CM Punk about that) but it has gotten somewhat better. I think it made the WWE more aware of how it and it’s wrestlers behave outside the show.

Does that justify it? No. You can still find his matches on the WWE Network. And that’s fucked up. There are even theories that Benoit was murdered by the WWE. And that is just wrong.

Their image has gotten better. But it has a long way to get there.

5

When you strip it all down to it’s core, Pro Wrestling was and still is a traveling circus. You have freaks, athletic stunts, dramatic moments, visual spectacle, and overall dumb fun.

If you wanna get into it, just watch it and have fun.

Just don’t ask the Internet what it thinks about Roman Reigns.