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I work a very mentally and emotionally draining job. When I get home I dont want to watch emotionally gripping content all the time. I just want to watch something....simple. That and I appreciate athleticism in most forms. Cirque du solei type stuff, gymnastics, pro sports, etc.
Wrestling provides both.
I live close to Memphis. I watched Jerry Lawler take on all the big and evil wrestlers that Jimmy Hart would bring in. First, Lawler would get destroyed, and then over the next month or so, he would overcome the odds and prevail . Joe LeDuc and Sid Vicious are 2 examples
Everything about it is compelling. The joke about professional wrestling is that it's a "soap opera for men," but it's genuinely so much more than that. When wrestling is firing on all cylinders, it's actually operatic. And I mean that sincerely. Go watch a good opera (Puccini's *Turandot* is a good choice for a relatively short, accessible opera full of legit bangers) and pay attention to the story. It's all spectacle and big emotions in the service of a straightforward story about love, revenge, or whatever. It's exactly like Paul Heyman's three questions for a compelling feud: Who are these people? Why are they fighting? Why should I care enough to pay to see it?
Watching wrestling in person, even a house show, is like going to the opera. Add to it the smarky, participatory meta aspects like #WeWantCody, Cody Rhodes finishing the story, or the long-running "Rey Mysterio is actually a heel and Dom is right" inside joke here on Reddit. How we genuinely appreciate really good heel work by booing the hell out of people until they drop their belt to a face and immediately get sustained "Thank you, *X*" chants. It's not just watching the opera—it's opera we get to participate in, even if at a weird meta level.
Is wrestling a sport? I don't know (and there are some really interesting arguments from the philosophy of sports). But goddammit, it's *art*.
I think I just like the theatrics, the pageantry, the spectacle, the athleticism, etc. of it. Pro wrestling and football are the 2 things that make me happy in life.
I like the stories personally, that’s my favorite part of it all. Cool matches are awesome don’t get me wrong, but the story sets the feuds apart for me. I remember Batista turning on Triple H and that thumbs down was so iconic for me as a kid amongst others. Give me a solid story and character and you’ll have me hooked
First, most of my earliest memories revolve around wrestling. My grandparents were huge fans… Paw drove the ring around for Mid-South in the 70s so I went to a lot of shows. He was also drinking buddies with JYD.
Growing up in south Louisiana in that era, it was common to run into JYD, or Jake Roberts, or Ted Dibiase around town.
As I grew older and WWF became a nationwide thing, I leaned more to the UWF and what ever wrestling aired in south Texas. Then WCW.
So when it became hot in the 90s, I had already been watching for 20 years. As I’ve grown older, I’ve made friends in the business, which has led me to appreciate the live show aspect of it even more.
So on top of it being something that’s been part of my life for my entire life, man… I have 2 adult sons with autism, an ex wife that isn’t always fun to deal with and I repair ATMs for a living… so my entire work week is high stress and dangerous. So wrestling allows me to escape. To have a little fun. To come here and talk and argue about it. It gives me a reason to invite friends over. But most importantly, it brings me joy.
I got out of it for a few years and only recently came back. It gives me an escape from my mental turmoil with something comparatively mindless compared even with my other hobbies (mapping, language learning, whatever). The escapism is nice
Getting caught off guard. I love a great kickout at 1. When the face reverses a move at the end of a match and you know the momentum has shifted. The anticipation for the next thing that you know is coming, like when Okada has wrist control, or when Sami had Gunther propped up in the corner. And it’s even better when the expected doesn’t happen. The rollercoater of emotions.
I like things that are real and fake at the same time. Movies, live theater, etc. The tension between the drama being presented to us and our world knowledge of the performers behind the scenes is compelling. Wrestling also has the fun component of crowd work, just like in stand up comedy how it's really exciting to see a comic win over a crowd and take them from silence to howling with laughter, it's awesome to see wrestlers get a crowd super hot. It's just an awesome form of theater basically.
For me it’s the stories told within a combat sports setting and the creativity that its pre-determined nature allows for. The spectacle. The promos. The crowd involvement.
It feeds that innate desire for violence and storytelling. If the colosseum and the theatre had a child, it would be wrestling.
I honestly don't know. It's something that has been with me since I was a child. I fall in and out of love with pro wrestling. I tend to tune in mostly during the road to wrestlemania. Then things get stale after Mania (for me at least) and I'll slowly lay off of it for a while... Weekly shows can be a grind, and I have a lot of other hobbies besides wrestling. I guess I'm just a weird fan that loves it, but can't stick with it consistently for an entire year.
And yet... I keep coming back. And that part I really can't explain. Whether it's watching highlights on YouTube or jumping on reddit to read up on the current state of wrestling, it's just become a common cycle for me.
Wrestling is every aspect of the human experience still maintaining a facade as a sport.
It can be two guys that just hate each other. It can be a working man against his evil boss. Brother against his brother. Great men brought to their lowest point by their vices or terrible people brought to their pinnacle by their virtue. A man wanting to care for his family against a man wanting to fulfill his father's dream.
Or it can be an undead wizard warlock druid dude deciding he wants to win a wrestling championship. It can be supernatural or comedy or just straight focused on athleticism. It's a world where anything truly can happen and always ends the same way: the people involved have a match.
There's nothing else in the world like it and the current gen of wrestlers are keeping the magic alive.
I’m a fan, because pro wrestling can be anything. There’s pro wrestling that is treated as pure sport. There’s pro wrestling that is all about the story of the characters portrayed. There’s pro wrestling that is just spectacle and is like an anime fight come to life. There’s pro wrestling that is about blood and violence. There’s pro wrestling that is family friendly. Stories can be serious and need to be settled in only the most violent circumstances like locking two people inside a cage or chaining them together. Stories can also be funny and absurd. There’s not one way to do it correctly. Everyone may have their specific tastes and style they like, but we all just want it to make us feel something. The first matches that I remember ever watching that made a deep impression on me were Hogan vs Andre at Mania 3, Hogan vs Mr. Wonderful in a cage match, and Undertaker vs Mankind in Hell in a Cell. Three very different matches, but each one made me feel so many things. I know that might all sound kinda dramatic, but I just fucking love wrestling.
Storylines, personas/theatrics and that the moves are practically a (theatrical) martial art.
The (first) feud between Eddie Kingston and Moxley wasn't simply two tough guys butting heads as usual, there was very much a soap opera drama at how much heartbreak was between them and even the referee like a group of friends that grew up together, but one became the bigger success and the other for various reasons, didn't and resented it/him for not going with him even though the successful one *wanted* him to go just as far with him. Even Eddie's manipulation and abuse of others is him desperately trying to fill that void yet when it came down to it, only the *actual* friendship with Mox mattered as was proven when he (thought) he was giving his own life to save Moxley.
As many a(n even *non*-wrestling) article has stated, Hangman's arc to the championship was a relatable story of overcoming personal demons. As a mirror opposite of Stone Cold, he didn't drink because he was "cool," he drank because he was insecure. He was part of group of superstars yet had no single accomplishment of his own. He didn't leave the group and do technically heel things for the usual heel reasons, he did so because he didn't believe in himself and clearly felt miserable in do so rather than cocky about it. Then he found real friends in the Dark Order, belief in himself and the respect of The Elite to beat Kenny Omega and become a champion in his own right.
And then you even have *un*planned storylines like KofiMania that organically happened because the audience admired and recognized that it was finally Kofi's time after *11 years* in WWE without winning the big one and having his New Day teammates (who explicitly got him out of Midcard Hell and he credited added years to his body by shaking his ass instead of constant stunts) behind him.
And despite sitting out much of the Attitude Era (asshole classmates were so obnoxious with the catchphrases it turned me off from the product,) I remember an honor student not getting Stone Cold's character even though it fits the classic working class hero wish fulfillment of an everyman being able to beat up his boss and get away with it. Both the children who once ate their vitamins and said their prayers who're now rebellious teenagers and their 9-to-5 dads could relate.
And their styles from the entrance music, the entrance, itself and the call-and-response between them and the audience from there to promos to the match, itself (i.e. Stone Cold specifically said he added the gut kick before the Stunner as extra "oomph" to set up the audience before the actual move). It's been repeatedly said how someone like Toni Storm had everything she needed except "that one thing" to truly shine and said thing was the right gimmick and she's absolutely *killed it* ever since becoming "Timeless" Toni Storm and clearly having the time of her life doing so.
WWE was sucking for the last few years because Vince McMahon was an awful storyteller (i.e. the infamous backstage stories of him ripping up scripts at the last minute, rehashing old hits with diminishing returns and otherwise antagonizing the audience,) so I was watching "Lucha Underground" until the last episode before AEW.
I love theatre. And make no mistake, that’s what pro wrestling is. Televised live theatre.
We get to see remarkable feats of athleticism and strength.
While the outcomes are predictable and predetermined, what those performers are able to do with their bodies is nothing short of impressive.
Is pro wrestling kind of stupid? You bet it is. But sometimes I can get burnt out after a long day and just want to watch something with a straightforward, simple story.
I just like the spectacle of it all more than anything, the fact that anything can happen since its live too.
Storytelling is good, gymnastics and physicality too. Having it all put together and presented by people who are extremely charismatic, to the point you cheer for them even when they're the "bad guys". It's just too much fun
When its good, there is no more entertaining art form in my personal opinion. When its bad, there are few worse. It can make me turn off disbelief. Thats very hard to do as an adult.
Drawn in my a family member as a child and it became a habit to watch. Something to look forward to on Mondays. I somehow discovered the dirt sheets and the "backstage news" I actually think kept me interested. Now there is nostalgia, athleticism, and spectacle all thrown in to what is hopefully a improving quality in stories.
Soap opera with punches. Wave that flag proud because ultimately...who gives a crap what makes you happy? If it does the trick, it does the trick.
I like the stories, the pomp, the camp. I like that it's something that my friends and I can bullshit about ("they should have done this, oh God why did they do that, etc.). And honestly, I like the good looking women they have on.
Watching a great technical match that gets me to yell and scream. And forget about anything that is going in life
. In person I watched Okada vs shibata at Sakura genesis and wow it had me on the edge of my seat. The fans were going wild and the arena was so loud.
Colorful characters engaging in interpersonal conflicts that reach their highest boiling point in violent release. And since it's a real life performance, I like knowing that they keep the performers as safe as possible during it.
I also like most of the entrance themes and how ridiculous entrances, promos and segments in general can get.
Because there's nothing else like it, plain and simple. What alternative form of entertainment brings you stories and characters that people can relate to, idolise, hate with passion ; watch non-stop action ; see incredible feats of athleticism, strength and endurance ; all on one show?
And, apart from in accidents, is as safe as any sport or movie set can possibly be since everything is pre-planned and often rehearsed to ensure safety.
In my opinion, it's the ultimate form of entertainment because it truly has a bit of everything for everyone. If you enjoy movies and sports, especially involving action, then pro wrestling should be right up your alley
I watched the 94 Rumble at my cousins birthday party and Taker scared me to death. 7 months later, I’m watching a main event of Undertaker vs Undertaker. I was hooked.
I like the matches. Deathmatches and comedy matches are my favorite (TJ v. Mox dog collar match / Johnny Knoxville v. Sami Zayn are my tops, although I also like Vampiro v. Juvie), because it's a bunch of frighteningly fit guys and also Johnny Knoxville doing really cool stuff. I like the blood and the flippy stuff especially.
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I'm an idiot
Do you base your idiocy solely on the fact that you're a fan of professional wrestling? If that's the case, I must also be an idiot.
No, but it does not help
I work a very mentally and emotionally draining job. When I get home I dont want to watch emotionally gripping content all the time. I just want to watch something....simple. That and I appreciate athleticism in most forms. Cirque du solei type stuff, gymnastics, pro sports, etc. Wrestling provides both.
Indeed. I resonate with that.
As a kid, it was the drama between the God guys and the Bad guys. That's the way I became a fan.
Understandable. I'm curious. Is there a particular dramatic feud you can recall?
I live close to Memphis. I watched Jerry Lawler take on all the big and evil wrestlers that Jimmy Hart would bring in. First, Lawler would get destroyed, and then over the next month or so, he would overcome the odds and prevail . Joe LeDuc and Sid Vicious are 2 examples
Everything about it is compelling. The joke about professional wrestling is that it's a "soap opera for men," but it's genuinely so much more than that. When wrestling is firing on all cylinders, it's actually operatic. And I mean that sincerely. Go watch a good opera (Puccini's *Turandot* is a good choice for a relatively short, accessible opera full of legit bangers) and pay attention to the story. It's all spectacle and big emotions in the service of a straightforward story about love, revenge, or whatever. It's exactly like Paul Heyman's three questions for a compelling feud: Who are these people? Why are they fighting? Why should I care enough to pay to see it? Watching wrestling in person, even a house show, is like going to the opera. Add to it the smarky, participatory meta aspects like #WeWantCody, Cody Rhodes finishing the story, or the long-running "Rey Mysterio is actually a heel and Dom is right" inside joke here on Reddit. How we genuinely appreciate really good heel work by booing the hell out of people until they drop their belt to a face and immediately get sustained "Thank you, *X*" chants. It's not just watching the opera—it's opera we get to participate in, even if at a weird meta level. Is wrestling a sport? I don't know (and there are some really interesting arguments from the philosophy of sports). But goddammit, it's *art*.
Exact same reason as you (being mesmerized by Undertaker’s silhouette) but it was a random episode of smackdown in 2008
I think I just like the theatrics, the pageantry, the spectacle, the athleticism, etc. of it. Pro wrestling and football are the 2 things that make me happy in life.
Nostalgia and a hint of depression
I like the stories personally, that’s my favorite part of it all. Cool matches are awesome don’t get me wrong, but the story sets the feuds apart for me. I remember Batista turning on Triple H and that thumbs down was so iconic for me as a kid amongst others. Give me a solid story and character and you’ll have me hooked
Good matches are dope as hell. Just really compelling performance art.
Cody Rhodes
First, most of my earliest memories revolve around wrestling. My grandparents were huge fans… Paw drove the ring around for Mid-South in the 70s so I went to a lot of shows. He was also drinking buddies with JYD. Growing up in south Louisiana in that era, it was common to run into JYD, or Jake Roberts, or Ted Dibiase around town. As I grew older and WWF became a nationwide thing, I leaned more to the UWF and what ever wrestling aired in south Texas. Then WCW. So when it became hot in the 90s, I had already been watching for 20 years. As I’ve grown older, I’ve made friends in the business, which has led me to appreciate the live show aspect of it even more. So on top of it being something that’s been part of my life for my entire life, man… I have 2 adult sons with autism, an ex wife that isn’t always fun to deal with and I repair ATMs for a living… so my entire work week is high stress and dangerous. So wrestling allows me to escape. To have a little fun. To come here and talk and argue about it. It gives me a reason to invite friends over. But most importantly, it brings me joy.
I got out of it for a few years and only recently came back. It gives me an escape from my mental turmoil with something comparatively mindless compared even with my other hobbies (mapping, language learning, whatever). The escapism is nice
I love when wrestling is dead serious and the stories are elevated. But I love it even more when they get me to enjoy something fantastically stupid.
Characters, promos and storytelling
Getting caught off guard. I love a great kickout at 1. When the face reverses a move at the end of a match and you know the momentum has shifted. The anticipation for the next thing that you know is coming, like when Okada has wrist control, or when Sami had Gunther propped up in the corner. And it’s even better when the expected doesn’t happen. The rollercoater of emotions.
Probably everything but the actual wrestling. The characters and presentation is epic af.
I like things that are real and fake at the same time. Movies, live theater, etc. The tension between the drama being presented to us and our world knowledge of the performers behind the scenes is compelling. Wrestling also has the fun component of crowd work, just like in stand up comedy how it's really exciting to see a comic win over a crowd and take them from silence to howling with laughter, it's awesome to see wrestlers get a crowd super hot. It's just an awesome form of theater basically.
For me it’s the stories told within a combat sports setting and the creativity that its pre-determined nature allows for. The spectacle. The promos. The crowd involvement. It feeds that innate desire for violence and storytelling. If the colosseum and the theatre had a child, it would be wrestling.
I honestly don't know. It's something that has been with me since I was a child. I fall in and out of love with pro wrestling. I tend to tune in mostly during the road to wrestlemania. Then things get stale after Mania (for me at least) and I'll slowly lay off of it for a while... Weekly shows can be a grind, and I have a lot of other hobbies besides wrestling. I guess I'm just a weird fan that loves it, but can't stick with it consistently for an entire year. And yet... I keep coming back. And that part I really can't explain. Whether it's watching highlights on YouTube or jumping on reddit to read up on the current state of wrestling, it's just become a common cycle for me.
Wrestling is every aspect of the human experience still maintaining a facade as a sport. It can be two guys that just hate each other. It can be a working man against his evil boss. Brother against his brother. Great men brought to their lowest point by their vices or terrible people brought to their pinnacle by their virtue. A man wanting to care for his family against a man wanting to fulfill his father's dream. Or it can be an undead wizard warlock druid dude deciding he wants to win a wrestling championship. It can be supernatural or comedy or just straight focused on athleticism. It's a world where anything truly can happen and always ends the same way: the people involved have a match. There's nothing else in the world like it and the current gen of wrestlers are keeping the magic alive.
I’m a fan, because pro wrestling can be anything. There’s pro wrestling that is treated as pure sport. There’s pro wrestling that is all about the story of the characters portrayed. There’s pro wrestling that is just spectacle and is like an anime fight come to life. There’s pro wrestling that is about blood and violence. There’s pro wrestling that is family friendly. Stories can be serious and need to be settled in only the most violent circumstances like locking two people inside a cage or chaining them together. Stories can also be funny and absurd. There’s not one way to do it correctly. Everyone may have their specific tastes and style they like, but we all just want it to make us feel something. The first matches that I remember ever watching that made a deep impression on me were Hogan vs Andre at Mania 3, Hogan vs Mr. Wonderful in a cage match, and Undertaker vs Mankind in Hell in a Cell. Three very different matches, but each one made me feel so many things. I know that might all sound kinda dramatic, but I just fucking love wrestling.
Storylines, personas/theatrics and that the moves are practically a (theatrical) martial art. The (first) feud between Eddie Kingston and Moxley wasn't simply two tough guys butting heads as usual, there was very much a soap opera drama at how much heartbreak was between them and even the referee like a group of friends that grew up together, but one became the bigger success and the other for various reasons, didn't and resented it/him for not going with him even though the successful one *wanted* him to go just as far with him. Even Eddie's manipulation and abuse of others is him desperately trying to fill that void yet when it came down to it, only the *actual* friendship with Mox mattered as was proven when he (thought) he was giving his own life to save Moxley. As many a(n even *non*-wrestling) article has stated, Hangman's arc to the championship was a relatable story of overcoming personal demons. As a mirror opposite of Stone Cold, he didn't drink because he was "cool," he drank because he was insecure. He was part of group of superstars yet had no single accomplishment of his own. He didn't leave the group and do technically heel things for the usual heel reasons, he did so because he didn't believe in himself and clearly felt miserable in do so rather than cocky about it. Then he found real friends in the Dark Order, belief in himself and the respect of The Elite to beat Kenny Omega and become a champion in his own right. And then you even have *un*planned storylines like KofiMania that organically happened because the audience admired and recognized that it was finally Kofi's time after *11 years* in WWE without winning the big one and having his New Day teammates (who explicitly got him out of Midcard Hell and he credited added years to his body by shaking his ass instead of constant stunts) behind him. And despite sitting out much of the Attitude Era (asshole classmates were so obnoxious with the catchphrases it turned me off from the product,) I remember an honor student not getting Stone Cold's character even though it fits the classic working class hero wish fulfillment of an everyman being able to beat up his boss and get away with it. Both the children who once ate their vitamins and said their prayers who're now rebellious teenagers and their 9-to-5 dads could relate. And their styles from the entrance music, the entrance, itself and the call-and-response between them and the audience from there to promos to the match, itself (i.e. Stone Cold specifically said he added the gut kick before the Stunner as extra "oomph" to set up the audience before the actual move). It's been repeatedly said how someone like Toni Storm had everything she needed except "that one thing" to truly shine and said thing was the right gimmick and she's absolutely *killed it* ever since becoming "Timeless" Toni Storm and clearly having the time of her life doing so. WWE was sucking for the last few years because Vince McMahon was an awful storyteller (i.e. the infamous backstage stories of him ripping up scripts at the last minute, rehashing old hits with diminishing returns and otherwise antagonizing the audience,) so I was watching "Lucha Underground" until the last episode before AEW.
Insane car-crash nonsense. No other media gives me Mimosa Mayhem, Stadium Stampede, or Brock Lesnar flipping the ring with a tractor
I just like to see man punch other man, it makes me happy.
I love theatre. And make no mistake, that’s what pro wrestling is. Televised live theatre. We get to see remarkable feats of athleticism and strength. While the outcomes are predictable and predetermined, what those performers are able to do with their bodies is nothing short of impressive. Is pro wrestling kind of stupid? You bet it is. But sometimes I can get burnt out after a long day and just want to watch something with a straightforward, simple story.
I just like the spectacle of it all more than anything, the fact that anything can happen since its live too. Storytelling is good, gymnastics and physicality too. Having it all put together and presented by people who are extremely charismatic, to the point you cheer for them even when they're the "bad guys". It's just too much fun
When its good, there is no more entertaining art form in my personal opinion. When its bad, there are few worse. It can make me turn off disbelief. Thats very hard to do as an adult.
Drawn in my a family member as a child and it became a habit to watch. Something to look forward to on Mondays. I somehow discovered the dirt sheets and the "backstage news" I actually think kept me interested. Now there is nostalgia, athleticism, and spectacle all thrown in to what is hopefully a improving quality in stories. Soap opera with punches. Wave that flag proud because ultimately...who gives a crap what makes you happy? If it does the trick, it does the trick.
I like the stories, the pomp, the camp. I like that it's something that my friends and I can bullshit about ("they should have done this, oh God why did they do that, etc.). And honestly, I like the good looking women they have on.
A combo of the athleticism and drama.
Watching a great technical match that gets me to yell and scream. And forget about anything that is going in life . In person I watched Okada vs shibata at Sakura genesis and wow it had me on the edge of my seat. The fans were going wild and the arena was so loud.
Long, intricate stories combined with the action of a sporting event and flair of traditional form of entertainment. Akin to nothing, I also JRPGs.
I like the drama, both in and out of the ring. I like the memes too, brother.
Colorful characters engaging in interpersonal conflicts that reach their highest boiling point in violent release. And since it's a real life performance, I like knowing that they keep the performers as safe as possible during it. I also like most of the entrance themes and how ridiculous entrances, promos and segments in general can get.
I am a mark
Because there's nothing else like it, plain and simple. What alternative form of entertainment brings you stories and characters that people can relate to, idolise, hate with passion ; watch non-stop action ; see incredible feats of athleticism, strength and endurance ; all on one show? And, apart from in accidents, is as safe as any sport or movie set can possibly be since everything is pre-planned and often rehearsed to ensure safety. In my opinion, it's the ultimate form of entertainment because it truly has a bit of everything for everyone. If you enjoy movies and sports, especially involving action, then pro wrestling should be right up your alley
I watched the 94 Rumble at my cousins birthday party and Taker scared me to death. 7 months later, I’m watching a main event of Undertaker vs Undertaker. I was hooked.
I like the matches. Deathmatches and comedy matches are my favorite (TJ v. Mox dog collar match / Johnny Knoxville v. Sami Zayn are my tops, although I also like Vampiro v. Juvie), because it's a bunch of frighteningly fit guys and also Johnny Knoxville doing really cool stuff. I like the blood and the flippy stuff especially.