What Wrestling Means to Me

[Thriller Ant]

I saw this in a post in a different thread, and I was compelled to put in my two cents. I figured I'd put it in a new thread, since it would be spam if I put it there.

Face/Heel 101 is outdated. It also exposes the business. It's not realistic for example, for MVP to be terrified of Matt Hardy, then the next day kick his ass with Hardy being afraid of MVP.

I just can't stand the Hogan formula though. I don't know why or how anyone got behind Hogan in the 80s. Piper was the guy people shoulda been cheering for.

The business is already exposed. Anyone over the age of about 11 knows that wrestling is staged. Wrestling is an escape. In real life, the good guys don't always win. In real life, there aren't always happy endings. But in wrestling, the good guys overcome the odds all the time. These guys are here to help distract us from how much life sucks. For me at least, I know that 5 hours a week I don't have to think about my life while I'm watching Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. I use wrestling as an escape and a different perspective toward life. I really can't imagine how my life would be different if I hadn't starting watching wrestling again a couple years ago. So I guess what I'm asking is what does wrestling mean to you?

Of course, please don't spam in your answers.

 

[pyrusane]

Wow, this is an interesting question. Good topic.

I started watching wrestling about 23 years ago, and at the time it was my favorite thing on tv. Hell, I'd watch wrestling instead of cartoons on Saturday morning. I wanted to see the faces win, to cheer for Hogan and Steamboat and Strike Force and even Ultimate Warrior, see them beat DiBiase and Big Boss Man and the Hart Foundation. I was utterly and completely immersed in the shows, to the point where my G I Joes weren't soldiers anymore, they were wrestlers.

As I grew up, my relationship with wrestling changed. I was 19 I think when I finally admitted to myself that it wasn't real, and I stopped watching it for a long time. Several years in fact. Then, one day I was over at a friends house and they were watching Monday Nitro, and holy hell, there was the NWO, and they were bad ass. And there was some weird looking dude up in the rafters, trying to look like the Crow, and when I realized it was Sting I couldn't believe it. Where was his bleached blonde hair and his colorful face paint? I was hooked again. Except this time I knew that there were storylines, I knew that the outcomes were predetermined, and with that knowledge I was able to enjoy it in a different way. Instead of worrying about who won or lost, I was able to enjoy the entertainment aspect of it, enjoy it as a show.

And that's what it has remained for me. I watch it as often as I can, some weeks I end up with eight hours, between WWE and TNA, some weeks less. If I miss a show, I find out what happened on this very site, which I've been reading since 1999. I actually joined this forum in 2001, but didn't make my first post until this past December. If wrestling were to go away tomorrow, I would miss it greatly, but life would go on, is what I mean to say.

The product that I grew up with and the product that we see today are two very different things, and in some ways it kind of feels like wrestling grew up with me as much as I grew up with wrestling. So its kind of like an old friend that I love to see whenever I can, but that I would eventually forget about if it were gone.

Great topic man, top notch.