I have just been flicking through the sky channels and came across the wrestling this morning.
Now I know it's always been sports entertainment I watched it in the late 90's but based on this it has just turned into one big soap with a couple of matches thrown in! Kidnappings, people getting run over by other wrestlers, arrests for assault?:loopy:
I do like to see the matches but hate all the script in between!

Does anyone else watch or used to watch it and what do you think?

I wouldn't say it was a sport but yes the wrestlers are highly trained in making it look realistic without getting too injured. The majority obviously train quite hard looking at condition some of them are in. These people are constantly on the road throughout the year travelling all around America and the world, so I suspect that quite a few will use steriods as it's not easy keepin that big when your stuck in a coach most of the time. The scripts work in a similair fashion to soaps often unrealistic but amusing.

The `Ultimate Warrior` always was the dude in my book.

After he stopped fighting, I stopped watching!

That might have also been something to do with buying a new motorcycle also though.

Fake?

Blasphemy, I used to watch it, how can it be fake?

Contrary to the beliefs of a LOT of American "marks" as they're known, wrestling is, always has been and always will be, fake.

I watch it quite a bit, in fact I've just been on the phone ordering the Royal Rumble pay per view event for tomorrow night.

A lot of people on the internet accuse me of being gay for liking pro wrestling, they think it's all sweaty men hugging each other, eh?! WTF do they know?!

And just because I like it doesn't mean I'm gay, it's very entertaining watching some big massive 7 foot tall guy who's over 20 stone in weight beat the living daylights out of a guy who's only about 5'8 and just over 10 stone... especially when the small guy wins by disqualification by shoving the ref, but the ref thinks it was the big guy who shoved him.

I am in no way doubting the training that the wrestlers go through and the gruelling travelling hours the endure, I have met quite a few when it came to the arena (good connections got me back stage).I just think the people behind the scenes have a cv with 'the days of our lives' on it which cheapens good entertainment.

Personally can't stand it and refuse to watch itl. It's just so fake it makes me cringe. That's not to say choreographed fighting can't be fun, I could quite happily sit watching good martial arts films all day. It's just that I despise the whole soap opera crap that comes with it and to be honest when I've seen it in the past the quality of fighting has been pathetic. Gimme K-1 anyday, that's some real entertainment :)

I like to watch it at the weekends sometimes!

Used to big fan of the Ultimate Warrior too and Hulk Hogan, Zeus and all the old gang.
Rowdy Roddy Piper, Jake the Snake Roberts, Honkey Tonk Man, Legion of Doom etc etc

Ah the good ol' days!

I'm sorry, but I cant take it seriously - not even in an entertainemnt sort of way.

I can see the attraction of proper olympic wrestling - although I wouldnt watch that either - at least it is a proper sport.
But WWF? Big guys in pants poncing around a stage, faking a ludicrous fight.

The term used in the industry is "Sports Entertainment."

It's fake in the sense that the two guys involved usually know what the outcome of the match will be, but believe it or not some of the action is actually improvised on the spot.

Personally I've been into pro-wrestling since watching the British greats like Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks on a Saturday afternoon until it was axed (by then ITV sports head honcho Greg Dyke, hah! he's paid for it now, after all these years!). I've even written for a wrestling magazine in my time. To me it's no stranger than watching a soap-opera, you laugh and then shake a fist at the villains, but you still know that it's all staged and if things go well nobody gets hurt.

It's not for everyone, often sexist and homophobic, sometimes glorofied pornography...but like an old mate that cracks bad jokes and offends your new politically correct uni mates, you love it...even if you're not sure why.

If anyone has any questions about the industry then I'll try to answer them for you.

Fire away.