A lot of people ask why do people like wrestling when they know it's fake and they also think they have a lot of sexism in it. I'm here to discuss this.
When I hear someone say "Wrestling is fake. They are basically landing on a mattress or pillows." I say hold up. First of all the ring mat is built with two by fours with very little padding. I've seen them build one and tear it down to go to the next venue. This sport is not ballet. These athletes experience major and life threatening injuries.
To give you some examples, Triple H suffered a major quad tear and continued to wrestle through a whole match. He then had to have surgery and was out for nine months. He was told he could probably never wrestle again but, he prevailed and is semi active today. Edge broke his neck and was inches from being paralyzed. Mick Foley had three fourths of his ear completely torn off. Also Mick Foley was thrown off the top of the Hell in the Cell (A pay per view) cage that was twenty feet high and landed on the announce table. X-Pac tore his rectum open in a match. Chris Benoit had the brain of an eighty-five year old alzheimer's patient from all of the concussions, which lead to him killing his wife and son, and Test's wasn't any healthier! Joey Mercury lost some of his sight in one eye. Darren Drozdov is paralyzed. They suffer real life injuries!
All of the outcomes may be predetermined but all of the wrestling in the ring is completely improvised. Pro wrestling requires your health to be on the line night-in and night-out! If you fall off a twenty five foot ladder, you are going to be hurting and maybe even shaking like when Dean Ambrose did it. I watched it live and he was still shaking after the match was over, They are on tour 365 days a year. They don't get any time to rest up unless they are given time off. Which doesn't happen a lot!
They are entertaining millions of people and for the fans they mean everything to them. The connection with the fans is what drives them for some and that connection is stronger than any other celebrity with their fans. Fans get to meet their favorite stars and it happens more often than you think! One little fan made headlines in WWE! Connor "The Crusher" Michalek was a eight year old little fan with cancer. He may looked sick but you wouldn't even think about it when you were talking to him. He even had a little match with Triple H. The ref counted one two three and Connor had triumphed! WWE had given him and his family front row seats to Wrestlemania thirty. After his favorite wrestler Daniel Bryan won the WWE World Heavyweight championship, Daniel walked over to him and told him to keep fighting and that Connor gave him strength. Unfortunately Connor lost his fight. WWE has a "Connors Cure" bracelet that they sell and all of the proceeds go to Connors Cure! Even Stephanie McMahon's t-shirts that sell go to Connors Cure! They are even giving him the first ever Warrior award and inducting him into the WWE Hall Of Fame this year! He is the first ever fan to be inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame. This little boy has rocked the wrestling world to its core in an absolutely positive way!
Over time we appreciate all the work that they do and love to see them prevail and have a title reign. Some of the characters are over exaggerated versions of themselves, which makes it more real and personal.
Some of the wrestlers have very close bonds with each other because they are on the road all the time. They ride together and some of them just talk about the business. Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and X-Pac are one example. Backstage they were called "The Kliq" because they would all be together all the time. They had a bad rep backstage. Everyone thought that they were controlling the business through the owner. They are also known for their antics on and off stage. On the last night of Kevin Nash and Scott Hall being in WWF (WWE) as they called it back then, The Kliq wanted to share their love for another by having one last moment in the ring together. Emotions were running high that night as they were saying goodbye to one last time they would be together in the ring. It had gone as far as them hugging in the ring, which was very bad. Good guys and Bad guys were only seen fighting each other, not at all hugging each other. They had broken kayfabe. Triple H got all the heat for that because Shawn Michaels was champion, X-Pac was in rehab, and of course Kevin Nash and Scott Hall left for WCW, which is their rival brand at the time. They are still close and they still have that amazing bond to this day, that only brothers in the business can create and form.
Everything is caused by the fans. When a lot of people get behind a guy, the company starts to push the superstar or diva as they call them. The best pro wrestlers are not only tough but can also speak well on a microphone, have a lot of charisma, and possess the underrated ability to tell an amazing story using all of their skills. In pro wrestling, as with comedy, becoming a master takes years of training and experience. Over time people can absolutely hate a wrestler (mainly heels) or love them to pieces (mainly babyfaces.), but a lot of people love the bad guys and actually hate the good guys. Like with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, and CM Punk! They capitalized in pro wrestling with their heel personas with their rebel/anti authority characters. But even for some they love the "babyfaces". John Cena is one of the top good guys in the business. The stereotypical John Cena fans are Kids and Women. He probably has the most famous, annoying, and typical chant in the business with the fans. "Let's go Cena." and "Cena Sucks." probably started around when Cena became the super Cena that he is today. There are so many debates in the wrestling world. Some mentions are like The Montreal Screwjob, The streak, and whether Triple H has had all the success in the company because he married Stephanie McMahon, Vince McMahon's daughter AKA The owner of WWE.
Also in pro wrestling there is a lot of controversy about sexism. But some older female wrestlers that wrestled in the fifties held the titles for years. Mae Young and The Fabulous Moolah was in the business till the day that they died. Whether it actually wrestling to it was a backstage scene or a whole storyline they were up for it because it was something that they loved and was very passionate for. They are both in the WWE Hall of Fame. Everything changed because the times changed. In the early later years, like in the eighties the women in the company were just eye candy and valets to the ring. Their clothes were a tad skimpy. But everything started to go completely sexual when the nineties hit. Woman started to come out with very little clothing on and were all over the men wrestlers. The storylines were raunchy. Still a lot of people tuned in but the product was aimed at the time for mainly 19- 30 year old guys. One woman wrestler named Sable started to come out with less and less clothing. At one point she just had hand prints on her breasts and a very small waist cover that only needed to cover the specific area. That was the Attitude Era which was the most raunchiest time in WWE and to some, one of the best times in the company.
Even the guys where doing it. DX (Which composed of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, And Chyna at one point then they added Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, and X-Pac) always did a crotch chop and said "Suck it!". DX was a major component of it. One time DX brought a spray gun to the ring and shot it from their crotch and white water came out. Also they would make very dirty jokes and did some stuff that was not really supposed to be on TV. But the more they did everything more people tuned it. It was a battle for ratings. WCW and WWF had a major ratings feud. Which WWF/WWE won and made WCW go bankrupt then Vince McMahon bought it and airs it on the WWE Network.
The divas don't get enough credit in the ring. They usually only have a five to ten minute match while the men can have a forty-five minute match. The shortest time ever for a Divas match is thirty seconds! They don't get the chance to refine their skills. They work twice as hard as the men to stay on top.
My conclusion is that people love pro wrestling because its something that they can watch for three to two hours and forget about their problems for awhile and that is the case with me. Most people don't get the bonds that we have. Not only with the wrestlers but with the people who like/love it too! You can make a lot of friends because of fandoms like this! It brings a lot of people together. Whether we are debating over something or we are obsessing over our favorite superstars, divas, and even couples, we are still in one big happy fandom at the end of the day that sometimes makes us mad and then sometimes super happy. The fight for dominance in a ring is what drives us. The storylines are compelling and interesting. Finally, pro wrestling is life for us!