History Main / ProWrestlingIsReal

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.

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. 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.

* 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 (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 their bodies aren't given enough time to recover before their next match), 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 used as an example of why pro wrestling shouldn't be real.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', where the Robot Wrestling League is completely scripted, but kayfabe is still intact and very few people outside the industry realize that it's scripted. Bender then rebels when the script calls for him to start losing, so it becomes a real match--except Bender's massive, invulnerable opponent is being remote-controlled by a martial arts master, so Leela has to beat up the robot's controller. Leela wins her side of the fight, but Bender loses when the deactivated Destructor falls on him, pinning him to the mat for a three-count. Fry also claims that he thought Robot Wrestling was real, like pro wrestling, "but it turns out it's rigged, like boxing."

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', where the Robot Wrestling League is completely scripted, but kayfabe is still intact and very few people outside the industry realize that it's scripted. Bender then rebels when the script calls for him to start losing, so it becomes a real match--except Bender's massive, invulnerable opponent is being remote-controlled by a martial arts master, so Leela has to beat up the robot's controller. Leela wins her side of the fight, but Bender loses when the deactivated Destructor falls on him, pinning him to the mat for a three-count. Fry also claims that he thought Robot Wrestling was real, like pro wrestling, "but it turns out it's fake, like boxing."

* 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 (it takes several months of training to get into fighting shape, and professional fighters don't fight as often as pro wrestlers wrestle), 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 used as an example of why pro wrestling shouldn't be real.

* Wrestling/LuchaUnderground works on the premise that everything you see is real, with the understanding that it's not a "wrestling show", it's "a show about wrestling" that tells a dramatic UrbanFantasy story. That's why the roster can include a former US army black-ops sniper gone rogue, a female [[SnakesAreSexy snake-themed]] international jewel thief who is actually the [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen queen]] of an ancient aztec tribe, a [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Triad]] [[MafiaPrincess princess]] out to avenge her murdered parents, a spaceman who can not only fly but ''[[TimeTravel travel through time]],'' a walking avatar of death who [[CameBackStrong becomes more powerful every time he returns from beyond the grave]], a phoenix-man with the power of a thousand lives within him, an ''[[OurDragonsAreDifferent actual dragon]]'' in human form, a hulking man-monster possessed by an Aztec god of slaughter, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Marty "the Moth" Martinez]].
* 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 (it takes several months of training to get into fighting shape and professional fighters don't fight as often as pro wrestlers wrestle.), 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 used as an example of why pro wrestling shouldn't be real.

* Fabulous Moolah, who was mentioned above under the Literature section, once did an interview on a radio show. She talked about the storylines she'd been in as if they were real, and eventually admitted that she found it very difficult to break kayfabe in the first place let alone do an out-of-gimmick interview.

* 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, 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 used as an example of why pro wrestling shouldn't be real.

* 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, 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" Each, 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 used as an example of why pro wrestling shouldn't be real.

* Played with in the ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' episode "The Gang Wrestles For The Troops." Dennis, Mac and Charlie plan a match with grizzled wrestling veteran Da Maniac, but back out when they realize he actually plans on hurting them (with weapons) instead of staging the fight. When Maniac gets arrested they sub in Rickety Cricket as the heel, and still seem to be planning to stage the fight before he starts legitimately kicking the shit out of them.

* ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0271812/ Tagteam]]'', a PilotMovie that was picked up but then canceled the day before shooting the first post-pilot episode. Wrestling/JesseVentura and Rowdy Roddy Piper play two wrestlers who refused to take a dive in a match so they were blackballed from the business. The eventually become cops and now TheyFightCrime.

--> Is it not all a bit choreographed and is it not all a wee bit of a sham?[[note]] Irish sports reporter Jackie Fullerton to wrestler Wrestling/GiantHaystacks, just before Haystacks offers to demonstrate the slam-drop on him. It didn't end well.[[/note]]

--> Fullerton: Is it not all a bit choreographed and is it not all a wee bit of a sham?

** 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). Creator/MaxLandis does offer the retort that professional wrestling is still probably way more real than a lot of other entertainment sources, especially if you take into consideration how there's still a big physical aspect, in that pro-wrestlers are athletes. There's a lot training that goes into being a professional wrestler, which can be (and is) really hard on a person's body.

--> Is it not all a bit choreographed and is it not all a wee bit of a sham?[[note]] Irish sports reporter Jackie Fullerton to wrestler giant Haystacks, just before Haystacks offers to demonstrate the slam-drop on him. It didn't end well.[[/note]]

* 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 competetive element. The winner would genuinely be the better wrestler in a "pure" bout.

* 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.

* Masaru's chapter from ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' is a great example of this.

* ''Film/ReadyToRumble'' double subverts this: while the main characters insist [[BerserkButton "Wrestling is]] ''[[BerserkButton not]]'' [[BerserkButton FAKE!!!"]], everybody else around them knows it is, including the wrestlers. However, their favorite wrestler, Jimmy King, actually did get screwed in real life (in a manner reminiscent of the Wrestling/MontrealScrewjob), and the movie ends in a giant schmozz of a shoot fight (inside a steel cage, no less).

* {{VideoGame/Skullgirls}} takes it UpToEleven. 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}}.

* The ''Series/{{Baywatch}}'' episode "Bash at the Beach", which guest stars Hulk Hoogan and several other WCW profiles of the day as themselves, implies this to be the case. made more hilarious in that it was filmed around the ''actual'' WCW event of the same name, and featured clips from it.

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* An episode of ''Series/QuantumLeap'' in which Sam leaps into the body of a wrestler playing an Evil Russian in 1955; in this episode, it's confidently declared that wrestling actually is staged - except for the title matches, and Sam and his partner's refusal to take a dive in a tag-team title match is the main conflict of the episode.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]

* ''{{Franchise/Extrapower}}'': Star Lore is the Shakun Star version of professional wrestling and is SeriousBusiness. In ''[[VideoGame/ExtrapowerAttackOfDarkforce Attack of Darkforce]]'', he is delighted to discover that Earth's professional wrestling is similar to his Star Lore. ''[[VideoGame/ExtrapowerStarResistance Star Resistance]]'' takes this to the extreme as the spirit of an ancient Shakun warrior is disgusted to find out that Star Lore is used as merely competitive sport in the present day instead of as a tool of war and conquest.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''WebComic/RivalAngels''

* ''WebAnimation/DSBTInsaniT'': This is discussed by Seth, Whitney, Dave, and Spoon in 'Store Story'.

* Averted in ''Manga/SchoolRumble'', but unfortunately [[TheDitz Tenma]] isn't aware of that. When she offers to take [[CuteBruiser Karen's]] place in her scheduled Greco-Roman Wrestling match against exchange student [[TheAmazon Lala Gonzales]] to allow Karen to go on a date, she shows up [[MaskedLuchador wearing a goofy mask]] and gets rapidly wrestled to the ground and painfully pinned by the unamused Lala while she desperately reaches for a non-existent rope.

* ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'': In the 1979 episode "The King is Dead," the sport's early carny origins are exposed, although in the climatic scene the champion wrestler in this episode -- an aging athlete suffering from heart failure -- defeats a loudmouthed challenger using his own, legit athletic skills (putting the arrogant challenger in a legit bearhug and refusing to let go until the mouthy youngster passes out); he dies shortly after winning the match. The champion wrestler's manager, played by Ray Walston (of ''Series/MyFavoriteMartian'' fame) is named ''[[HilariousInHindsight Jimmy Hart]]'' ... the real name of a [[Wrestling/JimmyHart young musician who would become one of the best-known WWF personalities in the 1980s and 1990s.]]