Does anyone here view Pro Wrestling as a sport?

[WrestlingHistorian]

I know it's a taboo question seeing as how we all know it's scripted and we all know that the outcomes are pre determined, but does anyone here consider pro wrestling a sport?

I watch Pro Wrestling in the same mindset that I do the NBA or the NFL or any other major sporting event, I have always considered pro wrestling a sport and always will NO MATTER what the definition of a sport is. I avoid storylines for the most part and I focus primarily on the in ring product and the competition only, I also view the champions in a different light than competitors who are not champions and I tend to put them up on a pedistal as if they are SuperBowl MVP's or something to that effect, it makes them more important in my eyes. I look at titles as an achievement and as a mark of being the best in the sport and not just a prop used to get someone "over", I treat wrestling as I would any major sporting competition, some would agree, others wouldn't. I also try not to read spoilers and I try to keep things fresh and that way I am suprised when something happens.

So how do you view your wrestling?

 

[Mustang Sally]

I don't think there's anything wrong with your regarding wrestling as a sport, especially since pre-arranged results are still interesting to the viewer who doesn't know in advance what the outcome will be.

In my opinion, however, wrestling is more like acting on a stage; i.e. like a Broadway play. In a stage production or a wrestling show, the chance to flub one's lines is always present and there is no director yelling "cut" when things get messed up, as in a show on TV or in the movies. As Gorilla Monsoon used to say: "There is no time out in wrestling."

However, I admire the wrestlers even more than stage actors because of the physical prowess needed to perform. Actors don't have to worry about messing up a move and being embarrassed in front of millions of people.

But it's that "pre-arranged" aspect that separates wrestling from real sport. Call it sports entertainment, call it a show, call it an exhibition.......but I can't see it as a sport.

 

[WrestlingHistorian]

I don't think there's anything wrong with your regarding wrestling as a sport, especially since pre-arranged results are still interesting to the viewer who doesn't know in advance what the outcome will be.

In my opinion, however, wrestling is more like acting on a stage; i.e. like a Broadway play. In a stage production or a wrestling show, the chance to flub one's lines is always present and there is no director yelling "cut" when things get messed up, as in a show on TV or in the movies. As Gorilla Monsoon used to say: "There is no time out in wrestling."

However, I admire the wrestlers even more than stage actors because of the physical prowess needed to perform. Actors don't have to worry about messing up a move and being embarrassed in front of millions of people.

But it's that "pre-arranged" aspect that separates wrestling from real sport. Call it sports entertainment, call it a show, call it an exhibition.......but I can't see it as a sport.

Yeah, a lot of people would see it your way and thats totally cool, I just prefer to view it as a sport reguardless of the definition. In Japan they treat wrestling as if it were a sport, thats why I love Puro stuff, it's got such good in ring product and it's got mainstream appeal in Japan and even gets covered in newspapers and on the news, unlike here in the U.S where the only time wrestling is covered on the news is if someone kills their family or is arrested for something.

 

[The Redcrosse Knight]

Yes, in the same way that sex is a sport; it's competitive and the participants know how it will end. In all seriousness, great athleticism goes into the average a pro wrestling match, and I would like to think that the "entertainers" are doing their best to engage in competitive storytelling.

The first defenition on dictionary.com:

Sport
1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

Yes, I'd say wrestling is a sport.

 

[agentmichaelscarn]

I don't consider it a sport because I think a sport has to be a legit competition. In my eyes bowling is more of a sport than wrestling just because it is legit and not scripted. But I do consider wrestlers athletes because what they do takes a lot of athletic ability and there are many pro athletes that couldn't do what these guys do night in and night out.

 

[TwistofRKO]

I don't think it is, because even by the definiton just provided, sports are defined as a legitimate athletic competition.

I do, however, consider the "entertainers" as athletes though. I'm sure you could claim that's crossing one another out, but I think the actions they perform justify them more athletically than wrestling as an actual sport.

Whatever you define it as it remains entertaining.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

There are people that i want to see win, and professional wrestling still has the whole suspense, unpredictability, disappointment and joy of watching said wrestlers win/lose, just like any real sport.

The problem is however, is that not only are the results pre-determined, but once you're watched wrestling for a decade or so like i have, there are patterns that you pick up on and you can often tell the results of certain matches before they even start. Orton's Rumble win was the most obvious example that has occurred recently. Then you're left with only the match itself and how it was carried out to focus on. Now when watching PPV it's usually a fun ride full of twists and turns. Watching Raw however, where most matches last no longer than 5 minutes, and more often than not there are ad-breaks in the middle, and the ending is lame, then you find yourself wondering, 'why do i still bother?'

So while it presents itself as a sport, and has a lot of parallels with sports, i still don't treat it as one. I acknowledge the entertainment part of the 'sports entertainment' label first, and unfortunately Vince McMahon is now doing the same.

 

[WrestlingHistorian]

Reguardless of what an encyclopedia defines "sport" as, I will always watch pro wrestling as a sport and watch it in the same vein as I would a baseball or basketball game, it makes the product more fun to me and it makes the artform seem more important. Definitions aside, pro wrestling is a sport to me and always will be, thats kind of the great thing about pro wrestling, you can make it whatever you want it to be. It can be sport, entertainment, fake, real, good, bad or whatever, but just because Vince makes it to be more entertainment than sport that does not mean fans have to follow it that way.

 

[tehblogger]

"Sport" is usually defined as by definition competitive. Tennis and soccer count as sports: ballet, although providing great entertainment and requiring superb athleticism, is usually considered as not counting. Nor is darts (lack of athleticism). Ice climbing doesn't either...not competitive. Although the competitive element in wrestling is often under-rated. The wrestlers surely are competing...not to win the match, but to get over, to put on the best spectacle of the night. Competitive, no?

I'm indulging in some sophistry here - I don't really believe all this - but in the English Premier League (soccer) ,strikers are routinely paid hundreds of thousands of pounds more per annum than are goalkeepers and defenders. Now, while scoring goals is obviously important in football, it has long been a truism in football that the best teams are built on a bedrock of solid defence, and that a great attack is usually a secondary requirement (look at the Italian national team throughout their history, or Greece at Euro 2004, or Man United this season. And the season before. And...).

So, WHY are strikers paid more? I can only assume it's because they are the greater box-office draws: people pay to see Ronaldo and Rooney, not Vidic. Well, they are. But, given that Vidic is probably more important to the team...shouldn't he get paid more? Well, no, he doesn't...just as Cena probably earns more than everybody else because he is the biggest draw.

My point is that the vaunted claims of other "sports" over wrestling on close inspection prove to be dubious. Certainly soccer pay seems to be much more related to entertainment than competition, and while in tennis the greatest prize-money goes to the winners, appearance fees for the top players have long since distorted pay scales supposedly based on results. And that's before we even get into sponsorship for "talents" like Anna Kournikova.

Wrestling may not be sport, but frankly, what is these days?