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Real or Fake?: The Truth About Professional Wrestling

Steve MannContributor IJuly 8, 2007

Many people feel wrestling is fake.

 

Is it?

 

Let me answer with a story.

 

 

Of course, the blood was fake, because the match was choreographed.

 

My short answer to the question, then:

 

Is wrestling choreographed?

 

You bet.

 

Is it fake?

 

NO.

And you're probably wondering what the difference is.

 

When wrestlers enter the ring, they already know who's going to be the winner, and the whole match is choreographed to that end. Very much like a Broadway play.


The difference between a wrestling match and a Broadway play, though, is that stunts can go terribly wrong in wrestling. The most tragic example that comes to mind is that of Owen Hart, who died when his harness failed during a choreographed descent into the ring.

 

Try telling wrestlers like Mick Foley, who had his ear ripped off in the ring, or Scott Steiner, who was kicked in his throat during a match and required emergency surgery to repair his damaged trachea, that wrestling is "fake."

Wrestlers, at their best, are master illusionists: Fans want to see specific things happen in the ring, and wrestlers, as experts in their craft, make them see it.

 

You see what they want you to see, not what's truly happening!

Lets remember what WWE stands for, after all: World Wrestling Entertainment.