The Squared Circle

I ain't gonna lie- I'm a massive wrestling fan.

Some of you may already know this. I have been a fan since I was nine years old, growing up watching The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and "The American Badass" version of The Undertaker do battle with Triple H, Vince McMahon and the rest of the McMahon-Helmsley Regime in the WWF. Twelve years on I'm still a fan of a different generation of "Superstars" in the WWE, such as John Cena, Randy Orton and The Miz. Sure, wrestling has seen it's heyday of Austin 3:16 and "Laying the Smack Down on all their candy asses", but it still continues to be something that fascinates me, intrigues me, captivates me.

Firstly, to see professional wrestling as a sport is delusional. It is far from it, in fact; despite any protests from fans of Japanese "puroesu" or the Western independent circuit (who may very well see what I am about to say as wrestling blasphemy), wrestling is "sports entertainment". It takes the concept of the genuine sport of wrestling and makes it larger than life, with acrobatics, over-the-top or non-amateur moves and holds, colourful characters and pre-determined results and storylines. There really isn't anything else like it.

"But why?" You may ask. "Why do you like it?"

I suppose what caught me first was indeed the characters. When I started watching wrestling, it was very much the norm that a lot of the characters were simply regular people "with the volume turned up to 11" as some have coined. The Rock, for example, was simply a quick-witted, trash talking American who would come down to the ring to run his mouth in a $500 shirt, all the while exuding confidence, spouting off catchphrases and referring to himself in the third person. Stone Cold Steve Austin was a bald-headed, beer-swilling tough guy who had no qualms about "stomping a mud hole" in anyone who stood in his way. Of course, there were still characters like Undertaker, who came from a time where more fictional, fantastical characters were commonplace. Over time he went through transformations and restyling in order to keep up with the times.

What also fascinates me is how they translate the trash-talking microphone banter into a physical "wrestling" performance- which corresponds to the story- in the ring, with a combination of entertaining (and yet believable) wrestling moves, and the in-ring psychology to go with it. Sure, anyone can get into a wrestling ring, run about like an idiot and get beat up, but it takes a skilled professional with a mind for the business to paint the intended picture. In that sense, wrestling is very much an art form. It is a combination of charisma, wit, humour, charm, love, hate, rivalry, rolled up into melodrama and complemented with a physical, combative element to complete the package.

With wrestling really not having much left to do in terms of new material right now, it is no longer the mainstream entertainment it was in the 1980s and 1990s. But it is still a popular, lucrative, fun escape from reality which attracts millions all year round- and I am proud to be one of them.