eli5 wrestling champions

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Ok I’m not from usa, so I dont really underestand wrestling. As far as I know its a scripted sketch with real phisical skill necessary to perform the act. But I keep reading about old champions or the first xxx race champion etc. What do you mean champion? If those are actors, so to speak, there are no champion, there is a script to follow. Its like saying Arnold swarzneger was the first terminator to defeat the advanced model in terminator2, what
? Please eli5.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Professional wrestling was originally legitimate competition. However, in order to get more spectators, it turned into scripted or semi-scripted performance. It started with competitors agreeing to allow each other to do flashy moves that can only done on a cooperating opponent, and over the years turned into a theatrical performance (not quite clear when it became fully theatrical, but it’s been at least a century).

You have to be a talented athlete and a decent actor for professional wrestling (the hammy performance is an intentional stylistic choice, not a result of bad acting, most of the acting skill involved is expressed through body movement rather than speech). However, being a talented athlete does not mean that it is a competitive sport. Ballet dancers also need to be talented athletes, but that doesn’t make ballet a sport.

Many professional wrestlers do have a background in the actual sport of wrestling and related sports such as mixed martial arts (Brock Lesnar is a notable example), but professional wrestling is not itself a sport. It is a theatrical performance which imitates those sports in a highly stylized manner.

The script does not always describe every move that someone makes. It may identify the opening, a few key moves in the middle, and how the performance is supposed to end, leaving some amount of time for the performers to improvise to fill the gaps (maybe with some non-specific guidance in the script).

A champion is just a person whose role in the story is to be the champion. The character John Cena winning things isn’t a competition between the actor John Cena and some other actor. The actor William Shatner didn’t defeat the actor Ricardo Montalban either: they played characters in a story where James T. Kirk defeated Khan Noonien Singh.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Professional wrestling was originally legitimate competition. However, in order to get more spectators, it turned into scripted or semi-scripted performance. It started with competitors agreeing to allow each other to do flashy moves that can only done on a cooperating opponent, and over the years turned into a theatrical performance (not quite clear when it became fully theatrical, but it’s been at least a century).

You have to be a talented athlete and a decent actor for professional wrestling (the hammy performance is an intentional stylistic choice, not a result of bad acting, most of the acting skill involved is expressed through body movement rather than speech). However, being a talented athlete does not mean that it is a competitive sport. Ballet dancers also need to be talented athletes, but that doesn’t make ballet a sport.

Many professional wrestlers do have a background in the actual sport of wrestling and related sports such as mixed martial arts (Brock Lesnar is a notable example), but professional wrestling is not itself a sport. It is a theatrical performance which imitates those sports in a highly stylized manner.

The script does not always describe every move that someone makes. It may identify the opening, a few key moves in the middle, and how the performance is supposed to end, leaving some amount of time for the performers to improvise to fill the gaps (maybe with some non-specific guidance in the script).

A champion is just a person whose role in the story is to be the champion. The character John Cena winning things isn’t a competition between the actor John Cena and some other actor. The actor William Shatner didn’t defeat the actor Ricardo Montalban either: they played characters in a story where James T. Kirk defeated Khan Noonien Singh.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Do you get confused about game of thrones. no. Do you get confused about sports anime? no. It’s just a tv show about a world where their type of wrestling is an actual sport. That’s it. (edit: I’m referring to “wrestling” as in WWE/WWF, not Olympic Wrestling which is an actual sport; and when I say sport I mean an athletics or skill based competition.)

Anonymous 0 Comments

Do you get confused about game of thrones. no. Do you get confused about sports anime? no. It’s just a tv show about a world where their type of wrestling is an actual sport. That’s it. (edit: I’m referring to “wrestling” as in WWE/WWF, not Olympic Wrestling which is an actual sport; and when I say sport I mean an athletics or skill based competition.)

Anonymous 0 Comments

NSFW Crosspost from r/squaredcircle Jim Cornette explains it pretty well. https://reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/yfclal/jim_cornette_describes_pro_wrestling/

Anonymous 0 Comments

NSFW Crosspost from r/squaredcircle Jim Cornette explains it pretty well. https://reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/yfclal/jim_cornette_describes_pro_wrestling/

Anonymous 0 Comments

I was thinking very negatively about it as well. Until I sat and watched a bunch of wrestling shows on YouTube. I realized it’s like a theater: character storylines, situations, special effects, tongue in cheek humor, self awareness and guilty fun. I also work at a theater and this kind of entertainment is meant to be just this: entertainment. However, it has deeper traditions and affects popular culture. So consider it as this: theatrical entertainment with sport like stuns and story lines.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I was thinking very negatively about it as well. Until I sat and watched a bunch of wrestling shows on YouTube. I realized it’s like a theater: character storylines, situations, special effects, tongue in cheek humor, self awareness and guilty fun. I also work at a theater and this kind of entertainment is meant to be just this: entertainment. However, it has deeper traditions and affects popular culture. So consider it as this: theatrical entertainment with sport like stuns and story lines.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Wrestling is ‘fixed’, as in the outcome is predetermined. Precisely what that has meant has changed over time.

Back in the day, many sports has matches that were fixed, including boxing. Fighters figured out that they could do better if they only pretended to beat each other up. However, it’s much harder to have a convincing fake boxing match. With wrestling, only you and your opponent know exactly how hard you’re squeezing a hold, and fighting to get out. Thus, fixed wrestling events became standard.

Over time, any pretense of it being real has gone. And with that, matches are allowed to go to more fantastical places. However, the basic drama of having contenders fighting over a title is still considered important. And the titles actually do mean something to the wrestlers, even though they’re not won through physical competition. It’s a sign of recognition within the company, and of success. And in reverse, a wrestling company wants someone popular and celebrated to be their champion, so as to draw more money, as well as to satisfy dramatic narratives.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Wrestling is ‘fixed’, as in the outcome is predetermined. Precisely what that has meant has changed over time.

Back in the day, many sports has matches that were fixed, including boxing. Fighters figured out that they could do better if they only pretended to beat each other up. However, it’s much harder to have a convincing fake boxing match. With wrestling, only you and your opponent know exactly how hard you’re squeezing a hold, and fighting to get out. Thus, fixed wrestling events became standard.

Over time, any pretense of it being real has gone. And with that, matches are allowed to go to more fantastical places. However, the basic drama of having contenders fighting over a title is still considered important. And the titles actually do mean something to the wrestlers, even though they’re not won through physical competition. It’s a sign of recognition within the company, and of success. And in reverse, a wrestling company wants someone popular and celebrated to be their champion, so as to draw more money, as well as to satisfy dramatic narratives.