Wrestlers Do Not Fake Characters

When it comes to wrestling, this “emotion” from superheroes are enhanced because wrestlers are real-life people. They are not fake characters, they truly exist. They don’t have super powers, they eat, drink and sleep like all the others. The fact that they are not fake characters, make people even more fascinated to wrestling because the strength, the power, the intense emotion wrestlers convey are the things people feel when they watched superheroes. The fight of wrestlers are intense and extraordinary like the fights of superheroes. Their bodies are like the body of Hercules, and with that body they perform extremely dangerous and violent skills to fascinate the audience.
Yes, wrestling is a nice spectacle that entertains the audiences.
However, it is hard to say that wrestling is not a sport just because wrestlers act a storyline and the results are scripted. In order to make the “spectacle” spectacular, wrestlers are not afraid to perform dangerous scenes even though it can seriously hurt themselves.
Thus, wrestlers in real life have so much injuries and these injuries are not fake. Through his documentary “Beyond the Mat”, Barry Blaustein shows the other side of the professional wrestlers. The side that audiences don’t know. Even though the moves that wrestlers perform are formed to minimize the damage that wrestlers get, it still cause serious pain to the wrestlers. Furthermore, the chairs, the steel cage and the hammers cannot be fake. Thus, most of the wrestlers have serious injuries. The blood from the wrestlers are not fake. Due to numerous bumps happened throughout the match, wrestlers also have serious damage in their brains. Blaustein shows the case of two hardcore wrestlers, Mick Foley and Terry Funk. Both are legendary wrestlers mainly because of their hardcore performances. They throw their bodies to steel bars, they torch each others face and they hit each other with hammers. Since these are impossible for normal people to endure, people cheered for them. However, as mentioned, they are real people. The injuries they have are not fake. They have family. Their families has to suffer
because of these injuries and they have to watch their husband and father are beaten up by others. To direct a spectacle, the scene must have differences compare to non-spectacle. To make these differences, wrestlers have to carry the pain for the rest of their lives. Both Mick Foley and Terry Funk wrestled and played their role as if they were the real characters. They know what people wants. Strong actions, strong emotions and real fight. The performance they showed was not 100% real however the effort, the idea and the train they had are all real. The “feeling” that people got from these player’s match is not so different from the feeling they get when they see a soccer match.
Not only, because of the effort of the wrestlers, wrestling still have numerous similar points when we compare it to real sports.
An article from the website ‘faze’ it discusses whether wrestling has the elements of sports or not. And they agreed that wrestling is clearly a sport. “While they may watch the program in whole or in part for the shenanigans, the action in the ring involves athletics, competition (however unorthodox) and a winner and loser.” Even though they are acting and most of their actions are exaggerated, the movements they show on the canvas ring is real. They hit each other, they jump on to the opponent’s body and the bleeding situations are real. Furthermore, in order to refuse serious injuries, wrestlers go through countless rehearsals with each other. Marvelous spectacle can be only made when two wrestler’s chemistry works well on the ring. Otherwise audiences cannot concentrate because the match itself won’t look like a real fight. This aspect of wrestling is also similar to that of team sports. Without teamwork, fine spectacle cannot be
made.
Professional wrestling is scripted and the results are predetermined. To be a fine spectacle, wrestlers exaggerate their moves and expressions in order to convey the “emotion” to the audiences efficiently. Like Monro does when she writes her story, wrestlers build a house with the ‘feeling’ inside which they want the people to feel. By this “emotion”, people may relieve stress or even can have a new dream. People who criticize that wrestling is fake must remember that the blood, the sweat and the injuries that wrestlers have to carry on are not fake. It is real. In order to perform and make their story for the audience, endless training and rehearsals are followed. And people must remember that this “emotion” that wrestlers convey is not different from the feeling they get through real sports. Wrestling is a not only a fine spectacle, but it is also a true sport.