Is it Fake? Yeah, Is That a Problem?

Roderick+Strong+trying+to+avoid+a+moonsault+by+%E2%80%9Climitless%E2%80%9D+Keith+Lee+during+WWE%E2%80%99s+NXT.

Image from WWE

Roderick Strong trying to avoid a moonsault by “limitless” Keith Lee during WWE’s NXT.

Please picture this: you’re at the Barclays Center on a Friday night, you’re surrounded by thousands of people chanting “YES, YES, YES!”

There’s lights, lasers, video screens, there’s even entrance music! Suddenly, then the lights turn off, the fans start chanting “Let Him In!”

The lights turn back on, wrestlers attack their opponents and laughter fills the arena.

Those were the closing moments of the Dec. 20 edition of Smackdown, WWE’s A-show (the brand that’s deemed more important.). If you have no idea about anything you just read, allow me to explain; you just read about pro wrestling.

Most people who are reading this right now are probably asking themselves, “Isn’t it fake?” and they’d be right, if it was a movie like “Star Wars.” But that doesn’t make sense because everyone knows “Star Wars? is fake, but everyone still loves it, so why are wrestling fans always reminded that it’s fake? We get it! It’s fake! Who cares?!

Maybe it’s because everyone sees the clips of Botch-Sin Cara, or videos of wrestlers not actually hitting each other. The word “fake? is the wrong word to use, scripted is a far more appropriate word to use for wrestling.

Full disclosure, I have two brothers and they argue about wrestling.

Connor says, “It’s scripted, but it’s also real. They have to actually do those athletic things-stunts.”

Luke says it’s “Common knowledge that it’s fake.” He still likes it, but not as much as Connor or me.

You know what’s not fake? Getting hurt, breaking a bone, dislocations, etc. Wrestling is the only sport that tells its viewers not to try anything they see and that it is done by trained professionals. WWE has no off season. It’s on for 52 weeks every year.

When one thinks of, say, American football, they think of the NFL. For baseball, it’s the MLB, basketball, NBA, yada yada yada. But with wrestling, there’s many different groups that come to mind. Here’s six promotions out of many: PWG, NWA, CMLL (Active since 1933), AEW, NJPW, and the WWE.

You can watch WWE’s Raw, and Smackdown on USA on Mondays at 8 p.m. and the same time on Fox on Fridays respectively. If you’re looking for something different you can catch AEW on TNT and WWE’s NXT on USA on Wednesdays on 8 p.m.

Wrestling may seem fake to some people, but for the tried and true fans, it’s a lot of fun. If you’re truly a wrestling fan, any of these organizations will entertain you.