Odd, I know, as most wrestling conversations happen behind closed doors or in the dark, damp, cavernous basement of your mother’s house.
For many teenagers, wrestling becomes the first expendable portion of their life when they come of age and have the need to impress the opposite sex. They can never know you spend your nights watching the Undertaker tombstone piledrive his latest victim into the mat rather than doing crunches and trying to make your hair perfectly Bieber-esque.
One of the only times it is culturally acceptable to speak publically about wrestling is during “WrestleMania Season,” where the WWE puts on their “Superbowl” of sorts. Basically, eccentric billionaire Vince McMahon throws millions of dollars into one gigantic wrestling event, bringing in musical acts, celebrities and wrestling-heroes into one location for a week-long nerd gathering.
But why has wrestling gone from an American pastime to a social albatross?
The most common argument is, “Because it is fake.” But what popular show on television today isn’t fictional? From the latest zombie mega-hit to anything that MTV has ever broadcasted, most shows are fictional and scripted much like wrestling.
Aside from humor, what difference is there between watching the Rock get punched in the face and watching Snooki get slapped in the face? The answer is nothing, because they are both scripted for entertainment purposes.
“It isn’t a sport” also makes a frequent appearance in the wrestling debate. It may be true, but is it any less of a sport than say, cheerleading? Perhaps bowling? I’d go as far as to say that it is more of a sport than boxing, at least they accept that the endings are fixed and just hope people enjoy the athleticism regardless.
Surprisingly, pro-wrestling shares the most similarities with America’s biggest sport, football. They both have concussion and steroid epidemics, many athletes cross over from one to the other and their biggest events draw in millions of viewers.
So as WrestleMania approaches this Sunday, sit back, relax and try to enjoy the show as you would any of your other programs. You might even be surprised.