yeah Fritz, I got to work with kerry a few times before he killed himself. that family has had some rough roads, one of his sons actually died from internal bleeding from a bad kick to the spleen. yep, its not real in the sense that most think of it, but there are accidents. Heck, Bruiser Brody got stabbed by fans while working out of country, they take it more seriously than it really is.

Oh, just let them have their illusions.

ITS REAL !!!

I like the "Undertaker" One of my boyfriends in high school did nothing but make pipe bombs in the garage, get stoned on the couch and watch professional wrestling.

Okay mirror, it's real, better?

most of it is done with small cut pieces of razor hidden in the tape you always see on a wrist or finger, take bunches of asprin and then the small self inflicted cut bleeds like a stuck pig

I used to know some people who were like that

just so all know,wrestling is only 40%real.no joke it is worked out before anuone gets to the arena.like one person has said,it called entertainment for a reason.

Its my understanding that they do actually rehearse together. There is no real "match" occurring. They know who is going to win. Its an act. Its theatrical but they are certainly athletes and quite acrobatic. It is a skill and people do get hurt seriously on occasion. Its just not as intense as how they make it appear because they are trained to make it look more painful and dramatic than it actually is.

I am aware of all your points...

Do wrestlers work together? Yes.

Are matches predetermined? Most definitely.

I detect some sort of impression that I have somehow left here that I am not aware of this. Far be it from that.

Of course, matches are not scripted to the point that they actually have pages in front of them telling to do this at this time and that at that time (that would just be ridiculous). Generally speaking, the participants will get together prior to the match and explain where they want the match to go. Then its to the ring, where both wrestlers will kind of freestyle it, with one or both wrestlers calling the match.

The closest thing to a rehearsal is what Mexican wrestlers do...they call the match in numbers, assigning a maneuver to each number ahead of time, so that they can maintain a faster pace.

So no, they don't generally "rehearse" together, unless you want to call that rehearsal.

Of course it's entertainment. It's on TV, people pay to see it, so it's entertainment. No different than any sport in that regard; baseball and football are entertainment too, when you get right down to it. Anything people pay to see is entertainment.

The major point that I was trying to make is that just because something is predetermined, just because efforts are taken to reduce risk, that does not go towards establishing it as fake. To me, fake directly implies outright phoniness, and I'm sure most of you can agree with me that wrestling is not that.

I've always found it rather odd that people can look at wrestling and discuss how fake it is. But then those same people watch a movie and rave about how compelling a performer that actor is, and how great a story that is, and how talented the actor is to flesh out the role. Never in my lifetime have I walked out of a movie theater and had a discussion with a friend about how fake the movie is, although given most movies tendencies to the hyperbole, it would almost be natural.

A person can look at that big Hollywood explosion and accept it as reality...at least in the excitement of the movie. A part of each of us does believe on some level, otherwise we wouldn't be drawn in enough to enjoy the movie.

That same person walks away from watching wrestling laughing about how fake it is.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch some New Japan.