The anti wrestling people

[RedRooster]

None of my friends know that I like wrestling. It's not that I hide it from them, it's just that they aren't into it, so it's never really come up. I do vividly remember my dad flicking over to Smackdown when I was younger, to Eddie Guerrero doing a frogsplash on JBL, and my dad saying 'it's so fake', shaking his head. I never really understand why there are people who feel the need to do that, to repeatedly emphasise that it's not real. 

[BomberPat]

1 minute ago, Supremo said:

As previously mentioned by others, I’ve always been far more embarrassed by fans trying to defend it than I ever have by people who don’t get it.

It is fake. It is camp. It is stupid. Life becomes a lot easier when you admit that you love it regardless. Nothing will be achieved listing wrestler injuries or going full Jim Ross and screaming, “HOW DO YOU LEARN TO FALL OFF A FIFTEEN FOOT LADDER?!”

I worked with a guy like this and he was the absolute worst, just a complete grievance machine in every facet of his life, the sort of person to make up arguments just so he can pretend that he won. He used to watch wrestling at work quite often, and he had the full spiel locked and loaded ready for anyone who questioned it, whereas my response has pretty much always been some version of "yep, it's fake and gay". 

For the last few years for me if it comes up with people at work or anything like that, it almost always comes up through me working in wrestling or having written about it, rather than being a fan of it - and I think people at least realise that they're not going to get away with a "you know the Monkees don't really play their own instruments?" revelation on somebody who wrote a book about this shit, and when the context is around me working in wrestling, it tends to be framed far more as a "what's that all about, then?".

If I need to explain it to people, I tend to tailor it to the audience - comparing it to panto or drag is usually a safe bet, and Gladiators probably would work well now. Or not even bothering with that and just, "it's good fun". Placing it in a context that people understand and explaining why it appeals to you is just a far better response than going full "IT IS ENTERTAINMENT, BUT THE HAZARDS ARE REAL", which always comes across as super-defensive, and kind of like you still secretly think it might actually be real after all. 

Listing injuries and accidents as a way to prove it's not "fake" always strikes me as really idiotic too. Because then you're basically saying "it's real when it goes wrong", and fuck, what isn't it? 

[air_raid]

I prefer to just say “We don’t like the F word in this house. We like the C word.”

[Carbomb]

For me, there is one valid reason to mention injury and risk of harm, and that's whenever you get people essentially dismissing a lot of the real shit that happens behind the scenes, like addiction to painkillers, etc., because "it's all fake".

I think that's the main problem I have with that kind of crowd, because, writ large, it's also a large contributor to why wrestling as the horrendous industry that it is has never had outsiders come in and clean it up - it's treated like it's beneath notice because it's such carny shit. Nothing wrong with laughing at it because it's fake and ridiculous in front of the camera, but to dismiss it and its victims/monsters completely is just as bad as the fans who try to defend it all, if not worse.

And yes - I have met several civilians like that.

[Loki]

I'm always amused by the slight embarrassment that happens when you meet another wrestling fan in real life.

I went round to someone's house for a Halloween party a few years ago and he was wearing a Pentagon Jr mask.  I went over and said "that's cool, is that a Penta mask" and he seemed genuinely slightly embarrassed that someone had called him on it.  He admitted that he watched AEW but then the wrestling conversation dried up, and I totally got it as you take your life into your own hands with that conversation.  If someone asks me who my favourite wrestler is and I say Kevin Nash, and they like ROH it's going to be two ships passing in the night.

[AndyUK]

Anyone that still uses the ‘’you know it’s fake right?’’ comeback these days is too much of a moron to even waste my energy on. 

Like you don’t fucking say. 
 

 

[SuperBacon]

I actually tend to find most people these days don't mock it as much as they used to.

Maybe because I tend to know people around my age who in one way or another, grew up with it, and are still interested in what's going on.

One mate I have who has zero interest anymore loves hearing about the old returns or people dying (that sounds weird) and on the whole, I find most people are interested. 

I don't shout down the street that I watch wrestling (I barely do) but sometimes it'll come up and no one ever really goes "aaaah that's all fake you know!!!"

A couple of years ago I like to think I ruined someone's night as they replied "Who cares???? It's all fake!!!!" to a Sky Sports (I think) tweet on Mania night and I said "right so you don't watch any TV or films?" I don't normally care, but I was feeling chippy (oi oi saveloy) and he deleted his comment and his whole account within minutes. I win. Fuck you.

Just also had a flashback of using wrestling as a sort of show and tell thing in form in year 8 and using Austin - Hart WM13 as Mr Chapman increasingly got annoyed as he told me they were using fake blood, but the whole class was bang into it.

This hurt as he was my favourite teacher, so when Austin broke his neck I took the video in to show him and he said that part of the ring must've been spring loaded and ginmicked. Broke my heart.

I should've stunned him.

Interestingly my ex didn't watch any wrestling until we met and she was maybe 24/25 and she didn't know it was scripted, but didn't really care when I told her. I'm not sure how much she thought was "real" but I thought that was quite endearing.

[TheScarlettChad]

For me its the comedians on Facebook pages who will reference Emmerdale and Corrie as a way to shit on wrestling. "Ha ha so is Emmerdale real too then?" Or "Hahaha its just like a soap, its dumb!" I'll never understand why they feel the need to do it, But hey.

[Merzbow]

I feel like this kinda fits the thread.

 

[The Gaffer]

21 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

I actually tend to find most people these days don't mock it as much as they used to.

Maybe because I tend to know people around my age who in one way or another, grew up with it, and are still interested in what's going on.

One mate I have who has zero interest anymore loves hearing about the old returns or people dying (that sounds weird) and on the whole, I find most people are interested. 

Yeah that's my experience largely as well. It's become just another fandom now, in a world where it's perfectly ordinary and even somewhat expected for grown adults to have one or two nerdy fandoms. 

For all the good fun in some of it - and it's not nearly as bad as it used to be - the biggest slagging I see the the idea of being into wrestling still get is on here. And it's not even close. 

[SuperBacon]

3 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

I feel like this kinda fits the thread.

 

That has to be my Dad.

"Is Jake The Snake Richards still about? Hulk and Animal?"

[Merzbow]

3 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

That has to be my Dad.

"Is Jake The Snake Richards still about? Hulk and Animal?"

It might just be.

 

[BomberPat]

My brother has a great running gag where, as he stopped watching wrestling in around 2001/2, he always pretends to be shocked at the discovery that Kurt Angle is bald now. It's a joke he's managed to keep going with me for more than 20 years, but every now and then he'll post it as a Facebook comment on something and people are always quick to "correct" him.

I definitely always have a bit of inherent dread when meeting wrestling fans for the first time - because quite often it's someone who doesn't really get the chance to talk wrestling in their day-to-day life, so want to talk your ear off with every fantasy booking idea they have for whatever's going on in WWE or AEW, or else they're the super-indie ultra who wants to show off. The first RevPro show I went to, there was a guy in front of me who kept trying to make smarmy comments, but they were all shit - when someone did a backbreaker, he said, "who does he think he is, Roderick Strong?" and, honestly, who are you even trying to impress with that? 

The bloke I mentioned before that I used to work with was fucking awful for it. This was mid-00s, and he'd handwrite a bunch of bad fantasy booking ideas at work, and then try and talk me through them all. Almost every single one of them involved one of three things - a gimmicky wrestler rejecting their gimmick so they could be a super-serious wrestler, a stable of second generation wrestlers, or someone getting called up from developmental and immediately being given a massive push. He tried to combine the first two by having Jesse turn on Festus and reveal himself to have been "Terry Gordy Jr." all along, and was absolutely apoplectic at my criticism that most people watching WWE in 2007 didn't know or care who Terry Gordy was. The other one I remember was Fit Finlay and Great Khali were in a nothing midcard feud, and he was absolutely convinced that Finlay was going to cut a promo saying, "you might be a giant, but I have my own giant, the Irish giant" as a way to introduce Sheamus, who is pretty much a full foot shorter than Khali. 

 

I think the point about fandom in general being more accepted is a really good one, as is that our average ages in relation to wrestling boom periods means most people have at least known something about wrestling at some point during their life. I own a lot of wrestling merch that I've just accumulated over the years, so I tend to wear them out and about a bit, and I've never cared for the whole idea that a wrestling shirt should look cool or really disguise the fact that it's a wrestling shirt, but then you're just asking that it's a secret handshake between wrestling nerds, and that feels way more shameful to me than just proudly wearing a T-shirt with a massive picture of Jeff Jarrett on it. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

1 hour ago, SuperBacon said:

I actually tend to find most people these days don't mock it as much as they used to.

I'm doing a PhD with pro wrestling as the main content and, trust me, when I tell anyone what my PhD is in they laugh. 

'So you're doing a PhD....in wrestling?! Didn't fancy doing a real PhD then? Lol' 

That kind of thing. 

[Carbomb]

10 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

a gimmicky wrestler rejecting their gimmick so they could be a super-serious wrestler

Nowadays, the only way that story works for me is if they keep unconsciously bringing back bits of the gimmick in their attempted super-cereal match, and keep getting frustrated and angry when that happens. Culminating in a big match where the only way they can get the win is by going for their previous, super-gimmicky finish.

Quote

The other one I remember was Fit Finlay and Great Khali were in a nothing midcard feud, and he was absolutely convinced that Finlay was going to cut a promo saying, "you might be a giant, but I have my own giant, the Irish giant" as a way to introduce Sheamus, who is pretty much a full foot shorter than Khali. 

The mythology nut in me really wants to see a heel Irish giant under the gimmick name "Fár Durocha", but it's too esoteric.