Is Professional Wrestling Modern-day Theater or Trashy Entertainment for Rednecks?

For as long as I can remember I have been a fan of professional wrestling and yes for much of my life I was what is called a mark. A mark is a fan of professional wrestling who buys into the characters and believes the storylines and moves are real. However a little over 10 years ago I ended up becoming friends with a man trying to break into the professional wrestling business. He opened my eyes to a lot of things about the business that I thought I knew but I was wrong. Although that's not what this article is about.

So let's get back on track wrestling is entertainment. No longer do the promoters and wrestlers try to hide the fact that they are acting out storylines. In fact today's professional wrestling is more story than it is wrestling. In my opinion especially World Wrestling Entertainment really have a theatrical flair with the way they produce there stories. They use a wide variety of the same techniques used in theater such as lighting, music, and costumes. They even take it a step further with pyrotechnics.

In some cases wrestling ability is not even a requirement for some entertainers such as Hulk Hogan for instance who admittedly couldn't wrestle his way out of a paper bag but to be fair to him over his career he did learn a few wrestling holds. Although his in ring ability is still the worst I have ever seen he still today after 26 years has one of the biggest followings among wrestling fans. For that reason I'm definitely not a fan of his. Again his drawing ability is the theatrical aspects of his character. The persona of Hulk Hogan with his say your prayers and eat your vitamins and being driven or powered by his fans or Hulkamaniacs as he calls them, no evil can keep him down. If that's not theatrical I don't know what is.

The biggest example of how professional wrestling is theatrical has to be the World Wrestling Entertainments The Undertaker. Everything from his entrance to the character's in ring manner screams theater. I've seen his entrances live and there's nothing else like it. The lights go out and the Bell tolls as the fog begins to roll in and that old funeral hymn playing on an organ sucks you right into the whole experience. The whole entrance has a very poetic feel about it. Although the character of the Undertaker is very unique. I have never seen any other wrestler before or after capture the same emotions as the Undertaker.

So in my opinion, yes wrestling is very much like modern-day theater I do have a few complaints about their storytelling but I'll get into that in another article. Now granted I doubt any professional wrestlers are going to win any Tony's or any other theatrical awards but keep this in mind most of the work they do is in front of a live audience and a large part of the dialogue has to be improvised so their success depends on the delivery and the charisma of the wrestler. For instance I have seen several wrestlers given good characters or gimmicks as they are referred to in the wrestling business but for some reason the wrestler still cannot get over with the audience meaning there still disliked. On the other hand you can have a great wrestler who is very charismatic and likable who can make any gimmick work. A sort of should we say Robert De Niro of the wrestling business.

As for the opposing argument, yes wrestling is over exaggerate. Yes you can tell there not really hurting each other and yes some of the storylines are trashy. Honestly though, who hasn't gotten caught up in a soap opera or late-night drama like Knots Landing or Dallas? The wrestling entertainment business is like any other entertainment business. They learned early on that controversy sells and the more controversial your product is the more money you're going to make. As for the fans yes there are entirely too many people who take it too serious and buy into everything that happens on the shows. That's not true of every fan there are many people who watch it for the entertainment value alone and then there are also those who watch for the more dangerous side of wrestling. Real or not what they do in the ring is dangerous and there are accidents were people get seriously hurt. That doesn't make these kind of fans any more disturbed than the fans of NASCAR who watch just to see the car wrecks.

In closing I guess it's just up to the individual. Just because I believe wrestling is theatrical doesn't mean more people should be a fan of it. I'm sure there's a large group of people that don't like theater. I think people in general should be less judgmental when it comes to people's likes and dislikes of entertainment. The world would be a very boring place if we were all interested in the exact same thing. Life is about experience try new things before condemning them. Who knows what you might miss out on by an unwillingness to try new things.