Wrestling is a very specific kind of combination between combat sports and theater. It is a very silly spectacle with quite often that serious presentation of sports. You can watch your favorite champions, follow various storylines but what exactly makes wrestling so unique and perfect to be a getaway from the real world? In this article we will try to answer that exact question and more, enjoy!
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Nobody Knows Who Wins
Of course, real sport is not predictable as well, sometimes there are cases when a fight is set or bought, but in wrestling it is a different story. In reality many people expect one person to win more than the other, and there are scenarios where it is truly unknown based on the storylines leading up to it. Even the most successful gamblers of all time would have a hard time telling who is more likely to get away with the W (win).
The people who are obviously included in the exceedingly small circle of people who know who will win are obviously the wrestlers involved in the match, the referee, and the writers/producers behind the match. However, even that is not always enough because there were cases when audible calls were made due to the fan’s positive reaction or quite the opposite, fan backlash.
It is also possible to bet on many wrestling things, not only the winners but also who will score the biggest number of pinfalls in a single match or how many times a move will be used in a match. It is also a controversial topic, because if it is like a TV show, then why would you be able to bet on it, someone might leak the result.
No matter the reasoning, the facts are that betting on wrestling adds to that another layer of tension and reason for rooting for a wrestler you’ve picked. It is impressive to make some bets with friends over food or something, to enjoy the show you watch with them even more.
Predictable Is Not Always Bad
The very first people say when they hear the word “wrestling” is another word: “fake”. It is a common misconception and something that should be explained for the last time. It is much more like a TV series than an actual sport, so going by the logic here, every TV show is fake, because it was written, directed, and acted out by professionals.
The word that describes wrestling much more accurately is “directed”. It is a performance of various trained athletes and actors, with written promos like dialogues in a movie, and the audience is the final aspect of the spectacle. The crowd is also a key factor in the entire show. That is why it was such a different experience during the global pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The fans were absent and replaced by virtual fans (screens like in Zoom or Skype calls).
More Art Than a Sport
Due to its silliness, and physical prowess needed to become a wrestler, it is regarded to be much more like an art form than a casual sport. It is a performance where the athletes need to cooperate perfectly, because they put their health into each other’s hands. You rely on the other person to compliment your move, sell it and make sure you are also safe by catching you or repositioning if you are out of position. If it all plays perfectly, the results are some of the best matches of all time.
Why Is It a Perfect Getaway?
To answer the main question, wrestling is a perfect way to get out from the real world, at least for a while because it is always there. No matter what, due to various TV deals there is a wrestling show every week. While other shows have seasons, breaks, etc., here you can always count that every Monday is an episode of WWE Raw, every Friday is an Episode of Smackdown, and every Wednesday is an episode of AEW Dynamite.
It is also very, very silly at times, with absurd storylines, which are somewhat childish but that’s okay. You need to relax, enjoy the performance, go through the thrills of rooting your favorites and booing your heels. It is an experience in its own right to get sucked into a story told by professionals.
Variety is another key aspect of wrestling, being for many people a perfect getaway. You might not love one wrestling style but there are so many different ones that it is highly likely that you will find something that fits your niche. You can watch serious wrestling, technical wrestling with submission holds and transitions (Bryan Danielson or Kurt Angle), you can watch comedic wrestling with lots of colorful characters doing absurd things like throwing a pizza in the air or fighting with their arms in their pockets (Danhausen or Orange Cassidy). There is a strong style of wrestling with hard-hitting kicks and punches (Shinsuke Nakamura or GUNTHER) or real hoss fights, where huge blokes are just chopping each other’s chests until they’re red (Minoru Suzuki or Samoa Joe).
Of course, there are difficulties to wrestling, and not every story is of the same high caliber, there are hits or misses, but very often when something clicks then it is the best thing in the world, and when it doesn’t it is so bad it’s funny. The wrestling community is also a huge part of being a wrestling fan and it is very often a welcoming community (in person) but gets some bad press due to the IWC (internet wrestling community) and loud voices on Twitter.
Make sure to enjoy wrestling, however, you may please, and do not care about the voices online that will hate you for believing in wrestling and defending it for not being fake. It simply isn’t. It is directed of course, but taking bumps requires years and years of training and dedication. You need to execute moves perfectly in order to ensure the other person and you are safe. It will hurt, and it will hurt a lot. You cannot simulate falling from a 10 ft tall ladder not hurt, but wrestling is all about mitigating that damage, and making it as safe as possible.
