Wrestling With Friends and Enemies
Why the Real vs. Fake Issue in Wrestling Will Never Die
Apr 8, 2009
It only happens once a year, and countless millions of people flock from far and wide to experience it firsthand: WrestleMania. Whether you are a casual viewer or a "rasslin' fanatic," there is always something to enjoy every time early spring rolls around and Superstars the likes of John Cena, Triple H and the Undertaker lace up their boots. And enjoying it together with friends and foes alike make for one magical evening.
One can hardly experience the emotion and passion people have for this event sitting at home with a bowl of chips and a case of beer watching on Pay-Per-View, and driving the 1500 miles from Los Angeles to the Reliant Stadium in Houston, TX where this year’s event was located would be a long 21 hours, so this writer did the next best thing: paid a $10 cover at Southern California’s exclusive WWE PPV location, the National Sports Grill in Torrance.
Passion Knows No Age
Standing in line about 45 minutes beforehand and you can’t help but revel in the excitement, restlessness and wonderment people had for the night’s festivities. Fans young and old argued, boasted, and pleaded their cases to one another as to why their favorite wrestler would emerge victorious or how amazing one highly anticipated match in particular would be (and it was!). Usually at this Blast Area (what the WWE calls their locations for showing their Pay-Per-View events), the rear section of the building is cordoned off for the fans, but this time, the entire left side of the establishment was available for witnessing the Greatest Spectacle in Sports Entertainment.
That’s why venues like the National Sports Grill make such a great place for wrestling parties. Dishes like the Fiesta Grande Sampler, which is more than enough food for two, hit the spot for the entire event, but you'll be so busy trying to root your favorite grappler on or boo the one you hate the most, you'd probably forget what you had ordered. And servers providing all the amenities you desire can make the downtime in a near four-hour event tolerable.
Sports versus Entertainment
But sometimes even the wait staff can get caught up in the pageantry and spectacle of professional wrestling...while others don't. That issue took center stage at one point in the evening, watching a couple busboys stealing a glance at one of the dozen television screens dedicated to the event, secretly wanting their favorite superstar to win. Here is where a conversation occurred that almost seemed inevitable, especially in a public setting: the real versus fake dilemma.
Staff at National Sports Grill, like so many other sports bars, probably encounter situations like this all the time: basketball fans come to watch the playoffs year after year, Monday Night specials and Super Bowl parties are a given, and baseball is always a good reason to knock back a cold one at the bar. Every fan has their favorite team or player. But professional wrestling fans aren’t exactly cut from the same cloth. Even though all these sports have one thing in common—entertainment—the general acceptance of one versus the rest is truly a never-ending battle.
For instance, one of the servers engaged in a conversation with a couple fans during the night. Overwhelmed by the passion shown by all in attendance, the question of what was so fascinating about this event in particular probably came up, to which one of the guys replied, “I haven’t really watched for a while, but it’s like the Super Bowl of wrestling so I had to come.” Seemingly unconvinced, the server dutifully resumed work. It seemed as if to them there were at least 10 places more exciting to be than serving food to people fervently watching something that wasn’t real. The general consensus of a non-believer is watching oiled-up, muscle-bound men in trunks pretending to hit each other simply can’t be real or terribly exciting. But for every non-believer there are 10 believers that can counteract the argument: “scantily-clad men and women prancing around a city sleeping with whomever they can get their hands on or killing whomever they don’t like without consequence simply ain’t real either” would probably be their reply. But we can’t help but watch the shows that depict these images. Such is the conundrum with professional wrestling.
Entertain Me
The truth of the matter is everyone who's a fan of professional wrestling knows it’s not real. That’s never been the issue. Yes, there are many things about wrestling that is real, like the pain they endure from getting hit with folding chairs and slamming their bodies on, albeit padded, wooden and canvas mats night after night, but the majority of the spectacle of wrestling is fantasy. Like those who watch television dramas religiously, wrestling fans don’t want to have their intelligence questioned when it comes to something that entertains them. The same questions can be asked about fans of Grey’s Anatomy or 24; Redskins fans and why they hate Cowboys fans; Paris Hilton feuding with Kim Kardashian or Heidi Montag on whose reality show is better—the answer is almost always the same: “Who cares? As long as I’m entertained.”
The similarities between sports and sports entertainment are definitely shared in that regard, and the folks that run Blast Areas like National Sports Grill realize and understand that. People all across Earth find places like the National Sports Grill to just be fans, watch and enjoy the sport for what it is, just like it was when WrestleMania started 24 years ago. Where better to have an argument of what's real and what's not in a place where you can readily find soldiers for your cause? And who knows, a non-believer just may be convinced wrestling's more than it's cracked up to be and find themselves thoroughly entertained.
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