Wrestling: Sport or Art Form?

[Guest Lord of The Curry]

Word homies...

 

I was watching a skateboard video today and in it one of the skaters explains how it's not a sport, that there's not a real sense of teamwork or comraderie and that being an actual professional is loosely based on professionalism. This tweaked my intrest about wrestling, and what category it falls into.

 

Being a professional wrestler, like skateboarder is barely based at all on any sense of professionalism, both in and out of the ring. On the other hand, the sense of brotherhood and comraderie that you'd get in a "professional sport" environment is apparent.

 

When it comes to the actual public perception of pro wresting, it easily falls into the sport category. People who don't really knows about wrestling would never think it to be an art form. They see the sexy laydays, glitz, glam and taut bodies and think sport. Wrestlers are constantly referred to as atheletes, which I can totally appreciate. Just like a quarterback in football is trained in passing balls, cruisers are trained in the art of flying and tech. They are at times more "athletic" then any player I've ever seen in the Olympics or in another sport.

 

Me, I'd say it's an art form. Art is, in essence, anything that has a cosmetic value to somebody. It has to look good. Wrestling is all about what looks good. It's technique, it's precison, it's form. To me Chris Benoit looks good with what he does in the ring. Some people think differently and like the way HHH is in the ring (the fools.) It's an art form, IMO.

 

What about you?

[Guest HartFan86]

Wrestling's a Pre-determined Sport, IMO. Too quickly sum it up, people compare Wrestlers to Actors:

 

I don't see John Travolta taking a Stone Cold Stunner.

 

I don't see Tom Hanks taking a Pedigree.

 

I don't see Jim Carrey doing a moonsault off the top of a cage...and  MISSING.

 

Wrestling's an art cause your not out there too hurt people, but they have more demands than most actors as well.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

An Art is something that tells a story.  From the deepest of literature to the lamest of paintings.  Wrestling matches tell stories.  It is a physical drama, wordless theatre, miming with piledrivers.  The fact that these men must tell stories with their bodies and actions alone makes me appreciate the difficulty it takes to perform a flawless, well-told, match.

 

This said, it is also a sport.  I know, I know, I know, there is no competition in wrestling and sports need competition. Well, there is no DIRECT competition in wrestling, but then again, there is no direct competition in golf and in figure skating, yet a lot of people who say wrestling isn't a sport consider them to be one. Quite frankly, if we were going into the purest of sports, running and fighting would be the only things we could deem such things. But to say that there is no competition in wrestling at all is just silly.  If there was no competition there would be no backstage politics, there would be no-one COMPETING for 'spots'.

 

Chris Jericho is competing with HHH, Benoit is competing with Angle, they all want to go out and give it their best, to out perform their rival all the while trying to make their rival look better.  It is this dichotomy, this opposite which makes me appreciate the competitive aspects of working.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

My first hunch was to say it's an art form, but then I just looked up the word "sport" in my Webster's Dictionary. Here was the first definition...

 

"1) any activity or experience that gives enjoyment or recreation; pastime; diversion 2) such an activity, esp. when competitive, requiring more or less vigorous bodily exertion and carried on, sometimes as a profession, according to some tradition form or set of rules, whether outdoors, as football, golf, etc., or indoors, as basketball, bowling, etc. 3) fun or play"

 

There were a few others but I'm lazy.

 

I'd fit wrestling under this umbrella...

[Guest]

This is a really really tough question to answer. In my hometown, a professional wrestling article made it into the Sports section of the newspaper and by reading the editorials the next day, you would think that this was a national crisis. "Wrestling is fake! It's not a sport! We don't need this crap polluting our beloved sports section!" was the natural running theme throughout the next few weeks. There were some, yours truly included, that wrote in to defend wrestling. Most people that were writing in criticizing it were poking fun of wrestling in their own little ways, which showed me that they knew little if nothing about wrestling in any way. So I wrote a very nice little editorial of my own basically with the theme that "if you don't have a fundamental knowledge of professional wrestling, then you are in no position to take part in this debate." But aside from defending Pro wrestling, I couldn't really decide on how I should defend it... I mean, is it really a sport? So I began to think about it... and think about it... and honestly couldn't decide. I mean, if it isn't a sport, should it be in the sport's section? But it is entertainment based on the concept of a true sport... so does that make it elligable to rightfully claim it's spot in section C?

 

So I pulled out my handy dictionary to aid me

 

Pronunciation: (spôrt, spOrt), —n.

1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

 

 

Nowhere in that definition does it say that there HAS to be competition... it says OFTEN. So, by defintion, in a hair splitting sort of way, Professional Wrestling can actually be considered a sport if you were to look at it in that way.

 

So in my opinion, Pro wrestling is a sport in the same sense of the performance art-like gymnastics events that the olympics integrated into the summer games in either 96 or 00. you know, the chicks that run around with the streamers and batons and rubber balls. It's kind of based on an art form, but there is a large amount of the sport that really drives the thing.

 

Pro wrestling is many things... and I like to classify it as both an art, and a sport... even if most of the hillbilly hicks in my town dissagree on the pure basis of most of their arguments "Well, it's fake... cuz they know how to fall"

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Sports are odd.  It's either two extemes.  If you want to be a sporting purist then you cannot say that baseball is a sport.  I say to be a sport you have to be high in two things: Athletic ability and skill.  Baseball is high in skill, but not in athletic ability.  Golf is also a skilled sport, but I wouldn't necessarily say that Tiger Woods is the athlete of the year.

[Guest Risk]

As much as it pains me to say this: wrestling is a sport with the main goal of entertainment.  In a way it is "Sports Entertainment."

 

(throws up)

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Well really, any 'sport' that sells a ticket has the inherent responsibility of 'entertaining' whomever paid to watch them play.  That’s why there are dunks in basketball, dancing in the end-zone, mascots for each team.

 

However, there is always a focus on the 'sport' aspect of that term, which is what the Wwf doesn't do.  It doesn't let the sport entertain, it just tries to entertain in any way possible.

[Guest areacode212]

A case can be made for both. If I had to pick one, I'd choose "art form" over "sport", because as Lord of the Curry and Rudo have said, pro wrestling exists to tell a story and to look good. One's skill as a wrestler is measured not by your win-loss record, or how high your frog splash is, but how convincing you make it look, and how well you can get the audience to enjoy your match. And yeah, it's also something of a sport (just not a competitive one), because obviously it requires some degree of athletic ability and skill is required to make one appreciate the "art form" better. I consider figure skating to be the same "art form/sport" hybrid, by the way.

 

(moved to General Wrestling)

[Guest PlatypusFool]

To me, I must say that arbitrary classifications do not really matter to me. I love wrestling no matter how it is classified.

 

Despite this I must say that I favour the art-form classification over the sport one. I watch wrestling to appreciate how two guys tell a story in the ring. I enjoy seeing the mannerisms, and, in the same way as a narrative dancing piece, seeing how they relate to the characters and stories involved. This is an element of art, and since it is the main reason why I watch wrestling, that's why I prefer the art classification.

 

However, I can also watch a match like the 10-man tag from 10/10/96 in Michinoku Pro (my review - http://411wrestling.com/videos/article.php?videos_id=116 ) which has almost no narrative elements, and just posseses awesome displays of athletisism. This is the sport element, which is a big part of my enjoyment as well. There is elements of beauty to these athletic skills, but only in the same way that there is beauty to other sports and the abilities displayed there.

 

So yeh, bits of both

[Guest Mark4steamboat]

"Professional wrestling isnt a sport, it isnt an art form, its um wrestling" Steve Allen on the Unreal story of pro wrestling.

 

 

All points above are valid but i think that wrestling is a choreographed predetermined sport.

The outcome is predetermined but it takes a helluva lot of athleticsm to do the shit they do.

 

Cast my ballot for art form because it really isnt an athletic contest because the outcome is predetermined.

[Guest Risk]

Lots of sports are predetermined sometimes, like promoters paying boxers to throw matches.

[Guest dreamer420]

sadly vince has turned wrestling into exactly what he wanted.  sports entertainment.  lately I can see some great old school techniques, moves, and spots starting to be used, but as soon as they are over we will get a vomit segment, or a piss segment.

[Guest J*ingus]

Personally, I consider wrestling to be a performance art, probably closer to a combination of ballet and stand-up improvisation than anything else.  To my mind, to be a sport, the activity needs to have some sort of competitive aspect and a clear winner and loser.  (And no, backstage politicking and fighting for spots or to avoid jobbing does NOT count.)  

 

"I know, I know, I know, there is no competition in wrestling and sports need competition. Well, there is no DIRECT competition in wrestling, but then again, there is no direct competition in golf and in figure skating, yet a lot of people who say wrestling isn't a sport consider them to be one."  

 

Yes there is direct competition in golf & skating.  The players compete with each other for points, or for a judge's decision.  There is no such competition in wrestling, as neither wrestler is actually trying to win the match, exceptions like Montreal aside.  

 

"Lots of sports are predetermined sometimes, like promoters paying boxers to throw matches."  

 

Yes, but boxing isn't SUPPOSED to be predetermined.  It's supposed to be an actual competition, which wrestling is not.  

 

"The outcome is predetermined but it takes a helluva lot of athleticsm to do the shit they do."

 

It also takes a helluva lot of athleticism to be a stunt man who falls off buildings, or a trapeze performer in the circus, or a dancer in a broadway play.  I wouldn't call any of those activities sports.  The level of athletic skill required doesn't matter.

[Guest Mark4steamboat]

Well the level of athletic skill is a quality that is needed to be a halfway decent wrestler. Look at the Big Show, no athletic skill hardly and therefore no push. Chris Jericho, great athleticsm, former world champion(but hes getting shafted as of late)