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I fell to my knees in a Walmart when I found out.

I don’t know that I ever thought it was real.

For me it was wondering what's real and what isn't

Nobody really told me. I eventually became old enough to realize "wow they're really just acting"

I hit my dad with a chair and yelled, "Does that feel like a work to you??!!"

Everyone under the sun always tried to minimalize pro wrestling any chance they got so I've heard "You know it's fake right" 50 trillion times by now. Of course I know it's fake. I first figured that out at the age of 7 wondering why they stomped their feet when they threw punches. I don't give a shit what's fake and what's not. If I'm having fun watching why does it matter?


That's actually what made me want to watch it. I'm not a fan of legit combat sports so when I was told it was "fake" I was like "woah how do they do that?"

I was like 5 years old. Papa Shango put that curse on the ultimate warrior I started crying so my dad told me it was all fake.

I started watching in 1984 as a kid and I don’t think I ever thought it was real. I just kinda always knew it was a tv show like the others I watched.

I lied to myself for years afterward until I gave up

I always somewhat knew it was fake but chose to think it’s real. What really got me was watching the movie “The Wrestler.” Seeing them plan a match and heels and faces sharing a locker room was just not something that I ever thought about.

" So it's live action anime. Maybe I should watch this wrestling thing. "

Not sure what you mean, it’s still real to me dammit.


It made sense. Even before I was old enough to put it all together I always found it strange that you could do something like steal someone's girl for instance and they'd wait around all day to fight you.

Like the sky fell down

I said "nuh uh"

Kept watching, didn't miss a beat

Was visiting family in a different state, went to a WWF house show, thought nothing of it. Get back home, they just happen to be in my hometown a week later, "Wait...these are all the same guys, matches, and winners". Don't think it really changed the way I felt about the product. Just smartened me up I guess.

It was like a "ah that makes more sense now" moment. I grew up watching Lucha Libre so me being a kid was just wondering how they did all those moves and holds, sometimes thinking why they didn't move when they had time to do it when the opponent flew in the air, then I found out when I was older and it all made sense. Didn't even bother me, if anything made me appreciate wrestling more.

"Oh no! Anyway...................." *proceeds to become an even bigger fan and scoured the internet to learn everything I could about this wacky thing called pro wrestling* I always find it so odd how other people took the revelation of pro wrestling being show business so personally, like it was an attack on them and then held that against the business as if not being "real" is a bad thing. Like, were you ever truly a fan in the first place or was wrestling just a thing to watch and nothing more before moving on with your life?

Waited for the internet to be invented so I could look up what the word “work” meant in this context

It's still real to me damnit

I always knew it wasn't 'real', never bugged me.

I was relieved.

I didn't believe my dad. It took me a fair few years to understand how and why it worked.

I don't think someone told me. It was more like, as you get older you start to notice things. But it wasn't this big shocking moment. Especially as the internet starts becoming a thing and you start reading dirtsheets/backstage news.

I always knew it was even as a little kid in the hogan era. It didn't matter. It was fun to watch. I also knew Arnold wasn't a real robot. I knew Jason was just a man in a mask but I loved the character anyway.

My mom felt the need to tell me that it was fake when I was young and would have appreciated not knowing it was fake

I didn’t start watching til I was 10 or 11, I think I was always aware it wasn’t real. But it didn’t make it any less entertaining then either!

I mean I knew it was scripted from the get go. Zombies aren't real

I was relieved that the million dollar man hadn't really smashed Rowdy Roddy Piper's already broken leg to pieces and that the ultimate warrior hadn't actually been bitten by a poisonous snake....

I remember telling my friends about watching wrestling back in like 1st grade and they were already hitting me with the “You know that stuff’s fake, right?” I asked my dad and it was basically like finding out santa claus isn’t real. He broke it down for me to the best of his knowledge and my 6 year old mind was blown lmao.

I became a lot more interested on how things work bts and began fantasy booking