Essay/Term paper: Pro wrestling

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Miscellaneous

The topic I have chosen to write about is the world of

professional wrestling. There are many reasons as to why this subject has

interested me. One major reason is that I grew up watching pro-wrestling

on television. As a child, I was fascinated with the spectacle of the

wrestling matches and wondered at the wrestlers themselves. At that age, I

took wrestling for what it was. It was a full-contact gladiator sport

filled with exaggerated and extravagant wrestlers, cocky commentators, and

interesting "one-of-a kind" personalities which added up to a high

entertainment value.

As I got older and more aware of the sport, I did not just see it

as another part of sports entertainment but also as a multi-million dollar

business which catered to a wide audience. I began to wonder what was it

that made this popular genere work and how it was able to attract the

crowds of people, young and old. I also wanted to know the history of

pro-wrestling. How did it get started and how it became a part of the

American culture? As a fan for several of my childhood years, I now wanted

to know the real deal behind wrestling.

The professional wrestling sport is a very secretive business. It

is on a "what you see is what you get" basis. Many of the fans take the

sport for face value and enjoy it for what it is, even if many of them are

uninformed on the inside workings of it all. Although many books have been

published about wrestling, a high number of them are as cryptic and

secretive as the business itself. That is why I am motivated to go into an

in-depth research to answer and unravel the questions of the professional

wrestling world.  Professional Wrestling. Part II: Knowledge andPreconceptions

After being exposed to professional wrestling for quite sometime,

I became somewhat knowledgeable of the sport. I became familiar with most

of the wrestling superstars it produced, notably Hulk Hogan which many

consider the icon of pro- wrestling. I was also mindful of the wrestling

maneuvers and techniques that were used. Although I knew all this, it was

all common knowledge. Through personal experience, the people I know who

are fans of the sport only know this basic ideology of its premise.

I feel that one major reason for the scarce information on pro-

wrestling is due to the lack of media coverage. Wrestling is infamous for

blurring the lines between true sport and pure entertainment. Many major

news, magazines, and articles rarely cover the wrestling world because of

its lack of believability. It is this secrecy and "figure it out for

yourself" attitude of the business that brings rise to many enticingquestions.

Probably the million dollar question for wrestling is whether of

not it is "fake". Many people find the meaning of the word as something

being completely unreal. It's things like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy

that are fake since they don't exist in real life. Pro-wrestling is part

of real life and real life is in no way fake. Furthermore, even if

wrestling was a staged event, why does it continue to attract its fans for

as long as it has? These aren't just ten-year olds who can be easily

fooled, but grown adults who spend their hard earned money on live shows,

merchandise, and pay-per-view showings. Still, there lies the questions

about the wrestlers themselves. These are people who are out there doing a

job. There are questions like how much money does a professional wrestler

get paid and how does one even get into the business to begin with?

These are all the questions, along with many others, that I hope

to discover and will hopefully bring arise to many interesting and

surprising answers to professional wrestling.  Professional Wrestling.

Part III: Resources The main resource for professional wrestling have been the

wrestling shows themselves. Resources on written text and literature have

been quite limited. Many books that have been written are very

uninformative or "watered down" because they respect the secrecy of the

business. Many fans can now turn to "sheets". These are newsletters that

contain good information and deal with wrestling in a more up front way.

With the lack of information, the average fan is forced to rely on the

traditional word of mouth. If one is able to get in contact with someone

who knows a lot about the business, or better yet, someone who is

currently or was in some way involved in the business, you could obtain a

wealth of information. The major problem with that is that they are very

hard to come by and would be likely tight lipped about the whole thing.

With many obstacles and roadblocks in the way in just getting

vital information on professional wrestling, one may have a hard time

creating a research paper. One revolutionary trend that may be able to

change that is the Internet. The Internet provides an uncensored, up

front, view on pro-wrestling. This is a place where you can find the most

knowledgeable and informed people on the sport. The average fan will

simply be overwhelmed and be able to find out things they never knew

existed. They can find out the past, present, and possibly the future of

professional wrestling. It is also known that several insiders and one or

two wrestlers have given candid interviews over the Net. (This is rare

because the wrestlers or the organizations they work for are unwilling to

reveal their true character.)

With the available resources, I plan to write a report that

contains information from a diverse mix of sources along with my personal

opinion and feelings in order to shed new light on the professional

wrestling world.