Why can wrestler’s compete well into their 40s and sometimes 50s and stay in great shape and perform crazy stunts but actual professional athletes rarely play into their even late 30s?

Question

Please don’t just tell me because wrestling is fake because a quick Google search on wrestler’s injuries and you’ll see that it’s definitely not fake all the time and is very dangerous.

In: Other

Answer 1

More established wrestlers whose career span decades have “paid their dues” and don’t work a lot of shows. The Undertaker was on a handful of PPV’s and Raw/Smackdown every year but rarely did house shoes.

Also for the older generation of wrestlers it may not be by choice. A lot of these guys didn’t make a lot of money, or at least didn’t save much, and don’t feel they have much in the way of marketable skills or desire to learn a new profession at 45 or 50.

You see guys from the 80s and early 90s banging it out at small independent shows on the regular. Many will tell you it’s because they love it but I met a few guys in the 00s who basically said “it’s this or landscaping at 50”