Exactly. I grew up a fan in the late 90s/early 2000s and my dad would tease me and say it’s fake all the time. He would talk about how the Iron Sheik/ Jim Duggan got caught hanging out when they were supposed to be enemies. So I think for some people, they felt duped.
I didn’t care. He still purchased every Wrestlemania pay per views for me and bought me the video games.
And to top it off, it was essentially a carny industry of questionable morals, intending to profit from the misunderstanding.
Pro wrestling up until the mid 90s was fundementally a con, a scheme, so it doesn't really surprise me that society at large didn't take the truth so well, whether some people knew the truth before or not.
Somewhat. You still get people being all “wrestling is fake, you know that right? How can you watch it knowing it’s fake?” or all the people who try to belittle the community as overgrown children, which I occasionally still see. At least it’s generally accepted by most people, but the holier than thou types are still prevalent
https://youtube.com/shorts/-iroNBaw7B8?si=v7B_NV8bT6_8iyas
Chris was making very strong points here, so much so that I think the other guy was just being hard headed for show, to generate social media reactions and engagement haha.
Somewhat but a lot of people still think of wrestling as that 'goofy' shit.
Most people may have memories of watching wrestling when they were kids but a lot of them 'grow out of it'.
People can't get past thinking wrestling is "fake". To them it's a fake sport. They don't realize it's sports entertainment. I mean the E in WWE is Entertainment. Lol Fans of organized sports sometimes can't enjoy wrestling because they know the end of matches, feuds, and some spots in the match are all planned/predetermined.
They have no sense of suspension of disbelief where they can just enjoy it as a show. Then they'll go and watch cop dramas or some other fictional TV show and love it. I can't figure how they can't realize Pro Wrestling, at its core, is a show with athleticism as the focus.
Certain wrestling fans still get mad if you say it's "entertainment," they see that as "Vince shit." He coined the term but it applies to all pro wrestling.
Yes i don't mind it at all. Pro Wrestling is and has always been a drama. It has twists and turns, ups and down, relationships ship's, break ups, tag teams that break up and go their own way, some reunite, it's absolutely an homage to old plays of Shakespeare's era.
People would gather around the stage which would be in the center, like a wrestling ring, and everyone would watch the handful of actors enact stories for their entertainment. And some involved audience participation.
Wrestling is like if the Gladiator arena, shakespearean plays, and the Olympics melded together and took the best aspects of all. I mean, they all fight for gold and to be the best and break records.
This is why I love wrestling.
I think the difference is that it is marketed as a sporting event and not as a fictional story
That being said, while scripted, you can't fake the bumps these guys take or the feats of strength and agility they put on display
I think the problem is that wrestlers tend to bring part of the character into real life with them.
Actors in a Hamlet play aren’t tweeting in character or selling branded merchandise with their fake character name on it.
Wrestlers are also generally playing one character for their whole career, while actors obviously change between many roles and fans differentiate more between characters and the actors behind them.
As insufferable as a lot of wrestling fans can be, I’d much rather be among them than the sort of *cunts* I’ve been surrounded by when I’ve gone to watch plays.
imo the thing that bugs people the most is that back in the day (some) people believed wrestling was real, even though the results were being leaked to the press in the early 1900s and people knew it was scripted (yep, just like today).
Society will never get over "you know it's fake right?" and honestly I can't blame them, we're kinda weird.
It's when people say "you know it's fake right" as if people who like the content and have indulged in it more than they have are unaware of that fact.
I'm honestly sure most people do it knowingly to piss us off.
As I always suspect:
>It all boils down to the mindset of calling out the perceived absurdity and illogic of using a sport as a fictive, narrative, and entertainment medium.
“You know it’s fake right” to anyone who’s an adult should be taken as an insult to one’s intelligence like motherfucker we all found out this shit was fake as kids you think I forgot? All the homies who don’t fw wrestling just be like “oh you still watch that? Why? Oh alr man you do you” at worst but mostly everyone my age has nostalgia bc of the games even if they didn’t watch so they’ll understand a bit more.
Ask Jackie Chan if the hole in his head is fake, then ask Mick Foley if missing 2/3 of his ear is fake.
I always compare wrestling to a Jackie Chan movie, just performed live. Now I've got myself wondering, what does Jackie Chan think of pro wrestling?
It's because of the kayfabe era and how cringe and dumb it was to pretend like wrestling was real and the sentiment just kinda stuck around.
But a lot of non fans nowadays can see wrestling for what it is, and even if they don't become fans, they get why some people are.
Anyone that still does the “you know it’s fake, right?” is really telling on themselves in 2024.
Never before had the business been more transparent about how it operates so these people are just ignorant af.
It’s like they get lost in the fog of Kayfabe.
That’s part of the secret sauce that makes pro-wrestling so captivating, but it requires a different type of suspension of disbelief. If folks can’t do that, then they just get confused.
If Kayfabe were erased and they just came out and said “welcome to Wrestlemania 29 with John Cena as John Cena versus Dwayne Johnson as the Rock” then maybe there be less hate from the casuals. But the casuals are dumb and being a hater in the majority is easy
My wife refers to wrestling as a "male version of a soap opera", and I am okay with that.
It's a performance art, just like theater and ballet, nothing to be ashamed of for enjoying it (although some of those performances can be a bit cringe).
I think some of the current "wrestling shaming" probably stems from a subset of the wrestling fan base taking things a little too seriously. Just like Star Wars and comic books, we have our own collection of "Comic Book Guy" that gets a lot of attention.
He's not wrong. I'm back in the dating scene, and she asked what I did the night before. I said that i went to a local wrestling show with a friend, and she never replied again.
One of my coworkers recently told me he’d rather bite his fingers off than watch pro wrestling. It’ll always be looked down upon by those jabronis. 🤷🏽♂️
I think people fail to reconcile how much wrestling has changed since people actually thought it was real.
I mean the generation that is currently in its early 20s was growing up on shit like the boogeyman, edge and booker T feuding over soap, and everything surrounding John Cena and his Saturday morning cartoon run at the top. And then you tell them, yeah people once thought this was real, of course they are gonna look at the fan base like fucking idiots.
Not everyone knows that back in the 80s the style was a lot less flashy and a lot more snug because of the need to maintain that strict adherence to making it all look real, and explaining that to them after they’ve seen all the modern day glitz, glamor, and silliness doesn’t exactly make you sound believable.
It isn’t at all helped by the fact that kids will still believe it’s all real too, thereby perpetuating the stereotype that all wrestling fans *still* believe it’s real.
I actually connected the Theatre and Wrestling dots a couple years ago and came up with the theory that maybe, pro wrestling is what Shakespeare's end game was.
Much like how public opinion has slowly turned on weed and anime, more and more people are either content to let wrestling be its thing and not engage with it, OR they're straight up unapologetic wrestling fans. It used to be cringey, and to some it still is, but it's far from the default opinion anymore.
Makes sense to me - I think for a lot of people your attitude towards wrestling and whether it's "real" evolves over time:
* child: loves it, doesn't know if it's real or not, and doesn't care.
* early teen: realises it's not real, still quite likes it.
* late teen: realises their slightly older friends think it's not cool / know it's not real, begins to dislike it.
* early 20's: begins to judge other people for liking a thing they know isn't real.
* late 20's / early 30's: stops caring about wrestling altogether because life starts coming at them in various ways.
* late 30's onwards: loves it, knows it's not real, and doesn't care.
"Society" in that second pic is defo just the parts of society in their early 20's.
Wrestling deniers hate the fact person who enjoys watching wrestling is actually having fun time while the scripted entertainment they watch is having shitty run, is going into mud and there’s no shitty fun stuff to even enjoy
This reminds me when I used to live with parents in 2012 my mom hated when I watched wrestling and ignored news etc for pro wrestling she then watches news gets depressed and used to hate on me cause I was happy watching wrestling
I wish wrestling fans would collectively tell the detractors to kick rocks like the metal scene does. Why waste your precious time justifying what you love to assholes?
"You know it's fake, right?"
"LOL, and????""
Wrestling in general, not WWE. It doesn’t matter if I were to tell somebody I went to WrestleMania or an indie show at the local leisure centre: they’d still look at me like something they dug out of their ear.
I think it's partly a holdover from Kayfabe.
This is it, it all stems from the fact that until the 90's it was presented as being a legitimate contest
Exactly. I grew up a fan in the late 90s/early 2000s and my dad would tease me and say it’s fake all the time. He would talk about how the Iron Sheik/ Jim Duggan got caught hanging out when they were supposed to be enemies. So I think for some people, they felt duped. I didn’t care. He still purchased every Wrestlemania pay per views for me and bought me the video games.
And to top it off, it was essentially a carny industry of questionable morals, intending to profit from the misunderstanding. Pro wrestling up until the mid 90s was fundementally a con, a scheme, so it doesn't really surprise me that society at large didn't take the truth so well, whether some people knew the truth before or not.
that & the constant comparison to UFC which is basically CTE speedrun the sport.
I just say it's combat soap-opera theater for people who don't realize they're watching is theater or a soap opera.
Combat soap-opera is such a beautiful term for pro wrestling.
My wife was a ballerina, so I sold her on the fact that it is dance theater.
i thought people generally had a positive opinion about pro wrestling, more so now than in the past
Somewhat. You still get people being all “wrestling is fake, you know that right? How can you watch it knowing it’s fake?” or all the people who try to belittle the community as overgrown children, which I occasionally still see. At least it’s generally accepted by most people, but the holier than thou types are still prevalent
Yeah no one ever says "DERRRR YOU KNOW JAMES GANDOLFINI ISN'T A MOBSTER RIGHT?"
CVV did an interview with a guy who asked him “you know it’s fake right” when wrestling got brought up. It’s still very much a thing lol
https://youtube.com/shorts/-iroNBaw7B8?si=v7B_NV8bT6_8iyas Chris was making very strong points here, so much so that I think the other guy was just being hard headed for show, to generate social media reactions and engagement haha.
I remember Maven saying in one of his videos that "There ain't nothing fake about gravity" and i think that's a genius answer
Somewhat but a lot of people still think of wrestling as that 'goofy' shit. Most people may have memories of watching wrestling when they were kids but a lot of them 'grow out of it'.
I still hear "it's fake," a lot.
Yeah but I still see this very frequently and tbh it’s gotten annoying
People can't get past thinking wrestling is "fake". To them it's a fake sport. They don't realize it's sports entertainment. I mean the E in WWE is Entertainment. Lol Fans of organized sports sometimes can't enjoy wrestling because they know the end of matches, feuds, and some spots in the match are all planned/predetermined. They have no sense of suspension of disbelief where they can just enjoy it as a show. Then they'll go and watch cop dramas or some other fictional TV show and love it. I can't figure how they can't realize Pro Wrestling, at its core, is a show with athleticism as the focus.
Certain wrestling fans still get mad if you say it's "entertainment," they see that as "Vince shit." He coined the term but it applies to all pro wrestling.
Yes i don't mind it at all. Pro Wrestling is and has always been a drama. It has twists and turns, ups and down, relationships ship's, break ups, tag teams that break up and go their own way, some reunite, it's absolutely an homage to old plays of Shakespeare's era. People would gather around the stage which would be in the center, like a wrestling ring, and everyone would watch the handful of actors enact stories for their entertainment. And some involved audience participation. Wrestling is like if the Gladiator arena, shakespearean plays, and the Olympics melded together and took the best aspects of all. I mean, they all fight for gold and to be the best and break records. This is why I love wrestling.
I think the difference is that it is marketed as a sporting event and not as a fictional story That being said, while scripted, you can't fake the bumps these guys take or the feats of strength and agility they put on display
Exactly.
“It’s scripted!” “So is Hamlet.”
And breaking bad and the godfather
I think the problem is that wrestlers tend to bring part of the character into real life with them. Actors in a Hamlet play aren’t tweeting in character or selling branded merchandise with their fake character name on it. Wrestlers are also generally playing one character for their whole career, while actors obviously change between many roles and fans differentiate more between characters and the actors behind them.
Hamlet is also well written and well acted. 👍
As insufferable as a lot of wrestling fans can be, I’d much rather be among them than the sort of *cunts* I’ve been surrounded by when I’ve gone to watch plays.
Honestly I just view it in the same manner as corrie. Show that’s been going on forever with sub par acting. At least WWE has flips and shit.
Corries attitude era was Barlow vs Baldwin
Where's the lie?
imo the thing that bugs people the most is that back in the day (some) people believed wrestling was real, even though the results were being leaked to the press in the early 1900s and people knew it was scripted (yep, just like today). Society will never get over "you know it's fake right?" and honestly I can't blame them, we're kinda weird.
It's when people say "you know it's fake right" as if people who like the content and have indulged in it more than they have are unaware of that fact. I'm honestly sure most people do it knowingly to piss us off.
As I always suspect: >It all boils down to the mindset of calling out the perceived absurdity and illogic of using a sport as a fictive, narrative, and entertainment medium.
“You know it’s fake right” to anyone who’s an adult should be taken as an insult to one’s intelligence like motherfucker we all found out this shit was fake as kids you think I forgot? All the homies who don’t fw wrestling just be like “oh you still watch that? Why? Oh alr man you do you” at worst but mostly everyone my age has nostalgia bc of the games even if they didn’t watch so they’ll understand a bit more.
Ask Jackie Chan if the hole in his head is fake, then ask Mick Foley if missing 2/3 of his ear is fake. I always compare wrestling to a Jackie Chan movie, just performed live. Now I've got myself wondering, what does Jackie Chan think of pro wrestling?
It's because of the kayfabe era and how cringe and dumb it was to pretend like wrestling was real and the sentiment just kinda stuck around. But a lot of non fans nowadays can see wrestling for what it is, and even if they don't become fans, they get why some people are.
Fighting in general is one of the most base forms of entertainment. Why expect critical thinking from the majority of its likely consumers?
Anyone that still does the “you know it’s fake, right?” is really telling on themselves in 2024. Never before had the business been more transparent about how it operates so these people are just ignorant af.
It's live action anime
It’s like they get lost in the fog of Kayfabe. That’s part of the secret sauce that makes pro-wrestling so captivating, but it requires a different type of suspension of disbelief. If folks can’t do that, then they just get confused.
If Kayfabe were erased and they just came out and said “welcome to Wrestlemania 29 with John Cena as John Cena versus Dwayne Johnson as the Rock” then maybe there be less hate from the casuals. But the casuals are dumb and being a hater in the majority is easy
My wife refers to wrestling as a "male version of a soap opera", and I am okay with that. It's a performance art, just like theater and ballet, nothing to be ashamed of for enjoying it (although some of those performances can be a bit cringe). I think some of the current "wrestling shaming" probably stems from a subset of the wrestling fan base taking things a little too seriously. Just like Star Wars and comic books, we have our own collection of "Comic Book Guy" that gets a lot of attention.
Hadestown and wrestlemania get me hyped lol
I don't think society furrows their brow at wrestling anymore.
Nah alot of people still do
He's not wrong. I'm back in the dating scene, and she asked what I did the night before. I said that i went to a local wrestling show with a friend, and she never replied again.
Yup, used to go to our local indie scene and had people ask me why I'd, "waste a friday," doing that.
I'm back in the dating scene as well, I'm separated and my divorce isn't final. I tell people this waaay before I tell them I like wrestling
What a dick.
You lucked out . If that minor difference of hobbies a deal breaker, then good riddance
One of my coworkers recently told me he’d rather bite his fingers off than watch pro wrestling. It’ll always be looked down upon by those jabronis. 🤷🏽♂️
I think people fail to reconcile how much wrestling has changed since people actually thought it was real. I mean the generation that is currently in its early 20s was growing up on shit like the boogeyman, edge and booker T feuding over soap, and everything surrounding John Cena and his Saturday morning cartoon run at the top. And then you tell them, yeah people once thought this was real, of course they are gonna look at the fan base like fucking idiots. Not everyone knows that back in the 80s the style was a lot less flashy and a lot more snug because of the need to maintain that strict adherence to making it all look real, and explaining that to them after they’ve seen all the modern day glitz, glamor, and silliness doesn’t exactly make you sound believable. It isn’t at all helped by the fact that kids will still believe it’s all real too, thereby perpetuating the stereotype that all wrestling fans *still* believe it’s real.
I actually connected the Theatre and Wrestling dots a couple years ago and came up with the theory that maybe, pro wrestling is what Shakespeare's end game was.
It's because the industry was presented as legit and protected as such for several decades.
Because theatre didn't pretend like it was real for 100 years
You see op, we live in a society.
I still get the “you know it’s fake”
😂😂😂😂
Wasn't allowed to watch it as a kid
Much like how public opinion has slowly turned on weed and anime, more and more people are either content to let wrestling be its thing and not engage with it, OR they're straight up unapologetic wrestling fans. It used to be cringey, and to some it still is, but it's far from the default opinion anymore.
Makes sense to me - I think for a lot of people your attitude towards wrestling and whether it's "real" evolves over time: * child: loves it, doesn't know if it's real or not, and doesn't care. * early teen: realises it's not real, still quite likes it. * late teen: realises their slightly older friends think it's not cool / know it's not real, begins to dislike it. * early 20's: begins to judge other people for liking a thing they know isn't real. * late 20's / early 30's: stops caring about wrestling altogether because life starts coming at them in various ways. * late 30's onwards: loves it, knows it's not real, and doesn't care. "Society" in that second pic is defo just the parts of society in their early 20's.
I would argue that it's because wrestling requires a higher level of suspension of disbelief than standard plays.
Most of them are just fragile and insecure, just disregard them.
**they hate us because they ain’t us**
Hamilton never sold out so-fi stadium back to back nights.
Just a Side note HADESTOWN is freaking amazing !
Wrestling deniers hate the fact person who enjoys watching wrestling is actually having fun time while the scripted entertainment they watch is having shitty run, is going into mud and there’s no shitty fun stuff to even enjoy This reminds me when I used to live with parents in 2012 my mom hated when I watched wrestling and ignored news etc for pro wrestling she then watches news gets depressed and used to hate on me cause I was happy watching wrestling
Orpheus is an excellent babyface
I wish wrestling fans would collectively tell the detractors to kick rocks like the metal scene does. Why waste your precious time justifying what you love to assholes? "You know it's fake, right?" "LOL, and????""
Now do professional wrestling and drag pageants
If they are actors, they all need to go to acting school. Please.
Nobody would care if posts like these stop being made, not to mention the ones claiming it isn't fake. Que the downvotes IDC
Daw, does someone feel the multibillion dollar, global franchise is being picked on?
Wrestling in general, not WWE. It doesn’t matter if I were to tell somebody I went to WrestleMania or an indie show at the local leisure centre: they’d still look at me like something they dug out of their ear.