Pro Wrestling Essay, Research Paper
The topic I have chosen to write about is the world of
professional wrestling. There are many reasons as to why this subject has
interested me. One major reason is that I grew up watching pro-wrestling
on television. As a child, I was fascinated with the spectacle of the
wrestling matches and wondered at the wrestlers themselves. At that age, I
took wrestling for what it was. It was a full-contact gladiator sport
filled with exaggerated and extravagant wrestlers, cocky commentators, and
interesting “one-of-a kind” personalities which added up to a high
entertainment value.
As I got older and more aware of the sport, I did not just see it
as another part of sports entertainment but also as a multi-million dollar
business which catered to a wide audience. I began to wonder what was it
that made this popular genere work and how it was able to attract the
crowds of people, young and old. I also wanted to know the history of
pro-wrestling. How did it get started and how it became a part of the
American culture? As a fan for several of my childhood years, I now wanted
to know the real deal behind wrestling.
The professional wrestling sport is a very secretive business. It
is on a “what you see is what you get” basis. Many of the fans take the
sport for face value and enjoy it for what it is, even if many of them are
uninformed on the inside workings of it all. Although many books have been
published about wrestling, a high number of them are as cryptic and
secretive as the business itself. That is why I am motivated to go into an
in-depth research to answer and unravel the questions of the professional
wrestling world. Professional Wrestling. Part II: Knowledge andPreconceptions
After being exposed to professional wrestling for quite sometime,
I became somewhat knowledgeable of the sport. I became familiar with most
of the wrestling superstars it produced, notably Hulk Hogan which many
consider the icon of pro- wrestling. I was also mindful of the wrestling
maneuvers and techniques that were used. Although I knew all this, it was
all common knowledge. Through personal experience, the people I know who
are fans of the sport only know this basic ideology of its premise.
I feel that one major reason for the scarce information on pro-
wrestling is due to the lack of media coverage. Wrestling is infamous for
blurring the lines between true sport and pure entertainment. Many major
news, magazines, and articles rarely cover the wrestling world because of
its lack of believability. It is this secrecy and “figure it out for
yourself” attitude of the business that brings rise to many enticingquestions.
Probably the million dollar question for wrestling is whether of
not it is “fake”. Many people find the meaning of the word as something
being completely unreal. It’s things like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy
that are fake since they don’t exist in real life. Pro-wrestling is part
of real life and real life is in no way fake. Furthermore, even if
wrestling was a staged event, why does it continue to attract its fans for
as long as it has? These aren’t just ten-year olds who can be easily
fooled, but grown adults who spend their hard earned money on live shows,
merchandise, and pay-per-view showings. Still, there lies the questions
about the wrestlers themselves. These are people who are out there doing a
job. There are questions like how much money does a professional wrestler
get paid and how does one even get into the business to begin with?
These are all the questions, along with many others, that I hope
to discover and will hopefully bring arise to many interesting and
surprising answers to professional wrestling. Professional Wrestling.
Part III: Resources The main resource for professional wrestling have been the
wrestling shows themselves. Resources on written text and literature have
been quite limited. Many books that have been written are very
uninformative or “watered down” because they respect the secrecy of the
business. Many fans can now turn to “sheets”. These are newsletters that
contain good information and deal with wrestling in a more up front way.
With the lack of information, the average fan is forced to rely on the
traditional word of mouth. If one is able to get in contact with someone
who knows a lot about the business, or better yet, someone who is
currently or was in some way involved in the business, you could obtain a
wealth of information. The major problem with that is that they are very
hard to come by and would be likely tight lipped about the whole thing.
With many obstacles and roadblocks in the way in just getting
vital information on professional wrestling, one may have a hard time
creating a research paper. One revolutionary trend that may be able to
change that is the Internet. The Internet provides an uncensored, up
front, view on pro-wrestling. This is a place where you can find the most
knowledgeable and informed people on the sport. The average fan will
simply be overwhelmed and be able to find out things they never knew
existed. They can find out the past, present, and possibly the future of
professional wrestling. It is also known that several insiders and one or
two wrestlers have given candid interviews over the Net. (This is rare
because the wrestlers or the organizations they work for are unwilling to
reveal their true character.)
With the available resources, I plan to write a report that
contains information from a diverse mix of sources along with my personal
opinion and feelings in order to shed new light on the professional
wrestling world.