Why Professional Wrestling is a perfect blend of performance and reality

“Professional Wrestling is fake”, said my good-meaning but uninformed dad, oblivious of the fact how it will affect the memories I had made with pro wrestling over the past 2 years. “What do you mean by John Cena is not the strongest man alive and the champ because the company wants him to be”, I shouted, running towards my bedroom. But even after 9 years, my interest has dwindled little, if at all in the “sport” of wrestling. And that is because you get to enjoy the best of both worlds. Wrestling is scripted, so is all the entertainment that we enjoy. Without storylines, wrestling will be just an event with people just fighting in let's assume an octagon surrounded by a steel cage, and honestly who would watch that, am I right? Keeping UFC banter aside, a big boon the pro wrestling scene has that it can tell whatever story it likes, and make us invested in their story, like a David vs. Goliath story, a rich brash aristocrat who developed an inclination to wrestle in his free time, or a die-hard American which will infuse patriotism in millions of Americans by beating a foreign heel in a flag match at Summerslam. And that is how the weekly television is made interesting. Wrestlers calling out their opponents, throwing jabs at each other, attacking their friends, or their family for extra spice, to make us want them to beat the pulp out of each other. But once they are in the ring, the sport takes the front seat. In television and movies, actors get multiple takes, but in wrestling there is only one shot, if they don’t want to botch a move and become a meme, or worse, being called an “Awful Wrestler”. It is the moves, the flow, the chemistry of the wrestlers which make each match unique, and better yet, even a match between the same wrestlers feels new. The closest thing I can relate is live theatre, where the artists perform in front of an audience, but even there, you see a theatre act, go home happy. In wrestling, you are left wanting more even if it is the same people involved. Sometimes the story may be not very good (did not want to use cusswords), but the match would be 5-star match. Wrestling can make sure their stories are excellent, but it is the caliber of the wrestlers which makes the impending match great, and give a satisfying end to the story. Hence it is coming together of these 2 aspects which draw the fan towards the appropriately named “sports entertainment”

And come on what would you prefer, a 2-hour movie, or a 20-minute fast-paced match?