I am in Sports Marketing and Entertainment class…and today we were watching a documentary on WWF wrestling and we had to answer questions to the video and all that good stuff…and the main objective of the questions from the video were if wrestling was fake or not and if they were known as a sport, etc. The end of video made me wonder because they say that WWF wrestlers are athletes and that it is a sport and that its all fake…but only fake to the people who want and think that its fake. So do what do you all have to say about this? Do you think it is fake and all of it is coregraphed? It looks so fake to me when i watch it…but with the hitting with each with chairs, and how alot of them break bones and everything it makes me think that its not coregraphed, and thats its actually real.
Who, exactly, other than the odd second-grader, actually thinks that it isn’t a performance? It’s clearly there to make lots of money by entertaining the simpletons that enjoy grunting poseurs promoting the objectification of men and women alike. In any case, as entertainment goes, it’s pretty much crap, but (most) of the participants are quite obviously athletic; so I suppose it wouldn’t be a travesty to call them athletes.
So, is it fake? Only if you were under the impression that it was an actual prize-fight in the first place. Taking it at face value, it’s a real performance, with choreographed bits, and ad lib. bits alike. Remember, when you hit someone with a chair, it’s got a ton of surface area; that area catches air (and slows it down), spreads out the force of impact, and makes a lot of noise; I’m sure it stings, but if you are 80% muscle (or in at least one memorable instance, 80% fat), you can probably deal with it. Similarly, Owen Hart really died (by accident, of course), but apart from that, you can’t trust them to represent their injuries truthfully. If it serves a promotional purpose to appear wearing a cast, or to writhe on the floor like a wounded snake, they’ll do it.
Incidentally, the ex-WWF got in a little bit of trouble (with the other WWF—the one with the panda logo), and has been known as the WWE for the last few years.
Wrestling isn’t fake. It’s merely fixed. Even saying it’s choreographed is a bit of a stretch. While the outcome is written well in advance, and even how the match is ended (whether it’s clean, someone fights dirty, etc.) is planned out, everything done in a match is essentially ad-libbed, much like improv comedy. One person hits another (and believe me, they actually hit), and the other person sells it. Same with throws. These will eventually work into a small routine (generally known as a “spot”). This happens many times throughout a match.
I’m of the camp that says wrestlers are athletes. You have to be in top physical condition to do what they do week in and week out. Also, watch a cruiserweight match sometime. You see people flying everywhere. I’ve said it many times before: Show me a tennis player who can do a shooting star press (it’s a backflip off the top rope while you’re facing forward).
In conclusion: wrestling is not a sport. It is, however, performed by very athletic people.
EDIT: Tristan beat me to the punch (no pun intended). I’ll tell you now though: I do enjoy professional wrestling. But not for the objectification that you mention. I watch it because I know the two people are not actually fighting. You’ll never see me watch a boxing match because I know boxing is really two people fighting (not a knock on boxers, who I believe are very athletic themselves). I watch it because I enjoy the excelent athletics and the ad-libbed choreography, even if there’s no actual competition, and I’m personally offended that you think only simpletons would enjoy professional wrestling.
Courtney,
I know it is scripted, does that make it fake? Yes these people are atheletes, you couldn’t perform the way they do without the strength they maintain by daily activity and muscle training.
The punches and things like that are fake, but getting hit wit a chair isnt. I know for a fact that landing on thumb tacs hurts. Some of it is fake but most of it is real.
It is scripted, but not fake (well kinda) those guys do get seriously hurt occasionally and bruised after matches. What really bugs me though is when they “bleed.” You look closely and oh they’re fine right after they get hit them what oh the angle changes so you can’t see them. It comes back and WOA were’d all that blood come from.
I heard someone say once that when you goto the movies, the stuff you see on the screen isnt real
that they have people called ‘actors’ who only pretend to be secret agents and super heros and astronauts
and after they are done pretending for the day they all go home to normal lives in some place called ‘hollywood’
I told him, yeah right! dont you know some of those people in the movies really get hurts, sometimes they even die!
but he said they have people called stuntmen, like when a guy falls from a 50 story building, thats not really the person in the story, its a stuntman and he doesnt really die, he lands in a big air-pillow.
No WAY! I can tell by watching that all movies are documentarys, and everything you see on the screen is REAL!
You forgot sarcasm tags. 
Back on topic: define “real”. Because those stuntmen you mention do indeed take those hits, and plummet off 50 story buildings. The only difference is that it’s controled. Sounds oddly familiar too…
I’m merely describing some of the audience—and it’s my opinion that the WWE is primarily targeted toward that group. You have already excluded yourself from that category, by saying that you don’t enjoy the objectification. I’m not referring to every wrestling fan as a simpleton, though I trust that it’s not too far of a stretch to contend that a lot of them are. (And I’m only being elitist to exercise my hyperbole skills, which get far too little attention these days. 
)
couldnt you say this about all forms of entertainment?
Movies, TV, Nascar, football, baseball - the bottom line is entertainment
sports for example, how many times have the rules been altered in football and baseball and basketball to make the game more entertaining, more interesting to watch?
Why do we have draft-picks, forcing the best new talent to be spread out across the league, instead of letting the most wealthy team procure all the best players?
ANS: to keep the games entertaining.
Control is all relative. The only thing stopping the wrestler from getting injured is the wrestler himself. All of the energy dissipated through the way a person falls. It’s also annoying as hell when you fall incorrectly. I once had the wind knocked out of me and also broke my nose once when I fell incorrectly. Though I broke myself by kneeing myself in the face… I only say this from experience because I practiced the martial arts for six years. Other than that. It’s completely fake.
Guys,
When I said “scripted” it is from the TV experience I have. How do you think that the camera is able to get every chair hit, every person leaving the ring, everything that goes on outside the ring? It is in the script, camera shot sheets and it is rehearsed.
It depends upon your definition of fake. Major events during a match are scripted. The wresters generally know what will happen when and perform the rest of the match on the fly. Sometimes the referee will tell the wrestlers what to do.
What’s not fake is getting hit with a trash can, chair or taking a high fall through a table. However, that’s not to say what you’re seeing is real. The trash cans and tables are usually props. The chairs are not, but you will almost always see a wrestler block the chair with his hand so he is never directly hit. The trash cans are very flimsy and made out of very thin aluminum. The tables are pre-cut along the center in order for them to split in half. Does it hurt to land on a prop table? Oh yeah, but these guys train for the pain.
Don’t underestimate the camera. Going to see a wrestling match in person makes you realize how fake it is. The camera work is exceptional on how it gives a real feeling.
A professional wrestler is very similar to a stunt man. They know how to deliver punches, kicks and how to fall in order to not get severely hurt.
Say it ain’t so!
How can the cameras catch every single catch, every single touchdown at a football game? Are football games scripted, or do they just have a lot of cameras to watch everything?
Wetzel
Don’t forget that this is easer to do with wrestling because its recorded not live, football is just on a delay (especially to prevent viewing of certain “wardrobe malfunctions” he he :rolleyes: )
Monday Night Raw has been live for the past 6-7 years (yes, they used to do a recording earlier in the day until the now defunct Monday Nitro started reveiling what happened on Raw before it aired, Nitro itself being live since 1995. Quite humerous back in 1998), as are all the pay-per-view shows (all with the usuall 7-second delay).
Lot’s of cameras at football due to the extremely high viewer numbers and commercial sales. More than ten cameras is not unheard of at football with the Superbowl having more than twice that number. I think there were 27 cameras at last year’s game not including the “wire cam” above the field or the extra HD cameras for the HD presentation. Wrestling on the other hand gets by with less than five and quite often only three with one of those a lock down. Two handhelds get most of the action and when they want the announcers on camera a handheld might breakaway or a fixed position camera might spin around and get the announcer’s table. Monday games you have mentioned might have one or two more but they spend a lot of money on the ligthing and special effects too. Getting all that light into the air and above the audience takes a lot of people. The moving lights are controlled by computer that an expert preprograms for moves, cued by the director. Wrestling is a full up TV production and as such leaves nothing to chance.
Delays are expensive as well and are only used to prevent FCC action against the broadcaster. Since it is difficult to direct around a delay unit, they are used as needed (i.e. the half time show or interviews with fans) the rest of the time they are switched out.