Outcome only thing fake about wrestling

Growing up in the South, I always loved three things – fried food, football and some good old-fashioned professional wrestling.

Not wrestling as in high school wrestling, I’m talking about wrasslin’. You know, greased up muscle men in tight shorts sporting their best Sunday mullet with tight and colorful bands around their elbows.

I’m talking about good guys versus bad guys wrestling – Hulk Hogan against Andre the Giant style.

I’m talking steel cage matches, grown men hitting one another with steel chairs and people being driven through wooden tables – an idea that for whatever reason is appealing to my coworker, Mr. Richard Fischer.

Sorry A.C. Slater, but that’s REAL wrestling.

As a child, the sport was amazing to me. It was like real-life GI Joes multiplied times four Ninja Turtles, while washing down a pair of speed pills with some Red Bull. Imagine a 10-year-old seeing real people doing things that would be considered assault in all 50 states with no consequences – absolutely amazing for an adventurous young boy.

Heck, it’s still absolutely amazing to a now 23-year-old grown man.

So I know what you’re going to say, it’s the ultimate scarlet letter in every discussion about wrestling.

“But Casey, you do realize that it’s fake, right?”

Wrong.

To everyone out there who thinks the “fighting” and “athletic” aspect of wrestling is fake, I have a challenge for you right now.

Firstly, go challenge Brock Lesnar to a fistfight.

Since MMA’s inception, several professional wrestlers have crossed over to the “real” stuff, and they have all done very well. Lesnar, a former professional wrestler, is the current UFC heavyweight champion. The person regarded as his biggest challenger? That would be Bobby Lashley, also a WWE alum.

These guys don’t seem like stiffs when you put it like that, right?

My second challenge for you people who drop this “fake” stuff is this: throw yourself flat onto the ground.

Go ahead, tough guy, throw yourself onto the ground.

Then when you get up, do it again.

And again.

And then 10 times more after that.

That’s the world wrestlers live in where they continuously take bump after bump on a nightly basis.

If they’re a little sore, you know what they do? They rub some dirt on it and keep going. There’s no offseason in wrestling. They are like a sport without a postseason or a touring band without a final concert – it’s a 51-week per year job. Wrestlers perform usually 300 times a year, according to WWE.com. That’s 300 nights of throwing yourself onto the ground.

So you passed the first and second tests?

Here’s another. Climb to the top of a 10-foot ladder, and then jump off it through a wooden table.

Not so brave to do this one, chief?

Well if wrestling is “fake,” then you have nothing to worry about right? They do these types of things on TV all of the time. Every Monday night show or Sunday night Pay Per View is like a full-fledged, two-hour action movie, except the stunt men are the actual performers themselves, putting their lives and careers at risk for the adrenaline rush they will feel when the 20,000 fans in attendance rise to their feet in anticipation of the next big turn in a match.

Sure, it’s amazing when it works.

But the injury that occurs is very real when it doesn’t.

Take top-flight WWE performer Edge for example.

Edge broke into the wrestling business in 1992 at the ripe age of 19. He’s been wrestling ever since and is now one of the most recognizable faces on the WWE circuit, having won several world championships.

But along the way, Edge has also won quite a few battle scars, most notably a broken neck, a torn groin, a torn pectoral muscle and a ruptured Achilles Tendon.

You trying to tell me those injuries are fiction, too?

When typical athletes get these types of injuries, they are a product of hard work, blood sweat and tears in the eyes of their loyal supporters.

So why is it that when wrestlers suffer the same fate, it’s a frowned upon because the sport is “fake?”

Now, granted, I am not the most objective person regarding this topic, because as I’ve stated above, I have always bled WWE through and through my entire life. I bled WWF before it was even WWE, so that should tell you that Vince McMahon and myself go way back.

But for all of you who are aboard the “fake” bandwagon, I challenge you to spend a little time in the ring to prove your point to be valid.

If a person is able to last five minutes, I’d be super impressed.