Wrestling: Reality Or Fraud

Fulbright Commission

Juan Carlos Palacios V.
Level 5
7 – 9 pm.

Wrestling: Reality or Fraud?

There are two wrestlers who are supposed to fight in a ring which is inside a huge metalliccell, and then one of the wrestlers climbed the cell to start the match at the top of it. They are fighting with rage, and one of them is hitting the other with a chair. Suddenly, the one who is beenhit reacts and pushes his opponent making him fall from the top of the cage, which is sixteen feet tall, to the concrete floor destroying the announcers table on its way. Everybody thought that it wasall; also the crowd believed that after almost four minutes the match was finished, and the wrestler hurt very badly. Surprisingly he rejected the medical assistance and returned to continue abloody match. It was not a movie. It was real, and happened during a pay per view wrestling event in 1998. After hearing that story, a lot people could think that wrestling could not be real; in fact, alarge number of people, who have watched worst things like that in wrestling, believe that it is not real. Although many people believe that professional wrestling is a fraud, it is not.
Actually,professional wrestling is a spectacle, based in that sport, which objective is to entertain wrestling fans. Due to that fact, there are people who believe that professional wrestling (PW) is a fraudjust because they do not understand the difference between the sport and the spectacle. Indeed, PW has created stories, characters, feuds, and the result of each match is planned by writers andpromoters. However, one can not say that it makes PW a fraud because it is part of the show and the entertainment. For example, people can not say that movies are frauds just because they show createdstories or because the pirate that is displayed in a film is not a pirate in the real life. That would be a foolish way of thinking.
Second, wrestling moves and the action are real. Then, if...