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Professional Wrestling Is Not Fake
October 5, 2006 by David Mathie

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The reason why I'm writing this column is to give out my opinion on how professional wrestling performed and how many people see it.

I have had enough of people saying that wrestling is fake. Wrestling is not fake, it is choreographed, rehearsed, but one thing it is not is fake. I mean if it were fake, nothing would actually happen, and people wouldn't actually be hit, they would pretend to have moves done on them. Fake is something professional wrestling is not.

Now I bet you're all thinking why a random somebody is writing a column about this, but the reason why I'm writing this column is because I am a trainee wrestler, and I'm being taught by a professional. I would just like to inform you all that anyone says wrestling is fake, should step into a wrestling ring, and learn the tricks of the trade. Yes wrestling is choreographed as in learning the moves so you do not hurt yourself, we learn how to fall so we don't endanger ourselves in the ring, but if all of you who says that wrestling is fake actually decided to get into a wrestling ring and try and learn to wrestle you would realise that wrestling is not fake.

An example of this is when people say that steel chairs aren't actually steel, and they don't hurt one bit. As a matter of fact, the steel chairs WWE and other promotions such as TNA, ROH etc use, they are 100% steel, and when they hit, they do hurt. Personally, I haven't been hit with a steel chair yet, but my trainer says it does hurt, because if it didn't the wrestlers wouldn't need to put their hands up, and as he has been hit with steel chairs numerous times, he knows how it feels.

Another point which I would like to talk about is taking bumps (a bump is when you land of an opponents move such as a suplex, bodyslam etc). As we are trained as how to fall, taking bumps do not hurt, when we are suplexed or bodyslammed, we know how to land so the move does not hurt. We learn how to take bumps of numerous moves such as Triple H's Pedigree, The Undertaker's Tombstone Piledriver, and Carlito's Backcracker among hundreds more. There is numerous ways to land depending on the move you are receiving, and I can say from personal experience if the move is performed incorrectly, or you land wrong, the move does hurt. If wrestling was fake there wouldn't be so many injuries happening to wrestlers in all of the promotions out there.

I know how many millions of people in this world love wrestling and they love to wrestle, but turning to backyard wrestling is not only dangerous, but it gives the professionals a bad name. If you haven't been trained in a wrestling ring by a professional who knows what they are doing, you should not try any backyard wrestling. There is a reason why promotions everywhere tell you not to try this at home. Wrestling is an incredibly dangerous sport if you do not know what you are doing, but in the right hands, wrestling can be enjoyed, and performed safely.

However, I do understand why people say wrestling is fake, they don't know exactly what it entails. I have seen numerous people on internet forums argue and argue why they will never watch wrestling because they think it is fake, but what about movies, television and theatre. The many actors and actresses in this world play characters in order to bring a story to us which is entertaining, and at the end of the day they have real lives outside of television, movies and theatre, but no-one really criticises those actors and actresses for being fake. That is exactly what the likes of WWE & TNA do, but they actually incorporate athleticism into their operations.

Many people also say that wrestling is easy, to those people I say it may look easy on television, it may look hard, but you don't know what it is like until you actually experience it. From my personal experience, learning to wrestle is maybe the best thing I've ever done. I want to become a professional wrestler and I'm never going to give up my dream. Wrestling takes years of training in the ring, eating the right foods, attending the gym and working out, and that's before you even become a professional.

Yes maybe matches are rehearsed and the winners are predetermined, but the reason for this is if it was real, the wrestlers would be severely injured and maybe even killed. The likes of Mick Foley as an example, whenever he goes out there, he doesn't want to cheat the fans out of ticket prices, so if he has to get thrown off of a cell, put through a cell, thrown off stages, put on fire or even having thumbtacks in his body he does it for the fans. Professional wrestling is all about the fans, without you, there would be no wrestling.

I'd like to thank you all who took your time to read this column.

By David Mathie..

Stephan W. Hall wrote:
To put into shorter text David. The stories are fake, but the pain is so real. I have been hit with a chair before, gone through a bed of thumb tacks, even tore my ACL in the ring before. Nothing of this was fake. Anyone who says so to me or to anyone else. I dare them to step into the ring an try it for yourself. Just the training for wrestling is so painful, and mentally exhausting. I commend you for writing this article as it does bring meaning to people who believe this business is fake.

Chunkymo6 wrote:
You are absouletly right wrestling is not fake. Everytime I hear someone say wrestling is fake i fell like punching their teeth out. Of course the stars are trained to take bumps and shots. But in the unfornuate event of a screwing up a move or stunt the hazards are 1000% real. Wrestlers do not only take a beating in the ring. The severe part of the job is traveling. It causes exhaustion and it really makes the wrestlers cranky. By the way this column was great

Tony wrote:
I always here that argument about movies(tv, plays, etc(is there more)) and wrestling but the difference here is that TV and Movies aren't saying that what their doing is real, like you never hear Brad Pitt claiming that being in that Fight Club was so crazy, or Jamie Lee Curtis saying how terrified she was when Mike Myers chased her that one time in the 70's.

Now I'm a wrestling fan, but I do accept that it is fake(mostly), definition of fake(encarta dictionary):
something not genuine: somebody who or something that is not genuine but is presented as, or appears to be, genuine

Back to the movie argument, no one claims that these stars have lived the lives they play out in the movies. They are acting and everyone acknowledges it, Edward Norton is not going around claiming that he had this crazy time in his life in the 90's where he was a racist, as well as an insomniac with a split personality disorder, nor is he claiming that he does all of the stunts in his movies.

However Pro Wrestling does for the most part claim that there is actual competition and that the wrestlers are really hurting each other intentionally. WWE does try to get away from this occasionally and Vince has outed Wrestling on a few occasions but they still make no attempt to make this widely known. They do make their wrestlers stay in character beyond the show which takes things to another level of fake. The whole pain thing, I'll give you that, the pain is not fake and people who are permanently injured like Droz as well as folks like Kurt Angle who are or have been reliant on pain killers prove that, but the fact that pain is supposed to be limited does make pro wrestling fake.

Stephen Broughton wrote:
Let me say, That I have never read a more on the Mark story than yours on Obsessed as yours. I trained for 9 months before I had my 1st match. I have been hit my Steel Chairs "YES THEY HURT" I have been hit by a kendo Stick right in the top of my head. My 1st gig was the Kendo shot I took in Training. It opened my head about a 3 inch gash. Yes you learn how to Bump and learn how to take certain moves but let me say to anybody that wants to step in the Ring with You or I or anybody else that is trained Correctly to come on and I am betting that the Words "WRESTLING IS FAKE" Will be saying "Oh My God nothing fake about it" Excellent Article!!!!

Brian Bertrand wrote:
You're preaching to the choir here, Dave. I have been down that road before and it's a hell of a lot more real than what many of those people who talk down about it say. The training needed to just get ready to get in the ring and get those matches through are tough alone without even putting any moves on their opponents. I learned that professional wrestling is not only a story in the ring but outside, it's a type of martial art. So even if you don't get in the ring, you can still hurt someone given the right moment without any planning.

You mentioned how people say that the chairs aren't real. I'll give you a perfect example of what you can use:

3/5/2004 - APW Garage Rumble II - During a promo between Christopher Daniels and JJ Perez, Perez attacks Daniels and Daniels spinbusts Perez onto the back of a steel chair. Yes, THE BACK of the steel chair. That night I believe Perez really messed up two of his vertebrae and still came back out to take on AJ Styles, the surprise guest that evening. That's not only great spirit but that's a lot of balls to get hurt like that and still come back out for a full-blown wrestling match...even if it was a jobber match.

Micael Holm wrote:
Finally some1 writs this column... I agree with what you're saying , i actually can't understand how some people actually is saying that Pro. Wrestling is fake ... really if they think it's fake they should test how it feels being Body Slammed , or something ,, and i also hear people say that the blood in Pro. Wrestling isn't real , I wonder how the Pro. Wrestlers feel about that, if they hear it , that the blood they're bleeding , that people think that is fake ,, and that nothing really hurts .

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