No Bad Questions: Ask us ANYTHING About Pro Wrestling

[Josh Average]

We have assembled the Internet's most knowledgeable and normal pro wrestling fan (me) to answer any and all of your questions about pro wrestling.

So, go ahead. Ask away!

[brisaac]

why are so many wrestlers problematic?

[Josh Average]

Jun 26, 2023 19:55:26 GMT -6 brisaac said:

why are so many wrestlers problematic?

I think it’s a cultural issue. Pro Wrestling’s whole thing is based on “kayfabe”. For those unfamiliar with the term, in wrestling it means the entire production acts as if the things you’re seeing on screen or in the ring are real and not fiction. Within the production of wrestling, there is no concept of “pre-determined matches”, “good guys”, or “bad guys”, it’s all just Real.

Because of this, there is a culture of protection. Every single person in the production has to keep up the “kayfabe”, and that means protecting everyone involved. There is no “John Felix Anthony Cena” in wrestling, only “John Cena”, and “John Cena” is what pays the bills. Therefore, you have to protect that “John Cena” image no matter what or else you, and everyone else in the production, isn’t getting paid.

Add onto that the idea that pro wrestling isn’t a career path to “aspire to”, it’s something you kinda “fall into”, I think it provides a productive environment for downright shitheads.

[ozgho]

If I was interested in trying to "get into" viewing pro wrestling, what do you think my best option is?

[Josh Average]

Jun 27, 2023 13:41:02 GMT -6 ozgho said:

If I was interested in trying to "get into" viewing pro wrestling, what do you think my best option is?

I'm of two minds of this.

First, the Superhero Comics method. You just start watching the weekly television shows on right now, like Monday Night Raw or AEW Dynamite. The weekly free shows are built a bit towards on-boarding people into the current storylines, give you a sense of what each TV-important character is about, etc. This is basically how I got into wrestling, where I had been hearing a lot about wrestling, even listening to wrestling-adjacent podcasts (Giant Bombcast and then their wrestling-specific show the Power Bombcast), but hadn't actually watched wrestling. So, I just jumped in one random Monday night and saw the Occupy Raw stuff before WrestleMania 30.



I think that this is probably one of the better ways to watch wrestling if you're specifically interested in watching weekly shows and wanting to watch the big monthly-ish events.

Second, just have people you trust who are into wrestling recommend you stuff. It could be "hey, check out this guy" or "hey, watch these matches". For my money, I think Super Eyepatch Wolf is great at this. He basically has my exact thoughts on wrestling as a storytelling medium, and actually recently put out a cool thing about a modern arc in WWE.



This way works if you don't really wanna "keep up with" wrestling, but you wanna get it. You wanna get into it, without being someone who watches every week or every match, you basically just keep up with some folks you're interested in.

I don't think one way is better than the other, it really just depends on what you want out of it!