WNS Column: The 'F' Word.

Wham Bam Wrestling's Fake Ma'am

Wait!

Before I'm booed louder than a fan reaction towards Ray Mysterio entering the 2014 edition of the Royal Rumble at number 30 for suggesting the blindingly obvious. Let me explain my second column, "What Really Grinds My Gears" (Family Guy reference there) is being told that wrestling is fake, we've all been there, your friends, parents, work colleagues and even by people from countries you never even knew had an Internet connection tell you the same thing, wrestling is fake. This reaction tends to irritate after a while until the point where an argument inevitably breaks out.

A fairly recent event in terms of wrestling's lengthy past which is seen as significant for playing its part toward leading people to this conclusion, arrived courtesy of an important speech by none other than WWE's enigmatic now multi millionaire Vince McMahon. The speech in question, which I am sure you will remember, happened on the "15th December 1997 during a pre recorded promo on Raw" is notable for two reasons; firstly, many believe this signaled the dawn of the Attitude Era with the second reason stemming from the very beginning of this speech. Upon viewing this segment, Vince states, "Even though we call ourselves Sports Entertainment because of the athleticism involved, the keyword in this phrase is Entertainment"

The word "Entertainment" provokes a notion of artificialness, a feeling of a fabricated and invented world where all actions have no consequence within reality itself. However, what does the word "Entertainment" actually mean? According to the Oxford Dictionary which defines "Entertainment" as "The action of providing or being provided with amusement or enjoyment or to entertain others"

Pro Wrestling provides amusement, enjoyment and no doubt will entertain viewers for many years to come. Now I do understand any self respecting dictionary whether it be UK, US or any other country will not define words in terms of pro wrestling, but nowhere does it say entertainment might be painful, frequently dangerous and in the case of Darren Drozdov, career ending and also life altering.

Further evidence of wrestling's dangerous elements has been perfectly illustrated by Mick Foley's first and second autobiographical books. I acknowledge both books because of the interesting points which are made within them, one such point is featured on the back cover of Mick Foley's first book entitled " Mankind Have a Nice Day: A Tale Of Blood and Sweatsocks" which shows an image of the many injuries which Mankind/Mick Foley has suffered. Among the list, a very long list I might add included "two Broken Noses, Five Broken Ribs and a Bruised Kidney"

With the implementation of a more PG focused content around 2008 onwards, a Mick Foley, arguably king of extreme and a proponent of hardcore wrestling would simply not exist within today's present pro wrestling culture and ethos. However a valid point still remains to this day within Mick Foleys second book entitled "Foley Is Good" which discusses the perceptions within wrestling, this theory which was easy dismissed by Foley focuses on critics who label wrestlers, or as we are constantly being told "superstars" do not become injured as a result of various wrestling moves, as frankly both wrong and laughable.

This book was published in 2001 but remains current, so much so in fact that in 2014 the BBC reported "The Undertaker had been rushed to hospital after the match at Wrestlemania 30 with a severe concussion", with other reports suggesting a neck injury as well.

So why does this irritate me? After all wrestling is scripted, all results are pre- determined and matches are planned and rehearsed. It annoys me because I do think the art of wrestling and wrestlers themselves are not fully recognised for being a part of the wrestling business, or for what they put their bodies through and ultimately achieve because of this. The presumption that everything is fake leads to an acknowledgment that any move can be done without injury, every stamp to the leg is fictitious and every legitimate concussion is fraudulent. Scripted and planned is different from fake, pro wrestling is not 100% authentic or 100% fake, its neither one or the other, but it does offer real injuries to real people, oh it's real it's damn real.

Written by Christopher Files
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