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When the hero or the villain of the drama, the man who was seen a few minutes earlier possessed by moral rage, magnified into a sort of metaphysical sign, leaves the wrestling hall, impassive, anonymous, carrying a small suitcase and arm-in-arm with his wife, no one can doubt that wrestling holds the power of transmutation which is common to the Spectacle and to Religious Worship. In the ring, and even in the depths of their voluntary ignominy, wrestlers remain gods because they are, for a few moments, the key which opens Nature, the pure gesture which separates Good from Evil, and unveils the form of a Justice which is at last intelligible.
Roland Barthes, "Mythologies" (1957)

"To those who believe in the beauty of professional wrestling, nothing needs to be said. For those who don't appreciate wrestling, nothing could be said to change their minds."

At the time, in a sexist way, it was considered a moment “for the gals,” as Miss Elizabeth ran from the crowd to reunite with Randy, after saving him from a Sensational Sherri beating, and though it’s soapy, the embrace of wrestling’s golden couple remains one of the genre’s most memorable tableaux. Twenty-three years on, all of its players are now dead. Apart maybe from the kid with the big glasses and enormous floppy orange hat, who was seen weeping with joy.
Stuart Millard, "Always Believe"

Wrestling storylines aren’t like any other storylines you’ll see on TV; they’re typically much, much worse. No ordinary TV series could get away with the disjointed plots that wrestling fans are subjected to on a regular basis. Even series with the most notoriously convoluted stories made up as the writers went along, like The X-Files or Twin Peaks or Lost, can’t hold a candle to the inconsistencies, plot holes, and revisionism found on a month’s worth of Raw.

Jay: Backstage, Kanyon cuts a face promo, saying he puts his friendship with DDP ahead of the New Blood, and you get ahead in business "not by kissing ass, but busting your own." That's just...simply not true. It's a nice sentiment though. So Steve, how do you get ahead in rasslin'?
OOC: By marryin' the boss' daughter.
V1: By aligning yourself with the top guys.
Jay: Sabotaging others, guaranteed contract, Creative Control, and—if possible—wear bicycle shorts.
OSW Review on WCW Thunder Ep. 34

Now that I know all of the secrets of wrestling, I can never watch again. How can I watch Rey Mysterio perform a suicide corkscrew plancha, knowing full well that it's fake, and that there is a simple trick to it that ANYONE could do? How can I believe that heels are really evil, when I know the old ladies they're shoving in the audience are actually plants that work for the wrestling promoter? Now that the veil of deception has been torn from my eyes I'm through with wrestling forever, and will only spend my time watching REAL athletic competitions such as Harlem Globetrotter games.
DDT on The Secrets of Wrestling

Bryan: It's either two people, or two groups of people, that hate each other.
Vinny: That is the common thread, yes.
Bryan: That's it. You spend a month, making it very clear why everybody hates each other. You take a month and have a pull apart maybe, here or there. You take a month and have each man explain, or woman in this case, why they don't like each other and then you say, on this date they'll all be fighting. And it doesn't matter if it's a real fight or a fake fight.
Vinny: That's what people want to see.
Bryan: People want to see? That's like saying, the whole real fake thing, 'Bryan, I only watch documentaries. I don't watch films, they're fake.' Okay, I guarantee the that the biggest documentary made smidgen of the money Titanic madenote . It doesn't matter. It doesn't fucking matter. People want to see a confrontation, whether it's real or fake.
The Bryan and Vinny Show: TNA iMPACT 4/12/2007

"Wrestling: a sport where people without pants fight for a belt."
Lexie Fyfe

"There are people who think that wrestling is an ignoble sport. Wrestling is not a sport, it is a spectacle, and it is no more ignoble to attend a wrestled performance of Suffering than a performance of the sorrows of Arnolphe or Andromaque."
Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", from the book, Mythologies.

Cage match, hell inside the cell
Hardcore, blood the tale will tell
Choreographed, for the crowd appeal
Screenplay, the pain is truly real
Anvil, "Pro Wrestling"

"When you think about it, wrestling is amazing. We don't give up on professional wrestling because it's brilliant! It's an amalgamation of theatrical performance, physical endeavor, competition, live action, horror, fiction, thriller, romance, nostalgia, animation, comedy, and a whole host of other words that mean doing things live, in front of your face, that apply to a lot of other areas of entertainment. It's a hybrid of so many brilliant things, so in turn, it's more brilliant that all of them put together. The beauty of it all, however, is it's subject to subjectivity. Vince McMahon may like his big sweaty men, while you may like the exact opposite, and I like something in between, and his name is Mojo Rawley. There's nothing in the world like professional wrestling. 'Let the world crap on our parade', I say, 'as long as we don't give up on it, it won't give up on us, and it will be our beautiful little secret forever'."

"The thing about it is, this entire industry is based on men solving their problems in between these ropes. This is the company that gives you Hell in a Cell, this is the company that gives you the Elimination Chamber... I don't want to sound like a broken record, but "unsafe working conditions?" I thrive on that! Hell, this is professional wrestling, this ain't ballet!"
CM Punk, WWE Monday Night Raw Oct. 10, 2011

"It’s 2018, and independent wrestling promoters are STILL trying to dictate where independent contractors can and can't work. Plain and simple... This starts, and ends with the talent. Keep eating shit, and promoters will keep serving it to you."

"Pro wrestling combines the thrill of live sports with the drama of storytelling...it's the perfect art form..."
LISA

"Wrestling is a love story"
Cody Rhodes, after returning to WWE at Wrestlemania 38

"Wrestling is not a love story, it's a Fairy Tale for masochists. A comedy for people who criticize punchlines. A fantasy most can't understand, a spectacle no one can deny. Lines are blurred. Heroes are villains. Budgets are cut. Business is business.
But it can also be a land where Dead men walk. Where Honor makes you Elite. Where Demons run for office. And Rock bottom is a reason to rejoice. WOOOOO! It's an escape. A reason to point the blame at anyone but yourself for 2-3 hours. An excuse to be a kid again, and nothing matters except the moment we are in. Wrestling is not a love story, it's much more. It's hope.
And in a world surrounded in hate, greed and violence, a world where closure may never come. We all know a place that has hot and cold hope on tap. For better or for worse."
Windham Rotunda, a/k/a Bray Wyatt, 7 August 2022

"My body is riddled with injuries and I'm definitely gonna have CTE by the time I'm done, so I don't think that is fake. Look, it is what it is. If you wanna watch MMA, go and watch MMA. If you wanna watch boxing, go and watch boxing. To me, wrestling is sports entertainment, it's a mix of athlethicism with storytelling. That's why I love it. Personally, I'm kind of bored if there's no action and drama and this and that. That's why I love the WWE style of the bullshit and the fuckery and the drama and the promos, like that is what I'm drawn to. So, I think if you're watching wrestling because you want it to be real, you're watching the wrong thing. It's what everyone says, you know, you watch a movie because you suspend disbelief that, you know, this could be reality, it's the same for wrestling, but, I don't know, a backflip is a backflip, if you can fake that, let me know 'cause I can't do that shit."
Stephanie Delander, f.k.a. Persia Pirotta

"[Wrestling] is like everything else, it's music, it's movies. There have been classics, there have been things that'll stand the test of time... and there's been shit where people just had to say 'I don't ever want to see anything that looks like that ever again.'"
—Promoter and 12 time Manager of the Year winner Jim Cornette

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