Wrestling

I believe I am one to give all things a fair chance. This comes from how I was raised. At dinnertime, when it came to trying new foods, my parents’ policy was that we always had to “at least try it.” If we didn’t like it, we didn’t have to eat it; however, we did have to at least try a little taste. I think I have more-or-less adopted this as my life policy: try all things in, at the very least, “little tastes” before making judgments about them. This does not mean that I have no preconceived notions about things, but it does mean that before I make up my mind about them, I am determined to experience them, first.

I say this all to preface my first—and most likely only—experience with WWF-style “professional” wrestling. Now I, like most non-wrestling watchers, have always had the outsider opinion that this sport is pretty dumb. From what I knew of it, it seemed overly showy, unnecessarily hyped-up, and at the very least, degrading to women. However, I had all of these opinions based on heresy; up until last night, I had never actually watched any televised wrestling matches.

One of my suitemates, Tom, is a huge fan of professional wrestling. In the way that much of my childhood was spent making up fake soap operas with Barbie dolls, much of his childhood was spent performing fake wrestling moves on a trampoline with his friends and family members. Last night, “The King of the Ring”—a wrestling championship of some sort—was televised on USA and Tom, an avid wrestling fan, sat down to watch it. I felt a little lazy, having just turned in my honors thesis, and I was a bit interested in knowing what appealed to him about this sport, so I sat down with him to watch one of the matches.

Let me begin by saying that my initial impressions were fully accurate. Everything about this “sport” is over-dramatized. First of all, it is almost more of a soap opera than soap operas themselves. The bulked-up, shiny men make all of these dramatic faces and huge motions that anyone in any real fight would never waste their time making. They jump around and swing their limbs and perform these “macho” moves that are completely silly when you consider that this is supposed to be a competition and not just an imitation of a competition. They grit their teeth and glare at each other, and then they pull one another off the mat just to knock each other down again. It makes no sense!

I simply do not understand the appeal of watching this…well, I cannot even call it a sport, because it’s not real competition. The entire thing is staged! If I want to watch acting, I’ll watch something with plot, something that keeps me in real suspense that has a storyline and character development. If I want to watch feats of true athleticism and competition, I’ll watch a real sport like basketball or football or the Olympics. “Professional wrestling” is neither one of these. I honestly do not understand what people get out of watching it, particularly because these “people” are most often men! There’s no way they can possibly enjoy watching two overweight muscle-laden sweaty guys jumping on top of each other and sitting on one another’s heads in any sexual way, is there?

So I have had my “taste” of wrestling, and it’s been plenty for me. The mystery will remain.