Now it's gonna bother me if I don't.
So it al started when the owners of a catch wrestling company (this is, competitive, legitimate grappling) decided they would draw more tickets if they predetermined matches to make them more exciting.
So it's "fake" insofar as there are predetermined winners and losers, cooperation, and story elements. That's pretty much where "fake" ends.
I used to do martial arts when I was a boy. Every week we would fight - we had sparring with our classmates. This was for sport, not for self-defense, so we pulled a bit. You would hit the other kids at like 50, 60, 70%. It was was a competition but you didn't wanna hurt them. That's more or less the bare minimum of how hard pro wrestlers hit each other. The idea that the strikes don't make contact like in the action movies is very much not a thing.
And that's just the strikes. Consider the slams and whatnot. Your back is hitting the mat. There's no way to fake that. There's a technique to minimize acute damage but you're getting slammed onto the floor. And despite the myths that are out there, wrestling rings are not f***ing bouncy castles. The padding is about as thick as NHL ice. Somebody jumps on you from the top rope? He's landing on you. He's 250 pounds, f***in hurts. No way to fake it.
It also depends on the style. WWE is by far the weakest although it does entail everything I described. I say it's not pro wrestling because it's a lot of hokey bullshit that doesn't even make an attempt at suspension of disbelief - a lot of wink wink nudge nudge programming that parodies itself being "fake." I resent their mainstream success and that, as a result, millions of people think that's what all wrestling is. And even there, it's very dangerous. Somebody recently broke their neck.
Then there's hardcore wrestling, which isn't my cup of tea but a lot of that is very real. The tables are legitimate wood. The thumbtacks are real. The barbed wire is real. The ladders don't give at all, you're getting thrown onto steel.
Then there's f***ing Japan. That's where they do strong style, which is more like 90% instead of the 50-70 I described before. And you don't blade in Japan. Yes, the blood is real and "blade" is exactly what it sounds like. In strong style, they think cutting yourself is soft so they bleed "the hard way" which is...again, exactly what it f***ing sounds like.
Strong style's psychotic older brother is Ōdō. Ōdō is full contact. In Ōdō matches, when a move calls for you to be spiked on your head, guess what buddy! That's even illegal in MMA.
Also, people use the word "script" a lot. There isn't one. The fights are like, 90% improvised.
There are many, many wresters with a competitive fighting background because at its tamest, it's not far off from sparring.
