Sami Zayn (right) hugs Roman Reigns (left) on SmackDown

Introduction

“You know it’s fake, right?”

Most pro-wrestling fans have heard this question in some form at some point in their lives. They’ve worked up the courage to admit they’re a pro-wrestling fan and then they’re met with peculiar stares, snorts of laughter, or the dreaded f-word, “fake”.

On behalf of all wrestling fans allow me to answer…yes! We know it’s fake!

As I’ve matured as a wrestling fan the less interested I’ve become in “regular people’s” opinions of it (or me). If someone judges me negatively, even slightly, for loving professional wrestling then it is I who feel bad for them - not the other way around. The issue of pro-wrestling’s fakeness is not a problem for professional wrestling fans. We do not attend WrestleMania and feel deceived when we notice a softly delivered punch. We’re not confused when a wrestler climbs to the top rope to spring through the air and come crashing down on their opponent. And we’re not convinced the bad guy is evil and the good guy is good. We understand what we’re watching. We “get it”.

So what is it then that pro-wresting fans “get”?

I’d like to answer that question thoroughly so that non-fans no longer feel a need to ask, “You know it’s fake, right?”

In earnest, I’d like to let you know exactly what’s so good about professional wrestling and why millions of people all over the world love it so much. Don’t mistake this as an argument for why you should love pro-wrestling too. Feel free to go on not loving it. All I ask is that you consider the words ahead, and allow them to give you a new perspective on pro-wrestling, particularly with regard to its fakeness.

It’s Art

To truly understand professional wrestling and why people like it, you have to first understand that professional wrestling is a form of performance art.

It’s not a fake sport. It’s not making a mistake by having predetermined outcomes. It’s not failing to be realistic. It’s trying to be exactly what it is, a theatrical exhibition. Yes, it’s often quite silly. At its worst, pro-wrestling is regressive, regrettable nonsense that has no business being on television let alone in an arena full of impressionable young minds. But isn’t that the case with all art?

Some art is stupid, crude, bigoted, or boring. Sometimes really good art is created by really terrible people. Pro-wrestling isn’t somehow “more bad” than film, photography, television, or other performance arts simply because the fights are “fixed”. Yes, wrestling occasionally has people with trashcans on their heads getting beaten by other people wielding large sticks. But, as with any other art, one must know the context of such imagery to discern why it elicits such a strong, audible emotional response from the crowd.

It’s possible to recognize the shortcomings of professional wrestling while still appreciating it as an art. Put another way, it’s possible to know pro-wrestling is staged and still get lost in it. When people think negatively about pro-wrestling, a stance that likely makes it difficult to view pro-wrestling as an art, it’s because the perception of pro-wrestling can be so negative in the culture. People see or hear snippets of wrestling and their opinion of it is formed immediately. Like any art, though, it takes time to appreciate. Pro-wrestling is the skillful manipulation of bodies, before an audience. It’s also the skilled manipulation of language so as to better create character and story. That skilled manipulation elicits increasingly enthusiastic responses from the audience until, finally, wrestler and audience achieve climax. This is the experience of catharsis or, as I call it, The Moment of Pop (“Pop” is a pro-wrestling term for positive collective response from the audience). If professional wrestling wasn’t an art then it couldn’t possibly achieve the Moment of Pop, that moment when the audience suspends their disbelief and reacts on instinct. Film achieves the same result by stacking images and lines of dialogue, each combining to tell the desired story and achieve the desired emotional response. The same is true of music which uses notes. Poetry uses the line. Fiction uses sentences. Wrestling uses moves and promos (a promo is a speech delivered by a wrestler, usually to promote a particular match or show).

No one wastes anyone else’s time asking if they know a movie, a song, a poem, or a novel is fake.

Wrestling’s craft is what makes it a serious art worthy of better analysis and deeper respect. Yes, there was a time when it attempted to pull the wool over the audience’s eyes, but the audience, and the art, has evolved since then.

While wrestlers discuss their matches “in the back” there is almost always an element of improvisation when they’re wrestling in the ring. This means that the wrestlers are “calling” the match as it’s happening. “Clothesline”, “Kick me”, “Suplex”. In addition to needing to think on their feet and create this violent dance with their opponent/partner, they also have to “read the crowd”. What the wrestlers do or don’t do in the ring affects the emotional state of the audience (true in any form of theatre). If the audience is unmoved the wrestlers will have to work hard to reengage the crowd. Sometimes an audience is bad because the previous match was so impressive anything that comes after is a letdown. Sometimes the audience is just bad, though, inexplicably sitting on their hands, uninterested in what’s happening.

Wrestlers must risk their bodies for these crowds. The squared circle (wrestling ring) is the canvas and the wrestler’s body is the brush. Wrestlers protect each other (or should) so that when they land on their backs or fronts, they’re able to do so safely and with minimal damage. Each move is a kind of magic trick, requiring sleight of hand so that the audience can’t “see through the work”. The art of wrestling is in making moves look real without causing actual harm to your opponent. As Bret Hart said in the documentary Wrestling With Shadows (16:15), “My personal philosophy on wrestling, the real art of wrestling, is to do it full contact but never get hurt. If you get hurt it’s because someone did something wrong”.

What I’m trying to get across to the person who dismisses wrestling, is that the thought, care, and craft that goes into the creation of a wrestling match is complex and comparable to the complexity of any other art. The basic building blocks of professional wrestling are the same blocks found in theatre, television, film, and dance. Don’t believe me? Try watching a wrestling match knowing what you now know. See the real-time collaboration taking place. I dare you not to be, even slightly, impressed by what you see.

The art of professional wrestling is what turns nonbelievers into ardent fans.

Also, like any good art, it’s fun to analyze and discuss, and that leads me to our second reason pro-wrestling fans love pro-wrestling.

The Community

This may come as a surprise, but there are passionate groups and subgroups of professional wrestling fans. These fans are collectively known as The Pro-Wrestling Community. This community is large and complex, spanning the globe. To be a member all one need is a love of pro-wrestling. It helps to have an internet connection as much of the community uses social media to communicate about wrestling shows, often live, share fan art, or post analysis (like this article). This community used to be called The IWC (internet wrestling community) before the internet became so ubiquitous that it rendered such a name anachronistic.

Like any community there are problems. Some fans act as “gatekeepers” and try to prevent or discourage certain fans from participating. For example, non-male, people of color, or LGBTQIA fans must contend with a strain of hatred in the community, groups who want wrestling to remain male, white, and heterosexual. Such bigoted fans ultimately fail, though, as the community is diverse, reflecting a wide range of identities and interests.

The Pro-Wrestling Community is incredibly powerful due in no small part to their voice at live pro-wrestling shows. Unlike comparable media, pro-wrestling offers a live feedback system in real time that can be heard and felt. Promotions will know, almost instantly, what’s “over” (popular) and what’s not thanks to the noise of the crowd. Fans have been instrumental in getting a “push” for their favorite wrestlers and even inspiring radical changes in the way women are booked and represented. The Give Divas A Chance and Women’s Wrestling social media movements forced WWE to stop referring to women as “Divas”, start booking women in the main event, and introduce new Women’s Championships.

At its core The Pro-Wrestling Community is about fun, togetherness, and sharing in the joy this art provides. For all its shortcomings it is still possible to find your tribe within the community, and sharing your opinions and reactions becomes an integral part of appreciating the art of wrestling.

The Athleticism

On episode 242 of the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Sami Zayn described why he models his wrestling career after the film Terminator 2:

“The way I’ve always viewed wrestling is I’ve modeled my career and my matches and my work and everything, I try to model it after the movie Terminator 2. Terminator 2 was this transcendent action movie, right? You go back and watch now and it stands the test of time, which is the first mark of great art […] but furthermore than that it’s got three major elements that I try to have in all my matches which is A: great characters, B: great story, and C: which is great action and great visual effects because that’s all the great moves, the tornado DDT through the floor, those are special effects. You’ve gotta hit those three, those are my three points that I try to hit, good characters, good story, good action. To me that’s what I, as a fan, want to watch and that, for that reason, is the kind of art that I want to put out.”

Special Effects, in pro-wrestling, are moves and “high spots” (particularly daring feats of athleticism), as Sami described. Moves, and the athleticism required to convincingly execute them, are the most basic building block of a professional wrestling match. Take the moves away, even something as basic as a punch or a stomp, and you take the pro-wrestling away. Fans, for years, are conditioned to cheer certain moves at certain times. Through pattern recognition, consciously or unconsciously, fans will rise out of their seats and cheer a particularly inventive or familiar sequence. The inventive sequence inspires shock and amazement because the audience hasn’t seen anything like it before. The familiar sequence, like a finishing move, inspires warmth and anticipation, telegraphing when a match might be reaching its crescendo.

Moves, like images in film, stack atop one another to create the story Sami alluded to. The type of moves, or style, chosen to tell that story determines what type of match fans will see. Some wrestlers are “high flyers” (or Luchadors) where others are brawlers. Today’s wrestling often features hybrid athletes who are able to do a little bit of everything. Even the “big men” like Wardlow or Lance Archer of AEW are expected to be capable of gravity defying feats. Moves, and the psychology and athleticism behind them, are the foundation upon which the joys of wrestling fandom are built.

The Promo

Steve Austin cuts the famous “3:16” promo that helped catapult him to super stardom.

A pro-wrestler has many tools at their disposal to articulate their character: entrance music, ring attire, and personalized merchandise like tee-shirts. But no tool is perhaps more important than the promo, an interview or monologue wherein a wrestler conveys their philosophy and their goals. Often, the piece of a promo that becomes synonymous with a wrestler’s identity is a catchphrase.

“Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass. And that’s the bottom line ‘cause Stone Cold said so.”

“If you smell what The Rock is cookin’!”

“You can’t see me!”

This ecstatic verbiage succinctly embodies the wrestler, and the fans anticipate hearing these words so that they can speak in unison. The unifying affect of professional wrestling is incredibly powerful and intensely felt at life events. Not unlike prayers and hymns, catchphrases are chanted as a way of confirming one’s faith in a particular performer. Fans also sing along to the entrance themes of wrestlers. This constant back and forth of words and phrases, combined with the visual stimulation of moves, fireworks, and videos allows pro-wrestling fans to enter a kind of ecstatic trance.

The good promo does more than recite a few catchphrases and announce the date and time of a particular match. The good promo inspires because it successfully connects with a raw, human nerve. A wrestler might tell a story about overcoming adversity and a fan will find a piece of themself in those words. Conversely, a wrestler might speak with disdain for the fans and elicit an equally passionate reaction back. This call and response is playful, with the fans sometimes being in on it and other times being genuinely perturbed.

Fans are free to engage with wrestling at whatever level they’re at - childlike wonder at face value or discerning adult with cultivated good taste. Pro-wrestling always works because it allows human beings to recite deep truths within the confines of a fantastical setting.

It’s Always There

It’s common for a pro-wrestling fan to have, at some point in their lives, fallen out of love with professional wrestling.

For me, it was in the early aughts when The Rock left to pursue a career as an actor. He was my idol as a teenager and I’d grown to associate wrestling with him. No Rock, meant no wrestling. Then, in College, I got back into it because my roommate, filmmaker Al Monelli was a fan. We watched Raw every week and he taught me the ways of Bret Hart and John Cena. After college, I stopped watching again until a certain belligerent wrestler articulated my frustrations with WWE with biting poetic grace.

CM Punk’s pipe bomb promo cracked open the world of professional wrestling. I learned new words like “work” (false/manipulation/not real) “shoot” (real/authentic) and “kayfabe” (to portray wrestling as if it’s real/stay in character/method acting). I started writing weekly Raw reviews. I found my voice in the larger pro-wrestling blogosphere and the work I did in those early days of my wrestling analysis still play a role in what I do today. Then I burnt out on articles and podcasts and arguments with other fans and I almost entirely blew up my own creation. I’d take a hiatus, but then get lured back, and I’d repeat that process several times, losing pieces of my audience along the way.

Then I started watching wrestling purely as a fan again. This stirred something inside me and I fell back in love with podcasting about wrestling. I now maintain a healthy distance from wrestling as I critique it and the result is over a year’s worth of weekly podcasts. And now I’m beginning a new adventure - writing at least one article a week.

The point is, pro-wrestling is always there for you whether you’re watching it or not. Sometimes wrestling gets incredibly repetitive or bleakly dull and you just need to stop watching until you hear about something that piques your interest. In that way, it’s a welcoming art, churning along happily without you but always eager for your return. I’ve come to find pro-wrestling comforting more than anything else. It offers a respite from the tumult in my mind and the stresses of the workday. It’s proof that people can fly and that good can triumph over evil. And the process of podcasting and writing about it similarly feels like home, a place where I can safely sharpen my analytical mechanism and pay respect to this art I love.

Conclusion

There are many more reasons professional wrestling fans love professional wrestling: the characters, the pay-per-views, the eras, ring-psychology, the violence, the list goes on.

But hopefully the list I developed here and the explanations I’ve provided offer a clearer insight into the mind of the pro-wrestling fan. If you are a fan and there are people in your life who still don’t understand your infatuation with pro-wrestling, send them this article.

If you’re a non-fan, hopefully you see why pro-wrestling being “fake” is in no way a deterrent. In fact, if you’ve paid attention to this piece, you’ll see a very simple thread running throughout.

We don’t think pro-wrestling is real.

We don’t even want it to be real.

We love professional wrestling precisely because it’s fake. It’s pro-wrestling’s fakeness that makes it spectacular. It’s the artifice of characters and conflicts, the spectacle of lights and shadows, and the grandiosity of its gimmicks that makes pro-wrestling a timeless, universally appealing art form. If it was real it would just be another mixed martial arts match, and that’s the exact opposite of what professional wrestling fans want.

So while some will always dismiss it as fake, more will always choose to believe.

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Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this article check out some others. You should also subscribe to my podcast The Work Of Wrestling (available wherever you get your pods every Monday). If you’d like to support me subscribe to my Patreon and you’ll get two exclusive podcasts every month. If you’re in need of a new wrestling tee-shirt visit my store at Pro-Wrestling Tees. Thank you again. May the Moment of Pop be with you!

Why We Love Professional Wrestling