Why I'm a Pro Wrestling fan.

I have often been asked why I love wrestling so much by family and friends. Having been pondering an answer for a long time, I came up with several different reasons as to why it fascinates me so much. In this blog post, we shall delve into the fascinating world of pro wrestling and why someone such as myself would come to love it so much. 

One of the first things I'd like to point out is the larger than life characters that inhabit the professional wrestling world and have done so for decades. Whilst it's true that there's characters in movies and television that can be larger than life or in what's classified as sports such as Muhammad Ali, Floyd Mayweather, Tyson Fury and Mike Tyson in the boxing world, much of these seem to fade into obscurity or become dull after some time. I'm not calling any of the names mentioned dull in any way shape or form just that most of those have with the exception of Fury, moved on or passed away. Professional wrestling is responsible for the way Muhammad Ali shaped his persona after having been inspired by the flamboyant actions of wrestler Gorgeous George. Ali met George at the age of 19 back when he still went by Cassius Clay and George reportedly told him to "keep on bragging, keep on sassing and always be outrageous." Much like Ali, a lot of personalities have been influenced by pro wrestlers and how could they not be? Take someone as popular as Macho Man Randy Savage for instance, he's instantly recognisable due to his signature and usually colourful (until the end of his career at least) attires, his oozing charisma and unforgettable promos. Macho Man could captivate just about anyone in the universe with his unforgettable style and promos such as the famous cream of the crop with Mean Gene Okerlund. 

                                             

Pro wrestlers have even transcended their field, not just Macho Man and his appearance as Bonesaw in Spiderman. For instance, Hulk Hogan was and still is also instantly recognisable to even non pro wrestling fans just for being as over as he was. Hogan of course also could be recognised for his unique receding blonde hair and handlebar moustache and is synonymous with yellow and red. His popularity was so big that he even got to star in a plethora of movies. Rocky 3 arguably was his finest hour in cinema as a lot of his movies weren't so great but hey, No Holds Barred was a least somewhat fun. Also, I can't get Hogan's dookie line OUT of my mind, it's hilarious. Let's not forget that he was also in one of the most instantly recognised wrestling factions of all time, the NWO. Someone not quite as controversial but arguably just as loved if not more, Stone Cold Steve Austin is known as one of the most over and badass wrestlers of all time. His signature look of a bald head with a goatee with black trunks and knee braces is iconic. He's also known for his promos and catchphrases such as Hell Yeah, That's The Bottom Line, What? and some classic matches with The Rock and Vince McMahon. I'll talk more about the Vince McMahon feud in a later paragraph. Steve Austin is still popular today and has starred in pretty decent movies including The Expendables, hosts his own podcast and even has tv shows such as The Broken Skull Challenge. He even had a pretty solid return match at Wrestlemania in his home state of Texas against Kevin Owens and the pop that he got made it evident that he is still a draw and extremely popular. Another person that transcended the world of professional wrestling is Dwayne The Rock Johnson. I'm sure I don't need to state just how big of a star The Rock is, just look at how busy he is, how many movies he stars in, his Under-armour partnership, the TechNyne collab which has become meme-like and other such stuff. John Cena is another example. Could these men have become popular without professional wrestling? Possibly, but it certainly helped them cultivate a fanbase. Plus if they didn't wrestle then we wouldn't have gotten The Rock's hilarious burial of Al Snow, the duets between him and Stone Cold, the People's Elbow, the epic matches and much more. You also have Antonio Inoki, the man who founded NJPW in 1972 and went on to become a politician. Now, you may have noticed that all of these wrestlers are no longer actively wrestling and might be wondering if there are any characters today. Yes, there are characters in wrestling today. Take Kazuchika Okada for instance, instantly recognised for his charisma, talent and look. Take one look at the Rainmaker and you can see he's a star, he oozes charisma and his in ring performances speak for themselves. Then you have the ever popular Ace, Hiroshi Tanahashi and his babyface personality and ability to sell better than most working today. Tanahashi's talent is what singlehandedly saved New Japan Pro Wrestling during it's darkest days. Bray Wyatt aka The Fiend aka Windham Rotunda is one of the most creative minds in the industry, his character work second to none. There's plenty of talent out there and I apologize for naming but a few. 

Inside and outside the ring, wrestlers are capable of telling interesting and compelling stories. It's much like action movies meet theatre in a sense. For a classic example of a truly wonderful story look at the Stone Cold vs Vince McMahon feud. The story of this feud worked wonders because it was somewhat believable. Stone Cold was a disgruntled yet badass employee who got sick and tired of his underhanded, manipulative boss. This was handled remarkably well in ring also as at St Valentine's Massacre for example, the two faced each other in a steel cage match. It was evident that Stone Cold was the stronger of the two and could win at anytime and yet, whilst beaten up time and again, Vince would flip him off and taunt the Rattlesnake. Naturally, Stone Cold went back to whoop Vince's behind some more and then more after. Never did it seem like Vince was that much of a physical threat to Austin and had to resort to cheap, underhanded tactics such as calling on the aid of Paul Wight. Why did this work so well? This feud was like a dream scenario for a lot of people around the world. There are tons of people who would love to stand up to their boss like Stone Cold stood up to Vince and some would love to smack them as well. Another more recent example is the story of Katsuyori Shibata vs Ren Narita. Now, the story of this match was that Katsuyori, an NJPW legend was returning to the ring after being away from it since 2017 and was thought to possibly never be able to wrestle again. Shibata returned and was looking to prove he's still as strong as he ever was whilst, up and coming young lion, Ren Narita was looking to prove that he's hungry and ready to take on the strongest NJPW has to offer. Simple but effective and powerful with Shibata's return being unexpected. As a huge Shibata fan, his return made me emotional. 

Now, I want to address an all too common complaint and argument about professional wrestling from critics and those non fans who throw shade at the business. The argument in question being the idea that professional wrestling is fake. Whilst, yes matches are often choregraphed and some look much worse than others such as matches with too much high flying and non believable moves. Yes, the wrestlers more often than not don't actually hate each other and are good friends behind the scenes with exceptions of course. They do a lot of acting and selling for sure and I'm not going to argue with that. However, it can't be denied that taking a bump in rings where underneath a thin mat is wood, sucks. I often state as such to those who put forth the fake argument and they soon shut up. The athleticism also can't be faked, just look at all of those who springboard off the ropes or perform top rope moves. These performers are athletes and have to dedicate themselves to training if they really want to become a wrestler. You can't fake jumping off a ladder, or being thrown off a cell even if there's people, tables or crashmats below to help break the fall. This brings me to the fact that every time wrestlers perform, they are risking their bodies in order to entertain their fans. Injuries occur all the time unfortunately due to the nature of the profession. One of the worst injuries that occurred was Hayabusa, the innovator of the Phoenix Splash, breaking his neck in 2001 following a botched moonsault. He had lost his footing whilst attempting to springboard and fell on his head, cracking two vertebrae and became paralysed. This also resulted in the closure of FMW as he was considered to be the heart and soul of the promotion. Whilst he did eventually manage to work again in 2015, he sadly passed away a year later due to a cerebral haemorrhage. Others have broken their necks in matches such as Sabu following a suplex from Tazz, Masahiro Chono following a sit out tombstone piledriver from Steve Austin before he was Stone Cold and Stone Cold himself after receiving the same move from Owen Hart. Speaking of the unfortunate Owen Hart, he was the victim of a tragic accident whilst performing as The Blue Blazer. He was being lowered to the ring during his entrance at Over The Edge 1999 when his harness came loose and he fell 78 feet, landing chest first onto the top rope. Despite paramedics best efforts, Owen Hart tragically died at the age of 34 due to internal bleeding from blunt force trauma. Performing and receiving moves can do damage to the brain as well. Just look up Chris Benoit's brain scans. His brain was severely damaged and was likened to that of a 85 year old Alzheimer's patient. He was also said to have had an advanced from of dementia. Katsuyori Shibata as mentioned earlier, suffered a severe injury after performing a headbutt on Kazuchika Okada at Sakura Genesis 2017. He completed the match but collapsed backstage and was rushed to hospital where it was discovered that he had a subdural hematoma. Due to severe dehydration as well as performing the headbutt, he also suffered some paralysis on the right side of his body. Fortunately, despite having been told that he may never wrestle again, he managed to beat all the odds and returned to in ring action. In 2023, he even won the ROH Pure title, which is awesome. I included this last because I wanted to end on somewhat of a positive note.