History Main / ProWrestlingIsReal

** When ComicBook/SpiderMan first got his powers, he entered a wrestling tournament and beat a wrestler by the name of Crusher Hogan. Interestingly enough, Hogan came back years later, publicly stated that wrestling was fake, and that he [[BlatantLies purposefully threw the fight to Spidey.]] Though there have been stories that shown that wrestling is as scripted as it is in real life, like the Crusher Hogan story co written by real life pro wrestler Scott Levy, better known as Raven, though it also states that his fight with Spidey was a shoot.

* In 1998, the WWF hosted the infamous "[[Wrestling/WWEBrawlForAll Brawl for All]]" tournament, a series of 100% legitimate fights. It was very poorly received for a few reasons: the wrestlers who participated in the tournament (all of whom were lower and mid card performers, along with a few past-their-prime veterans) weren't conditioned to fight[[note]]it takes several months of training to get into fighting shape, and professional fighters don't fight as often as pro wrestlers wrestle, meaning that the wrestlers' bodies aren't given enough time to recover before their next fight[[/note]], leading to sloppy fights and several injuries. The fans weren't interested, chanting "Boring!" and "We want wrestling!". Even worse, the results were allegedly fudged to favor Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams, who was the favorite of the bookers, only for him to be knocked out by the eventual winner of the tournament, Bart Gunn - who was then placed into a real boxing match with professional boxer Eric "Butterbean" Esch, with Gunn being knocked out in 35 seconds and fired immediately afterwards (it is speculated by many, including Gunn himself, that the match was a punishment for Gunn knocking out Dr. Death, even though this was a shoot). Overall, the Brawl For All is widely cited as an example of why pro wrestling ''shouldn't'' be real.

* ''{{VideoGame/Skullgirls}}'': Played with. The character Beowulf is a professional wrestler, and as his inclusion as a playable character would show, also a capable fighter. His career isn't really focused on, but he alludes to some elements of the fights being staged (he'll often ask his opponents if they're okay, for example), but the fights themselves are the real deal, to the point that in his story mode he doesn't even ''notice'' that his manager Zane isn't arranging fights for him but [[UnwittingPawn having him beat up other cast members for Zane's own purposes]]. Annie also tells him that hunting the Skullgirl isn't fake like pro wrestling, much to Beowulf's annoyance. It's later revealed that his most famous match ''was'' faked, but not in a {{kayfabe}} way, in an 'illegal match-fixing behind Beowulf's back' way.
* In ''VideoGame/AfterTheEndAPostApocalypticAmerica'', characters who subscribe to the Sacred Heart religion can choose Wrestling/ElSanto as their patron saint. Devotees of El Santo can follow in his footsteps, donning a [[MaskedLuchador mask]] and stepping into the wrestling ring to do battle, but [[FutureImperfect this is centuries after the concept of kayfabe]], and the luchadores fight for real.
* One of the gangs in ''Videogame/SaintsRowTheThird'' is a group of masked wrestlers called [[MeaningfulName the Luchadores]]. Their leader, Eddie "Killbane" Pryor had a falling out with his tag team partner, Angel de la Muerte and unmasked him out of jealousy. The annual wrestling event, Murderbrawl, is very real. Of course, this game also features a Japanese game show where contestants win big bucks by navigating a very real DeathCourse and gunning down hordes of mascot-suited people (who are trying their best to gun down the contestants), so pro wrestling being real isn't all that surprising.

* WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017, however, plays with this in "Rumble for Ragnarok." It's shown that Valhallans were the origin of pro wrestling, with the more mundane staged version mortals participate in being their replication of it. Valhallan pro wrestling is mostly the same as mortal pro wrestling, [[ShownTheirWork which the creators of the show did extensive research on for the episode]], but with the exceptions of the roster of fighters (which includes the [[FurryConfusion non anthropomorphic wolf]] Fenrir, a pig with super strength and a prehensile beard and Jormungandr in a humanoid form), and the fact that if team Valhalla wins, then Jormungandr is obliged to bring Ragnarok and destroy the Earth.

* In 1998, the WWF hosted the infamous "[[Wrestling/WWEBrawlForAll Brawl for All]]" tournament, a series of 100% legitimate fights. It was very poorly received for a few reasons: the wrestlers who participated in the tournament (all of whom were lower and mid card performers, along with a few past-their-prime veterans) weren't conditioned to fight[[note]]it takes several months of training to get into fighting shape, and professional fighters don't fight as often as pro wrestlers wrestle, meaning that the wrestlers' bodies aren't given enough time to recover before their next fight[[/note]], leading to sloppy fights and several injuries. The fans weren't interested, chanting "Boring!" and "We want wrestling!". The results were allegedly fudged to favor Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams, who was the favorite of the bookers. The winner of the tournament, Bart Gunn, was placed into a real boxing match with professional boxer Eric "Butterbean" Esch, who knocked Gunn out in 35 seconds, and Gunn was fired immediately afterwards (it is speculated by many, including Gunn himself, that the match was a punishment for Gunn knocking out Dr. Death, even though this was a shoot). Overall, the Brawl For All is widely cited as an example of why pro wrestling shouldn't be real.

* The history of pro wrestling is shrouded in kayfabe, but the general consensus is that pro wrestling was originally a real sport: UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling, which was invented in Lancashire, and matches were attractions at British seaside piers and fairs that spread to American carnivals. It's believed that wrestling became staged to provide a spectacle that was more entertaining and profitable than a real fight (more specifically, matches either ended too quickly compared to boxing or lasted for hours when the wrestlers were too evenly matched for one to gain an advantage) but no one knows exactly when. All that's certain is that, at some time and in some place, pro wrestling was indeed real.
** The tradition of this sort of wrestling comes from further OopNorth and has been known in Cumbria and Northumbria since the time of the Vikings. This stripped-to-the-basics form is still happening today on the English-Scottish border and may even precede the turn of the first millenium.
* Hooking scams were common during the carny days of wrestling, and even in isolated pockets afterwards. A wrestler would challenge members of the audience to a match, with a small amount of money required to compete and a much larger sum as a prize, much like boxers sometimes did. Usually, the first match would be against [[{{Jobber}} a plant]] in the audience who would fight the wrestler almost to a standstill, or even win occasionally, creating the illusion that it was possible to beat him. Any member of the public who got in the ring would be put in a simple submission hold, or "hook", for the three count and sent on his way. These could be considered "real" professional wrestling matches.
* In the Western world, wrestling has a stigma as a "fake" sport, meaning that fans of legit martial arts and combat sports like boxing or MMA, or even non-combat sports like football, look down on it and its fans. In Japan, this stigma does not exist, and the line between "real" MMA and "fake" wrestling is blurred. Shoot and worked matches often appear on the same card and are treated with equal respect, and some of the worked ones are executed in a manner which makes them hardly or even fully indistinguishable from shoots. Given that the Japanese MMA were created by pro wrestlers, and that consequently their companies did retain part of their UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling ancestry, it can be safely said that in Japan, pro wrestling is sometimes real.

* In the olden days of American wrestling, some promotions and gyms would “break in” rookies by having everyone around them maintain kayfabe during their first weeks of training, including having the new kid wrestle shoot matches against legit tough guys or guys with amateur credentials. Once he had proven himself, he was brought into the business. So, for many old-time wrestlers, their first match was real:
** One such example of this is Wrestling/HulkHogan. Hogan, who at the time was a bass player in a local rock band, wanted to be a wrestler so he was brought in to train under Hiro Matsuda. Hogan was such a mark that he thought wrestling was real (sounds silly now, but back in the '70s, wrestling was more hard-hitting and BoringButPractical, thus it looked more realistic than modern pro wrestling) and Matsuda had no interest in training Hogan, so Matsuda not only shot on Hogan, but legitimately broke his leg out of spite. Hogan ended up coming back after his leg healed, and while he had earned Matsuda's respect, he still wasn't smartened up until he went to train with Wrestling/EddieGraham. Hogan was so confused and felt so betrayed that he actually started crying in the middle of the ring.
* In the glory days of British pro wrestling in TheSeventies, the Saturday early evening show hosted by Kent Walton as part of ''Series/WorldOfSport'' might have five or six bouts in its programme. While most were of the pre-arranged and choreographed variety, every so often grapple-fans would be treated to a completely unscripted bout, operating to classic Graeco-Roman rules, where some of the younger and more athletic performers on the card would be wrestling purely for the sport of it and completely for the competitive element. The winner would genuinely be the better wrestler in a "pure" bout.

Now, while the scripting and illusory theatrics of pro wrestling has been an OpenSecret for decades, [[TruthInTelevision there is truth that pro wrestling is "real"]] insofar that it's still a very competitive sport, and that the reality of the field is less that "pro wrestling is 'fake'" and more "pro wrestling is ''predetermined.''" The medium is highly physical and dangerous, requiring genuine athleticism and training to pull off without causing severe harm to any involved performers, and while the medium is used to tell highly exaggerated stories and fiction, you're still watching people using their very real bodies to fight each other. It's also not uncommon for certain stunt work to involve "bumps" -- genuinely dangerous set pieces that accentuate a fight to get a huge reaction from the crowd -- and those are very direct sacrifices that can be (and often are) very harsh on a wrestler's body and cause long-term health problems. As Wrestling/MickFoley once said, there's no way to "fake" falling 20 feet off the top of a steel cage.

* ''{{VideoGame/Skullgirls}}'': Not only is pro wrestling a legitimate combat sport in the Canopy Kingdom, but wrestlers involved in it (such as DLC character Beowulf) also try to convince their fans that the whole thing is staged when they're outside of the ring, effectively inverting {{kayfabe}}.

Now, while the scripting and illusory theatrics of pro wrestling has been an OpenSecret for decades, it's still very important to recognize that pro wrestling is still a very competitive sport, and that the reality of the field is less that "pro wrestling is 'fake'" and more "pro wrestling is ''predetermined.''" Pro wrestling is a highly physical and dangerous career that requires genuine athleticism and training to pull off without causing severe harm to any involved performers, and while the medium is used to tell highly exaggerated stories and fiction, you're still watching people using their very real bodies to fight each other. It's also not uncommon for certain stuntwork to involve "bumps" -- genuinely dangerous set pieces that accentuate a fight to get a huge reaction from the crowd -- and those are very direct sacrifices that can be (and often are) very harsh on a wrestler's body and cause long-term health problems. As Wrestling/MickFoley once said, there's no way to "fake" falling 20 feet off the top of a steel cage.

Now, while the scripting and illusory theatrics of pro wrestling has been an OpenSecret for decades, it's still very important to recognize that pro wrestling is still a very competitive sport, and that the reality of the field is less that "pro wrestling is 'fake'" and more "pro wrestling is ''predetermined.''" Pro wrestling is a highly physical and dangerous career that requires genuine athleticism and training to pull off without causing severe harm to any involved performers, and while the medium is used to tell highly exaggerated stories and fiction, you're still watching people using their very real bodies to fight each other. It's also not uncommon for certain stuntwork to involve "bumps" -- genuinely dangerous set pieces that accentuate a fight to get a huge reaction from the crowd -- and those are very direct sacrifices that can (and often are) very harsh on a wrestler's body. As Wrestling/MickFoley once said, there's no way to "fake" falling 20 feet off the top of a steel cage.

* Most detractors of pro-wrestling seem to assume that everyone who likes it thinks that it's 100% real, which seems to stem from the idea that "If you know wrestling is fake, then why do you watch it?" [[{{Kayfabe}} (see this page for the common answers),]] with the most common retort to it being, "If you know [insert TV drama here] is fake, why do you watch it?"
** Despite popular belief, pretty much all fans of professionals wrestling do realize that it is technically "fake," in that the wrestlers are enacting and portraying what essentially amount to fictional storylines and characters, but still love and enjoy it in spite of that (or perhaps even ''because'' of it). Some argue that professional wrestling is still probably way more "real" than a lot of other entertainment sources based on the fact that wrestling is still an extremely physical skill that demands a lot from its performers, who are athletes that require immense training for a medium which can be (and is) really hard on a person's body. Predetermined or not, regardless of how they choreograph the moves to ensure safety and tell a story, you're still watching people using their very real bodies to fight each other.

Compare to kayfabe, which is the real life practice of maintaining the illusion that pro wrestling is a competitive sport. It should be noted that while pro wrestling is staged in real life, it is still a highly physical and dangerous career. As Wrestling/MickFoley once said, while who wins may be predetermined, there's no way to fake falling 20 feet off the top of a steel cage.

* Masaru's chapter from ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' has him fighting through several of the world's greatest warriors to learn their moves, which includes a [[HoaxHogan Hulk Hogan parody]] and a Luchador wrestler. As such, by the end of his storyline he can pull off German Suplexes and Frankensteiners on the final boss.

This is the default assumption in most related VideoGames, as a game that reflected the reality of pro wrestling would be difficult to effectively pull off. (Visual Concepts, the developers of the [[{{VideoGame/WWE}} WWE 2K series]], have commented that the flow of a typical wrestling match -- one guy is on offense for a few minutes and everything he does hits, then there's a reversal, and then it's the other guy's turn to do his moves unopposed for a few minutes -- would make for a terribly boring video game experience.) There are a handful of games that work without {{kayfabe}}, but they're mostly management simulators (where you either manage a promotion or a wrestler's career) rather than {{Wrestling Game}}s. These days, outside of video games (and occasionally animation), pro wrestling in media is openly acknowledged as staged and kayfabe is portrayed realistically, meaning this is more or less {{discredited|Trope}} outside of the occasional shoot fights. [[TwoDecadesBehind TV being what it is]], one of the more common aversions of this is showing wrestling fans who ''do'' believe in this trope and react with disbelief when told the truth--something that's similarly inaccurate, unless the fan in question is a small child.

This is the default assumption in most related VideoGames, as a game that reflected the reality of pro wrestling would be difficult to effectively pull off. (Visual Concepts, the developesr of the [[{{VideoGame/WWE}} WWE 2K series]], have commented that the flow of a typical wrestling match -- one guy is on offense for a few minutes and everything he does hits, then there's a reversal, and then it's the other guy's turn to do his moves unopposed for a few minutes -- would make for a terribly boring video game experience.) There are a handful of games that work without {{kayfabe}}, but they're mostly management simulators (where you either manage a promotion or a wrestler's career) rather than {{Wrestling Game}}s. These days, outside of video games (and occasionally animation), pro wrestling in media is openly acknowledged as staged and kayfabe is portrayed realistically, meaning this is more or less {{discredited|Trope}} outside of the occasional shoot fights. [[TwoDecadesBehind TV being what it is]], one of the more common aversions of this is showing wrestling fans who ''do'' believe in this trope and react with disbelief when told the truth--something that's similarly inaccurate, unless the fan in question is a small child.

This is the default assumption in most related VideoGames, as a game that reflected the reality of pro wrestling would be difficult to effectively pull off. (Visual Concepts, the developer of the [[{{VideoGame/WWE}} WWE 2K series]], have commented that flow of a typical wrestling match -- one guy is on offense for a few minutes and everything he does hits, then there's a reversal, and then it's the other guy's turn to do his moves unopposed for a few minutes -- would make for a terribly boring video game experience.) There are a handful of games that work without {{kayfabe}}, but they're mostly management simulators (where you either manage a promotion or a wrestler's career) rather than {{Wrestling Game}}s. These days, outside of video games (and occasionally animation), pro wrestling in media is openly acknowledged as staged and kayfabe is portrayed realistically, meaning this is more or less {{discredited|Trope}} outside of the occasional shoot fights. [[TwoDecadesBehind TV being what it is]], one of the more common aversions of this is showing wrestling fans who ''do'' believe in this trope and react with disbelief when told the truth--something that's similarly inaccurate, unless the fan in question is a small child.