Wrestling and the like

So I'm going to make an effort to write in this thing. Not because I think there's an internet of people out there who are clamouring to hear what I have to say, but because to improve one's writing, one simply must write.

Today, I'm going to write about something that has recently come back into my life after a long absence. That something is professional wrestling.

Yeah, the "fake" stuff. What gets me most about those who don't like/understand it is the fake thing. "I enjoy professional wrestling," I'll say, only to have them grimace and respond, "Wrestling? Isn't that fake?"

They always say that in a negative way, as if being "fake" in of itself somehow makes it bad or unworthy of attention. I could see this as being legitimate in the days of total kayfabe, when it was passed off as a legitimate sport. But, for a quite a while now, the secret has been out. It's just a show. To see wrestling as something unworthy of attention just because it is staged is ludicrous. I mean, when one watches Star Trek, does one say "This is fake, Shatner's obviously not really a starship captain." Or while watching Lawrence of Arabia cry "Peter O'Toole's never fought in a war! He's just pretending to be Lawrence!"

So what if its staged? We all know this now. We know not to bet on pro wrestling.

For me, it was Matt, a resident of the 81 Avon Empire, that got me back in. I think he really needed someone to share his love of the business with, and given my youthful devotion to the pre-Attitude era WWF, I was the perfect candidate.

Because of him, I've gotten passed the silly story lines and promo-less, TV like style of the current WWE that kept me away for so long and become more and more interested in the technical side of things. I'm able to watch and enjoy wrestling matches on their own, even if the story surrounding them is totally stupid. I've even started watching Japanese wrestling, aka puroresu, where it's still considered a legitimate sport despite the planned finishes. I watch a Japanese match and in the first few minutes see moves I've rarely, if ever, seen in a WWF/WWE/WCW match. Plus, they actually wrestle in Japan, with many reversal and holds. And Japanese announcers are to wrestling what Spanish announcers are to soccer.

Plus they get all the best wrestling video games. Sure, we have No Mercy, Day of Reckoning, and the mediocre Smackdown v. Raw series. But only recently have we gotten a new Fire Pro game (which rocks despite its graphics), and sweet looking games like Wrestle Kingdom and King of Colosseum remain in Japan, held there by lack of mass interest and licensing issue in the Americas. I'm going to have to get a modded PS2 and download them... I'd love to support the guys over there, but I can't consider paying big money for an import that I can't actually read anything in.

But that's enough of that for now. Hopefully this won't be the last entry.