How did you find out that wrestling was not "real"?

[The Ghost of bps21]

My 8 yr old nephew knows that WWE is "fake", but thinks ROH is real...

 

 

That's nothing, I'm pretty sure that a lot of grown people think the same thing.

 

...

 

Anyway,

 

My grandfather used to tell me when I was very very young. He would always laugh when someone played hurt and tell me that they'd always be on a show later that night running the same routine.

 

[Drury37]

I was told it was fake right off the bat. I started watching in 1991 and I was four years old. I remember the Barber Shop with The Rockers when the infamous moment happened my dad looked at me and in this really sincere tone said don't worry it's not real. The weird thing with me was that even though I knew they didn't really punch each other and such, I thought the outcomes were not predetermined. Like eventually one guy just gave in. I was four, lay off.

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

Revelation #1: Wrestling is predetermined and fake, not real.

 

Revelation #2: They sometimes "fake" it by legitimately beating the snot out of each other.

 

I think the second is probably worse to find out than the first.

[Retard Girl]

anyone that thinks wrestling is "fake" should spend a few days taking bumps XD

[majormayhem1]

I saw Brutus Beefcake chasing Ron Bass throught the audience with the "hedge clippers." I told my Dad about it and he said, "You know that's fake, right?" That was '88. Part of the fun of wrestling was/is figuring out what's real and what isn't and how they do it.

 

 

[AntiLeaf33]

I kind of always knew that spots and some characters were fake. But I used to and still do defend wrestling for people who call it fake by telling them to take a few bumps and see how fake it is then.

[Drury37]

I like to think of it as more choreographed than fake. Honestly, fake is something that is not real, and guys are out there doing there thing, so it certainly isn't fake, plus it is still real to me damnit!!!

[NoCalMike]

My dad told me early on. This was about late 1987. It wasn't to get me to stop watching, it was more about giving me a heads-up, and as I remember it, it was more really a "TV is fake" kind of thing. I mean it was basically a bigger discussion about how TV & Movies are entertainment and not for us to emulate or take too seriously. Pro-wrestling just happened to tie in to the overall discussion. My parents were pretty liberal when it came to what I could watch as a youngster, they gave me the "speech" mentioned above and it was pretty sufficient.

 

My Dad actually would watch wrestling with me, and suprised me by taking me to my first wrestling show at Arco Arena when I was abou eight years old.....

 

I remember the first time I showed my Dad, ECW. It was a Rey vs. Juvi match. He was actually really into the match because it was the first time he saw something in wrestling look like that. That was about 1995 or so. I was about to turn 16.

[The Metal Maniac]

I actually had to tell my father that UWF-I was fixed. It was on TSN one day or something, and he was quite impressed that there was "real" wrestling on.

[Dobbs 3K]

I think I kind of knew since I was about 10 or 11 that wrestling was "fake", which would have been around '90 or so. Someone pointed out to me how wrestlers would cooperate with each other during moves and things like that. It wasn't until I got on the 'net around '96 that I really understood the extent of how scripted it actually was.

[majormayhem1]

I like to think of it as more choreographed than fake. Honestly, fake is something that is not real, and guys are out there doing there thing, so it certainly isn't fake, plus it is still real to me damnit!!!

 

"Smart Fans." They're too worried about work rates and ppv buys and end up taking the fun out of wrestling.

 

But, how does this all tie in to our discussion about Santa Claus?

[JHawk]

What's a smart fan? A fan with a high IQ?

[DMann2003]

I kinda knew it wasn't 100% unplanned, though like most I always wondered when the "act" stopped, like if 2 guys brawled backstage did they break it up once they got past the curtain.

 

One of the earliest videos I rented was SummerSlam 88, and my Dad pointed out to me during the Warrior/HTM match how HTM turned himself while lying on the mat to get into position for Warrior's splash. That was my first clear cut proof that "okay, these guys are staging this stuff". But it was still fun.

[Guest the_last_rites]

I can't remember one exact moment. My dad told me it wasn't real a couple months after I started watching but I didn't truly believe him until years later. It was just a bunch of collective moments that killed that myth. The first instance I remember of being a "smark" was going on all the newz websites after Russo did a "shoot" on Hogan at Bash of The Beach 2000 and thinking it was awesome. Yeah, I'll admit I thought WCW 2000 was awesome and I actually watched it over WWF at times that year.

 

Dont worry you wouldnt be the only one. But if you liked WCW for anything other than the midcard and lowercard, then i'm going to stab you new jack style........... oh oh almost forgot Motherfucker!!

 

/newjack

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I already knew when I started watching in 1988. Its actually probably why I was never interested in it prior to that, but I discovered it was great entertainment anyways.

[Red Baron]

My cousin and I watched wrestling with our grandfather, and he'd get mad sometimes because the wrestling was sloppy since people didn't know how to do a proper takedown or suplex. I think the one time we watched a match once and I believe it was British Bulldog botching a suplex and my grandfather yelled "He'd better pay the promoter good money for that fuck up!" I didn't know at first what he meant, but I figured it out later on.

[Cheech Tremendous]

The funniest thing about the whole is wrestling fake debate is that I used to think it was more fake than it actually is. Up until I got the internet in the late 90s, I thought everything that was shown on tv was scripted. And I mean everything. I thought matches were choreographed and practiced multiple times before being shown on tv, that moves were inflicted with no pain at all, interviews and promos were written and rehearsed, commentators read from a script and storylines were planned out a year in advance like a season of a television show.

 

I don't really remember ever thinking that it was real.

[Dobbs 3K]

I guess I thought the moves were more real than they were, too. I guess I just figured the guys knew how to fall properly (which is of course true) to not get hurt often.

[Ed Wood Caulfield]

Despite having an inkling of it being fake, I always defended wrestling as being real against my cousins who DESPISED wrestling and would always yell, "IT'S FAKE! IT'S FAKE! IT'S FAKE!"

 

Believe it or not, it was that stupid EXPOSED: Wrestling's Secrets Revealed! special that aired on NBC back in November of 1998 that put the final nail in the coffin regarding my belief that professional wrestling was real. That is where I learned about how they did the moves, about blading, and about weapons that break easily.

 

I wondered for years why I never saw a stunt granny on any wrestling show I ever saw. Although that elderly woman who was arguing with "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan because she refused to take off her Sting mask on that WCW Monday Nitro from December 1997 might count, or not.

[RepoMan]

Believe it or not, it was that stupid EXPOSED: Wrestling's Secrets Revealed! special that aired on NBC back in November of 1998 that put the final nail in the coffin regarding my belief that professional wrestling was real. That is where I learned about how they did the moves, about blading, and about weapons that break easily.

 

That show really made me get back into wrestling after I dismissed it as "fake." I became really interested in how the wrestlers worked at match and looked for them calling moves and blading, ect. Tough Enough also really got me back into wrestling and I finally realized what a physical toll wrestlers take. I'm another person who was suprised about how "real" wrestling actually is.

 

[Guest Hasbeen2]

I was told way back when that it wasn't "real", with the logic being Abdullah and the Sheik would be put in jail for what they were doing in the ring, to the jobbers running in to break up a bloody brawl, etc. Then one of them, or maybe one of the other guys, it's been years, legit nailed a fan who tried to run in and the wrestler was taken out by police. I'm wanting to say a chain was used. That made me unsure for a while longer.

[MFer]

I kinda had my suspicions when I was younger, but I didn't watch much wrestling then anyways and no one was really telling me either way. When I started watching on a regular basis at 13 (late 2000), it took a couple years for me to figure the entire process (thanks to the Internet).

[AntiLeaf33]

Honestly, watching the Wrestling with Shadows, Bret Hart movie probably confirmed what I always thought; that matches were planned and the punches and kicks don't always hit at full blast. That was probably one of my first "inside looks" at the buisness.