Pro Wrestling: Why I Can Get With It and Not MMA or Boxing

(2 votes, average 4.50 out of 5)

Written by Shane Howard

Sunday, 08 November 2009 22:36

I have always stated that I am a lover not a fighter. This probably explains why I enjoy watching professional wrestling.

What?! How can you be a lover and not a fighter but enjoy wrestling?

Well, the fact that wrestling is predetermined and leaves the viewer entertained, for the most part, is what attracts me.

Predetermined?!

Sorry, kids, wrestling is staged. Yup. Might as well get this all out of the way now. That jolly fat guy in a red suit who comes by yoiur home around Christmas morning? He's fake too. Hell, all those stories of certain animals associated with holidays are fake too. Well, all but Frosty. That snowman is too cool to not be real.

Anyway, the fact that I know the event is staged does hook me. I know, nine times out of 10 (okay, I'm embellishing here, maybe seven out of 10, but nine out of 10 is the cliché), the match will give me some entertainment value. Outside of a Kane vs. Chavo Guerrero match for the ECW Championship, I should be able to look forward to a story being told of at least 10 minutes. This is me talking about pay-per-views, by the way.

For the high cost that pay-per-view events go for nowadays, one might say screw ordering sports, I'll just order something from Playboy (plug for Playboy there, no pun intended. Hef, give us a call). When I gullible individuals have to shell out at least $30 dollars to see a pay-per-view product, I'm going to want the best bang for my buck.

This is where my dislike for MMA and boxing come in.

Outside of what I see is just unprovoked violence, I think they have a much larger rate of hit or miss events. And if I am finding alternate means to view paying those rates I am going to need to see a hit. I do not need to see my main event attraction end quicker than a SportsCenter highlight package. How can one or two rounds of action be fully entertaining? When one punch or takedown can basically spell the end of the match at any time, where's the joy when that time happens a minute or two after the bell sounds?

And who wants to pay all that money for ONE match? Sure, MMA and boxing have other matches on a card but everyone is there for that main event. You wait an hour and a half to two to see that match you paid for. And if that main event doesn't deliver then what? I don't hear or see anyone recount in detail the matches that went on before the big matchup.

At least in wrestling your undercard matches do get recognition. It isn't always the final match that steals the show. Case in point, the Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XXV. That is simply one example but you can go through all the pay-per-view cards for wrestling and find a non-main event match that was superb.

This doesn't mean that all undercard matches in MMA and boxing aren't good, but how often to we focus on those matches? No, everyone is concerned for the main event.

Now, pro wrestling, MMA, and boxing have a lot of similarities. You have the violence factor, you have the weight class, the title belts, the extensive training regiment, and the showmanship that occurs. The weigh-ins for MMA and boxing tend to turn out very much like the "contract signings" we see in the main wrestling productions. There is a whole lot of sneering, posturing, and the men get face-to-face (in wrestling, someone typically goes through a table).

Harking back to the whole unprovoked violence issue I have with MMA and boxing. To me, there are only two motivations: money and proving one's self. In all sports you are there to win. No one plays to lose. Unless you're the 2007 Miami Heat, according to Heat forward Shawn Marion. You are getting paid to go punch in the face of this other individual who might never have physically crossed your path. Then, leading up to the bout we will get a whole lot of talking from both sides about how they will beat the other to hype up the match.

Fighting should be a last resort. Which is why I prefer the pro wrestling way. Granted, we are given those matches where someone earns the title shot and then we see a rivalry built, but for the most part the interaction was happening from the onset. There was physicality. Each individual was physically pushed to the point where they are truly looking to get their hands on the other one.

This is not to say that the jawing that the "real" fighters do leading up to their matches can't get us pumped up. On the contrary, they can be quite entertaining and palatte pleasing. However, it is far more rewarding to see things set up because someone was accidentally struck in the head with a metal chair, a wife/girlfriend was kidnapped, one's lips came in contact with another man's rear. Those things really get me hyped. Not, some of the stuff I've seen in the other two.

I doubt many will see things my way. This is, of course, if you were able to follow my rant all the way to the end. This might just be me. Or I might have several sharing my views. Who knows? But, for all those who oppose me here, I say we stand on a stage, drop down to our skivvies, and then stare at each other while we have one another's faces in front of each other.

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