Why Wrestling?

[klunderbunker]

It's a most interesting question I found myself pondering earlier today: why is wrestling something we all love so much? You rarely see the kind of devotion that wrestling fans have to anything else in life. I mean some of us watch 8 hours of new television a week, 11 during PPV weeks, and that's not even counting any old school stuff you might watch. That's nearly 4 NFL games, 11 episodes of shows like Heroes or Law and Order or 22 episodes (a full season) of something like Friends or Seinfeld every single week. Can you imagine trying to watch that many new episodes of something else every week? I certainly can't imagine trying to do that, yet we keep watching. Why? 8 hours a week is a very long time. That's a full day of work. Think about that: in a five day work week, a good many of us likely spend the equivalent of a whole day watching wrestling every single week. That's simply illogical. Why would anyone want to do something like that? What is it about wrestling that is so addictive that no matter how many times it ticks us off or we swear up and down we'll never watch this stuff again that we're back next week watching all over again? Nothing at all is logical about that when you think about it. So why do we do it? What is it about wrestling that makes it so addictive? It's not like we don't have better things we could be doing with our time, yet we keep coming back over and over again. I have no idea why I do it, but I know I'm going to keep doing it for as long as I can imagine. What about you guys? Why wrestling and not something else?

 

[NSL]

I watch wrestling because it gives me everything that any other show can, all in one place. You get drama, comedy, action, and sexy women all in one. And, after watching a lot of the modern sitcoms, I think the characters in wrestling are second to none.

I don't watch the 8 hours, or even close, but I do tune in to Impact and ECW every week, and have tried to watch as many TNA PPVs as possible. That's still in the range of 3-6 hours a week, and is about the amount of time I spend watching stuff like football (4 games = 12 hours), Family Guy (~4 hours), Futurama (~4 hours) in an average week.

 

[Stickstar 16]

Well as a sociology major, with males its generally because we see violence as a form of dominance so we watch things like wrestling because it thrives on that theory that the stronger man will succeed and win.

On a more personal note i like the thrills and the risk, the cool spots and the technicalities of wrestling. Pretty much, everything in wrestling really. I find its like a male soap opera, with out making it sound sissy, it has entertainment, it has drama and tension, but there is also the actual wrestling and the in ring psychology, the flow and combination of styles, seeing a Yoshi Tatsu vs a William Regal, a Jeff Hardy vs a CM Punk, and how they interact with each other and how through their work i'm sold on a story of how these people hate and want to destroy each other, how they interact and how they involve the crowd.

I think its also the display of the moves and stuff, where you may not be able to see in other disciplines, like MMA may have the Submissions and some of the strikes, and different martial arts may have the different kicks and strike moves, but lot of the moves and the skill of the superstars that perform them are found only in wrestling

 

[RVDgurl]

Wrestling has been a part of my life as long as I can remember, so it's become habit. It's the one thing I know that I will always be entertained by on television. Wrestling combines athleticism, action, drama, and comedy. Wrestling came evoke emotion that most other TV shows can't- it can make you laugh, make you angry and make you cry. Not to mention that there's no off season- which means that cliff hangers only last week to week not over the course of several months.

 

[oogieboogie]

I remember first watching wrestling. In my area in London, we somehow received 2 free Sky channels without a satellite (Sky One and Sports Channel). At the time i was 11 years old and friends at school would discuss wrestling, but i never knew anything about it.

I remember watching Superstars, i think it was. This was when the intro had just Warrior, anyone remember that? It was like it was in a purpleish desert with these spiked things and the camera was winding through them to find Warrior. This was just around the time Warrior lost the title to Slaughter. I remember watching clips of that RR.
From that moment i just started watching it and enjoyed it. It was different from anything i had seen before with the colourful characters and storylines.

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

Well, I got hooked in the Hogan Era with the concept of Good vs Evil, and being the instigator I was, fell in love with the entire concept. Absolutely loved the characters and gimmicks. I especially loved the wrestling managers as a kid, and often envisioned myself in their same position ... stirring up trouble.

As I grew older, I stayed addicted to wrestling because it became a male soap opera with storyline elements.

Today, most of those storyline elements are gone, and the character elements have gone away so that today, I really don't find too many of the wrestlers personalities all that interesting. It's just the result of having everything entirely too toned down. WWE simply does not give enough reason to its audience to become emotionally invested with an overwhelming majority of the talent anymore.

I haven't watched any WWE program in a month. I do read spoilers and results, and I go back to You Tube if any segment sounds interesting.

But I have broken my WWE wrestling addiction as far as watching the shows. I still enjoy talking about the business in general, rehashing old memories, and discussing the good and the bad with people.

I do watch TNA now more than I do WWE. I try to catch Impact each week. I may miss a week here and there, but I usually catch it.

They do have more storyline elements that appeal to me and I find their personalities generally more interesting than I do compared to the watered down personalities of WWE who are "afraid" to curse, threaten, etc.