Is It Real, Fake, Or Are The Lines Blurred?
Bruce Collins
February 06, 2007
Everyone knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that professional wrestling is fake. Yet, when I was promoting the, ahem, sport, I was asked that very question time and time again. Is professional wrestling fake? They already knew the answer but they wanted confirmation.
I always replied that wrestling is neither real nor fake but choreographed. How’s that for fancy footwork?
So, the night of my first big event, at the ailing San Jose Civic Auditorium (surpassed long ago as a suitable venue for the more ‘important’ events), I was very green at discerning between the legitimate and the faux catastrophes. Just like you, I figured it was all phony.
I had seen a few Oscar worthy, pain filled shuffles as the war weary grapplers returned from the squared circle. Miraculously, each limp turned into a strut once the, ahem, athletes had passed through the curtain that separated the audience from the inner workings.
As I was talking to a few wrestlers about their order (who would enter the arena from which side of the auditorium which is part of the illusion distinguishing ‘good’ from ‘bad’ wrestlers), I glanced out around the curtain to see a power bomb performed on one of the wrestlers. Now, a power bomb must be executed properly in order to avoid injury. Dropping someone on their head or neck instead of the shoulder blades can be devastating.
I know, it’s a bit topsy turvy to imagine inflicting pain on your enemy- while doing your best not to inflict pain!
The victim of this wrestling move rolled to the ring apron or edge of the ring with one arm dangling outside. Naturally, this was part of the performance and I continued on with what I needed to do.
From behind me, I heard a wrestling manager (which is merely a paid performer), who goes by the name Big Schwag (and who later became the voiceover for Discovery Channel’s Monster Garage), state, “That guy isn’t moving out there.”
Immediately, I went out to ringside and watched as an onsite EMT wheeled a stretcher out to the ring. He really had been injured. He really needed to go to the hospital. Yet, the audience could not distinguish where the act halted and when the event was derailed, spilling out the cause and effect of taking dangerous risks in the real world.
Needless to say, I was feeling as if I had been power bombed.
As the old saying goes, the show did go on, climaxed by a main event featuring the Honky Tonk Man, an Elvis themed, former World Wrestling Intercontinental Champion (for those who do not know, that is a prestigious reward- even amongst the wrestlers who know the belt is not earned by an actual victory, but by the wrestler to fan connection and the revenue that is generated accordingly).
Seeing the underbelly of wrestling years ago and observing the territorial, cutthroat nature of the business (in and out of the ring) with wrestlers and fellow promoters, I have been afforded the opportunity to see how illusion can be perpetrated on the masses- and many times, they actually enjoy it more than reality.
In the real world, the one that begins with alarm clocks instead of ring bells, we have many highly visible performers, promoters and so-called champions with an ever increasing sycophantic audience that paid through the nose for a seat. The only difference is, in the supposed real world, the audience is widely accepting the illusion as reality. Those who are able to see ‘behind the curtain’ to view the inner workings and report on those matters are often mocked and demoralized mercilessly.
And, the show goes on.
Does anyone ask the Federal Reserve how it is that they are fighting inflation- when, in fact, central banks are the CAUSE of inflation?
Can the term conservative represent someone who irresponsibly bankrupts a country?
What about that little business about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Does the truth matter?
Did anyone see the Chicago Tribune’s article about the UFO spotted at O’Hare airport by several credible United employees, including a couple of pilots? Did you see the headlines? “Up In The Sky! A Bird? A Plane? A…UFO?” Why report on a sighting at all if only to mock it? Are they setting us up for a major shift in reality and illusion?
And, the show goes on.
So many questions about illusion and reality these days, it literally would take the wisdom of God to separate the two.
James 1:5,” If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
At the end of the event, my first event, in the battered San Jose Civic Auditorium, I was paying the wrestlers in the back, hoping that it would somehow balance with the gate receipts. As I was checking the locker room area to make sure it was clean and that nothing was left behind, a figure emerged that resembled the stiff walk of Frankenstein.
It was the wrestler who was power bombed. Apparently, he had refused to go to the hospital, got up from the gurney and hobbled into the back area. I was astonished.
He simply looked at me with a face contorting from shooting pain and asked,” Am I working tomorrow night?”
True story.
So, you think wrestling is fake?
I always replied that wrestling is neither real nor fake but choreographed. How’s that for fancy footwork?
So, the night of my first big event, at the ailing San Jose Civic Auditorium (surpassed long ago as a suitable venue for the more ‘important’ events), I was very green at discerning between the legitimate and the faux catastrophes. Just like you, I figured it was all phony.
I had seen a few Oscar worthy, pain filled shuffles as the war weary grapplers returned from the squared circle. Miraculously, each limp turned into a strut once the, ahem, athletes had passed through the curtain that separated the audience from the inner workings.
As I was talking to a few wrestlers about their order (who would enter the arena from which side of the auditorium which is part of the illusion distinguishing ‘good’ from ‘bad’ wrestlers), I glanced out around the curtain to see a power bomb performed on one of the wrestlers. Now, a power bomb must be executed properly in order to avoid injury. Dropping someone on their head or neck instead of the shoulder blades can be devastating.
I know, it’s a bit topsy turvy to imagine inflicting pain on your enemy- while doing your best not to inflict pain!
The victim of this wrestling move rolled to the ring apron or edge of the ring with one arm dangling outside. Naturally, this was part of the performance and I continued on with what I needed to do.
From behind me, I heard a wrestling manager (which is merely a paid performer), who goes by the name Big Schwag (and who later became the voiceover for Discovery Channel’s Monster Garage), state, “That guy isn’t moving out there.”
Immediately, I went out to ringside and watched as an onsite EMT wheeled a stretcher out to the ring. He really had been injured. He really needed to go to the hospital. Yet, the audience could not distinguish where the act halted and when the event was derailed, spilling out the cause and effect of taking dangerous risks in the real world.
Needless to say, I was feeling as if I had been power bombed.
As the old saying goes, the show did go on, climaxed by a main event featuring the Honky Tonk Man, an Elvis themed, former World Wrestling Intercontinental Champion (for those who do not know, that is a prestigious reward- even amongst the wrestlers who know the belt is not earned by an actual victory, but by the wrestler to fan connection and the revenue that is generated accordingly).
Seeing the underbelly of wrestling years ago and observing the territorial, cutthroat nature of the business (in and out of the ring) with wrestlers and fellow promoters, I have been afforded the opportunity to see how illusion can be perpetrated on the masses- and many times, they actually enjoy it more than reality.
In the real world, the one that begins with alarm clocks instead of ring bells, we have many highly visible performers, promoters and so-called champions with an ever increasing sycophantic audience that paid through the nose for a seat. The only difference is, in the supposed real world, the audience is widely accepting the illusion as reality. Those who are able to see ‘behind the curtain’ to view the inner workings and report on those matters are often mocked and demoralized mercilessly.
And, the show goes on.
Does anyone ask the Federal Reserve how it is that they are fighting inflation- when, in fact, central banks are the CAUSE of inflation?
Can the term conservative represent someone who irresponsibly bankrupts a country?
What about that little business about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Does the truth matter?
Did anyone see the Chicago Tribune’s article about the UFO spotted at O’Hare airport by several credible United employees, including a couple of pilots? Did you see the headlines? “Up In The Sky! A Bird? A Plane? A…UFO?” Why report on a sighting at all if only to mock it? Are they setting us up for a major shift in reality and illusion?
And, the show goes on.
So many questions about illusion and reality these days, it literally would take the wisdom of God to separate the two.
James 1:5,” If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
At the end of the event, my first event, in the battered San Jose Civic Auditorium, I was paying the wrestlers in the back, hoping that it would somehow balance with the gate receipts. As I was checking the locker room area to make sure it was clean and that nothing was left behind, a figure emerged that resembled the stiff walk of Frankenstein.
It was the wrestler who was power bombed. Apparently, he had refused to go to the hospital, got up from the gurney and hobbled into the back area. I was astonished.
He simply looked at me with a face contorting from shooting pain and asked,” Am I working tomorrow night?”
True story.
So, you think wrestling is fake?