Column: Wrestling Is Fake, But So Is Everything Else
Vince openly calls the WWE entertainment.
Because wrestling has been openly exposed as predetermined, many people simply shun it without taking in to account the athleticism, acting/improv skills and the real creativity it takes to tell a good story in the ring, whilst feeding off the crowd; yet alone the dedication it takes to get a good body and the hellacious travel schedule wrestlers have to keep.
John Cena, the Kids Idol.
Going by WWE’s product right now, you can obviously see why people above the age of 14 make a mockery of it. I mean the average Joe is not going to know about the territory era, understand how guys like Ric Flair can call it in the ring without rehearsals or scripts, nor have any concept that there is the Indy scene, Lucha Libre and Purescu styles of wrestling. To them wrestling is that fake kiddy WWE stuff. To really appreciate wrestling you have to know what came before WWE and what currently runs alongside them, all whilst filtering the crap from the really good stuff. It’s ignorance, but you can’t blame them.
So wrestling is fake, big whoop! This article is here to explain what else is fake, yet doesn’t seem to get the same negative attention that wrestling does.
Talk Shows:
Talk shows in a lot of cases are just wrestling shows with average looking people and less physical violence. In fact I’d say it’s even phonier than wrestling in some aspects. The basic premise is that there is an issue between two guests, that gets dramatized on camera in front of an audience. Whether the subject of the show or the heat between the guests is real or not (a lot of the time it is completely fabricated), they get paid, the show is post produced to pick out the best bits and the host riles up the situation.
Springer is a work people!
As part of one of my college courses I got to sit in the audience of a Trisha Goddard show, and couldn’t believe what a “dog an pony” show it was. We were told when to clap, when to boo, in some cases what questions to ask and there were multiple takes of certain “scenes”. At least in wrestling the fans are real and on Mondays it’s live!
Ironically several less well known pro wrestlers have appeared on the likes of Jerry Springer over the years, going by fake names and arguing issues that didn’t exist. So the real chat show is borrowing fake pro wrestlers? Hmmm.
Next time mom tells you to stop watching that fake garbage on TV, tell her only when she turns off her favorite chat show!
Reality TV:
Much in the vein of Talk Shows, reality TV, which has become all the rage right now is equally just as hammed up as anything wrestling has ever done. First off the producers decide what bits to edit together at the end of shooting, so already things have been taken out of context or are dramatized to fit with whatever twisted theme they want. Secondly people clearly act differently when they know a camera is on them. A true documentary or piece of reality TV would be a secret camera recording a full unedited period of time. On top of this most reality shows have hosts or narrator’s of some form that twist the truth or put across to the audience what the producers want them to, and once again if there are portions with a live audience, they are probably getting cues just like I did when I was at the chat show.
Now if you take all that and apply it to non scripted situations, it is still pretty much fake. For example, film something with your cell phone, cut the middle out, do some narration and then add a soundtrack. It will probably evoke an entirely different emotion than the raw unedited footage.
Hmm why do these captures look like they are from a bad soap?
That’s fake enough without vomit worthy reality shows like The Hills, that in all honesty play out like a baaaaaaad soap opera. Do some digging and you’ll easily find info about how the show is scripted. But to be honest after watching it what did you expect? It’s awful.
There’s once again irony hear as pro wrestler The Miz was recently seen canoodling with The Hills star Lauren Conrad.
Boxing & MMA:
It makes me laugh when the Boxing or MMA (UFC) fans run wild on pro wrestling. Those sports have tonnes of fake elements to them. Why is that at every weigh in or press conference the fighters end up with an issue or have to be held apart from a brawl? Because it is freaking fake! Boxing and MMA promoters use this as their selling point or hook to get you interested in the fights. This is pro wrestling 101. It just so happens that what actually happens inside an MMA or Boxing ring is generally a legitimate contest. Or is it?
Kimbo/Abbot Weigh In.
Well strictly speaking it is, and I’m not here to argue otherwise. I like wrestling for far different reasons than I like MMA and Boxing. But! In these “real” sports, promoters book the fights that will sell the most tickets, promoters often give marketable fighters easy opponents to keep them hot, and they use hype videos, post produced interviews and personal information to get you emotionally attached just like pro wrestling. All of which is phony to some degree.
I have news for you, boxing promoting and wrestling promoting grew out of the same formula. Fat cat sleaze balls looking to make a buck by any means necessary, by showcasing something they could market as “spectacular” in a ring. However, where wrestling chose to take a performing arts route, boxing chose to take a fighting route. Boxing still has a seedy underbelly of false drama and hype, and that’s without mentioning illegal fight fixing, referees getting paid off and boxers “taking a dive”. UFC and MMA aren’t completely free of this either. Kimbo Slice got fed several worthless opponents (they may as well have taken a dive), and on certain occasions referee decisions have been extremely questionable.
Lets all suck it!
Irony note: Remember when Japanese wrestler Antoni Inoki fought Mohamed Ali? Or when Mike Tyson and Money Mayweather did Wrestlemania?
Soccer:
Match fixing in boxing and MMA is not widespread, but in Italian Soccer? You may as well bet on who you think is taking the dive, not on who you think will win legitimately. Money in football (I’m British so deal with it) is big business. Millions get pissed all over the place. You have strange foreign investors buying teams, high profile sponsors, merchandising deals, and players themselves are owned by god knows how many brands. It is all in the best interest of somebody, for one team to win. It all depends of who is offering which team the most to lose. This is even more rampant when gambling is involved.
Juventus were relegated to the lower ranks for match fixing.
Betting companies are multi-billion dollar companies and I can assure you that matches are being fixed. Let me show you a scenario. Real Madrid vs Celta Vigo. Real Madrid’s win is valued at say 1 to 30 (you get $30 if you bet $100). Now this match seems pretty easy and everyone can make a lot of money if they bet for the favorites Real Madrid. The betting companies calculate all the possible scenarios. If Madrid wins, they lose $50 million dollars, if Real loses they win $30 million dollars! Now when there is a possibility to make money, why should they payout $50 million? They are after all slick haired bastards that pray on people’s addictions. They simply give $10 million dollars to Real Madrid and everything is alright. Also Don’t forget that most of the biggest clubs are being sponsored (you can check that on their shirts) by the biggest betting companies. If only one player compromises the match, the result will definitely be negative. Also there are a lot of stories where key players have admitted that they bet regularly (using their relatives or friends).
Former Chelsea football manager José Mourinho is often spotted bringing his kids to watch wrestling on the European tours. Maybe it gives him ideas?
The News/ Morning TV:
You’re probably thinking, well how the hell can the news be fake? Well the raw news itself is generally factual, but when you get those morning TV shows, or those garbage Fox News debates it is not unheard of to have actors do the phone ins, or play “expert” when producers can’t find an expert or the show is so crappy that nobody watching has phoned in to comment.
Nancy Disgrace: I don’t read the news I cut promos.
This is even more prevalent for competitions, and recently in the UK a lot of people got busted for this type of behavior. Hell, kids TV is the worst for this type of thing. I had a buddy when I was 10 who got chosen to take part in a kids show called “Get Your Own Back,” where kids do fun obstacle courses and puzzles so their parent can get dumped in a pool of gunk. Only problem was he had to use an actor as his parent! And no the host wasn’t Koko B.Ware.
This is not Koko B.Ware
A fine example of how inept the news stations are was during the Benoit tragedy, or any wrestling tragedy for that matter. “It must have been steroids, here’s our expert guest…..Brian Christopher!”
Music:
Lip syncing, computerized voice editing, backing singers, staged band fights, rappers deliberately getting shot for fame, stolen lyrics, manufactured bands. The music industry also has a lot of fake elements to it. And don’t get me started on Pop/American Idol. They know who they want to win from the first week and market the show that way, and then they just exploit the poor no hopers for comedic purposes. “Ohhh ma mum died two months ago and I want to fulfill the dream for her.” Although these types of stories may be true, boy do the producers know how to milk them for votes.
We are as good at judging as WWE’s referees.
Next you have bands and their “gimmicks”. Look at Kiss and their wrestling like pyro and make-up. Or what about those generic anarchist Punk Rockers that are in every town. “We don’t give a fuck mannn.” It’s all an act to sell CDs. It always makes me laugh when half of the drug dealing hustlers on the rap charts are actually graduates of stage school. Then of course you have those floppy haired pretentious University wankers that are too cool for the pop charts, but strangely end up getting played by every dreamy eyed school girl the world over. Or you have the drugged up rockers that make incoherent tracks, which are sold consistently at a lower volume and bought by those that think because it makes no sense and the pop charts don’t play it, that it must be amazing and only they know what good music is.
Did you know that evil Idol judge Simon Cowell was behind the 80s WWF Piledriver album?
Conclusion:
Whether it’s TV, sports, music, news or politics we are being fed bullshit on a daily basis. At least wrestling isn’t afraid to admit it. Once you get passed the “its fake”argument, maybe you can appreciate what really goes in to it.
It doesn’t get more real than Ric Flair’s retirement.
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Categories: Columns and Editorials, Editorial: Keelan's Call, New World Order, Wrestling News Archive
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wrestling is so not that fake well as a matter of fact not at all i been a wwe fan or any wrestling brand fan for a long time so i don’t care what any of you out there has to say!!!!!!!princess.
*sigh* did you even read the column?
Good stuff!
Here, here. To be honest I didn’t even read it all, ’cause I heard and read a lot of it before. All very true, it’s nice to see someone actually write it down in the argument for why wrestling is not to be overlooked. I’ve always liked the phrase “Wrestling is fixed not fake.” Which as you pointed out int he bits I did read, and I’ms ure you did in the bits I didn’t so is everything else, even politics.
Epic Article, makes a ton of good points and draws comparisons across industry lines many people overlook. oh and lolz to:
“Talk shows in a lot of cases are just wrestling shows with average looking people and less physical violence.”
ive been arguing this fact since i was in the 5th or 6th grade thanx for posting this column maybe this will shut some of the Naysayers up
Best wrestling column I’ve ever read I think. If I lived anywhere near England I would find you and give you a hug.
I know a lot of people who need to read this…
MMMM c’mon unless you’re 6yrs old then you MUST know wrestlings fake and personally who cares, I’ve been watching WWF/WWE since it was first shown here in the UK in the 80’s on CH4 (Sky now) and I watch it for the pure entertainment value I could be sat on my arse watching some crappy soap opera once a week wondering if Steve’s gonna tell Betty he’s gay etc etc…but NO I prefer to watch this soap opera instead it’s so much better to watch somebody wailing on someone else, Oh and there’s the Divas
That’s the point. Everyone knows its fake, but don’t really understand it,and thus make a mockery of it when other things are just as convoluted.
*virtual hug*
Even though wrestling is fake, I still watch it because its entertainment. Now them other shows like Jerry Springer is clearly fake. Some of the stories people tell on there sound scripted and just plain silly. The Hills is so scripted its crazy and don’t get me started on that damn American Idol. Way to fake for my eyes and ears. Of cross wrestling is scripted, like come on do you think Randy would actually put his hands on Stephanie just like that. Noooooo
I thought this article really hit home. This just makes me think of all the times peeps say to me that wraslin crap is fake and fixed, and I say wow, WWE say the same thing and thats why I like calling it entertainment. Then I say let me put you in the angle ankle lock and see if I can break your ankle or any other wrestling fake submission hold, lol, which if the wrestlers really applied pressure their counterparts would legitimately tap out
Excellent article!
The old wrestling adage, “If it’s on TV, it’s a work” totally applies to everything else on the tube, as well.
The news media is guilty of the sin of omission. Not so much what they show you but what they DON’T show you…and what they show you instead. Do you honestly believe you see a report on the evening news about Brad Pitt’s divorce because there is nothing else to talk about?
Television does NOT exist to inform. It’s there to generate advertising dollars. At least professional wrestling is honest about it and doesn’t pretend to be something it is not. Even during the Kayfabe era, professional wrestling never claimed to keep you informed or to make the world a better place (although Vince would probably premature ejaculate at the mere suggestion that people would think of WWE as such, lol).
Take it all with a grain of salt, folks, because professional wrestling will NEVER be respected and the people who bag on it as being “fake” will never stop. And really: Who Cares??? I, for one, don’t need the acceptance or opinions of others to validate what I enjoy.
Neither do you.
This Is What Say All The Time!!!It’s Not Fake Its Scriped,cuz the still go out thier and get thrown around.even though they don;t get hit or land as hard as you think they still feel it when it happens and still get hurt doing so the ungratfull critis and fans have something to watch besides reality idol ect…
P.S.
“The Commander-in-Chief answers him while chasing a fly
Saying, ‘Death to all those who would whimper and cry’
And dropping a bar bell he points to the sky
Saving, ‘The sun’s not yellow it’s chicken’”
-Bob Dylan, “Tombstone Blues”
Dylan saw “everything being fixed” mass misdirection coming forty years ago.
That’s supposed to be “SAYING, ‘The sun’s not yellow it’s chicken’”
I always go to action movies with this argument. Lots of people don’t even know that WWE admits it’s fake. They say “You know it’s fake, they should say it so people don’t try it at home.” And I always reply that they do but it’s not like they are going to say it at the beginning of every match or segment. It’s like someone popping up in an action movie and going; “You know this is a stunt right, that’s a different person, that wasn’t a real kick, etc…” It’s obvious that it isn’t real but you don’t need someone shouting about it every five seconds because it’s all about suspension of disbelief.
As you said at the beginning, most people condemn wrestling out of ignorace, that’s why The Wrestler is such a great movie, because even if it paints the wrestling business in a sort of negative light it educates people about some of the backstage stuff that makes wrestling, in my opinion, the best form of entertainment out there.
Brilliant article,i even sent this around to some of my work colleges who mock wrestling. I made myself laugh yesterday, i was speaking about wrestling and someone said well its fake why do you watch it?
My reply was “You watch Eastenders? Thats fake?”
Ha ha. Eastenders. Mae Young would whoop Dot Cotton’s ass!
awesome keelan
the best column i have ever red and any one who mock wwe i will throw this column on his face and after he will read it i will ask him “whats your opinion now”
Here, here! I agree wholeheartedly with the entire article, but you forgot a category: magazines/books (in particular autobiographies). While I love magazines and at one point wanted to work in the industry, you have to take most of what is published in the gossip magazines with a grain of salt. Even some respected magazines come into question over their legitimacy, such as Vanity Fair with the Miley Cyrus nude shots and Lindsay Lohan revoking what she said about having an eating disorder in the magazine in 2006. Whether the magazine or the celeb was telling the truth, there was a level of fakeness there no matter what. As for books, need I say more than the name “James Frey”?
I love people who after i tell them i watch wrestling say ” YOU DO KNOW ITS FAKE?” To which i respond “Fake you find me a fake table and ill fake slam u through it