In what context? It's as real as anything else on TV these days.

The bumps and all that are not, everything else is. Not ashamed to admit that.

It maybe staged, but it's much more then just a fake sport.

Depends on the context.

"Fake" makes it sound in a weird way. Like "fake gold", or counterfeit stuff.
Wrestling is kind of a movie or a soap opera, just performed in front of a live audience, when and where are no second chances for the "actors" to repeat their lines when they speak. Just that.

As far as being physical and people getting hurt, lol there's no fake in that. There are also no stunt doubles.

EDIT: except for Mizdow. He's a pioneer.

The problem with the word fake, and why so many wrestling fans get upset over it, is because it's usually used to dismiss wrestling as a lesser form of entertainment. It implies that it doesn't deserve to be taken seriously, and that the risks involved are somehow counterfeit.

I don't like the word because it's only used to compare wrestling to real sports, which is a comparison I don't care for. Wrestling has nothing in common with MMA, basketball or football, and putting it into a conversation with those sports is a false comparison in my view. I prefer to compare wrestling to serialized drama (like soap operas, Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones). That's a more accurate comparison (though still a bit uneven, since none of those shows are broadcast live), but in that context wrestling would be the least fake product in the discussion.

Pro-Wrestling consists of:

• No real accomplishments. As I said in the CM Punk topic: when it comes to pro-wrestling, if it were a race, somebody gets chosen from the front/middle/rear of the race and is given an accolade. Plain and simple, whether they "deserved" it or not.
  
• It's scripted, obviously. Which means the wrestlers don't wrestle to win, they wrestle to entertain. People always compare it to MMA in this sense. No need. Compare it to regular wrestling. Those wrestlers come out and try to defeat their opponent. That doesn't happen in pro-wrestling.
  
• As Dead said, the bumps and everything are real. And the risk of injury/death is also real.
  
• It's supposed to be a sport, or sport entertainment, whatever. So when people compare it to dramas or any other type of a show, they're silly. Does it qualify as a sport? In some definitions, yes. In others, no.

IMO, fake. People may not like the word "fake" so use a synonym.

GM Tyrant Myke wrote:

Pro-Wrestling consists of:

• No real accomplishments. As I said in the CM Punk topic: when it comes to pro-wrestling, if it were a race, somebody gets chosen from the front/middle/rear of the race and is given an accolade. Plain and simple, whether they "deserved" it or not.
  
  
• It's scripted, obviously. Which means the wrestlers don't wrestle to win, they wrestle to entertain.
  
• People always compare it to MMA in this sense. No need. Compare it to regular wrestling. Those wrestlers come out and try to defeat their opponent. That doesn't happen in pro-wrestling.
  
• As Dead said, the bumps and everything are real. And the risk of injury/death is also real.
  
• It's supposed to be a sport, or sport entertainment, whatever. So when people compare it to dramas or any other type of a show, they're silly. Does it qualify as a sport? In some definitions, yes. In others, no.
  

IMO, fake. People may not like the word "fake" so use a synonym.

You made every point explaining how professional wrestling is purely an entertainment product, then in your last note claimed it's supposed to be a sport.

I just love how the general consensus of wrestling was "It's not fake, it's scripted. You try getting in there and taking a powerslam!"

Until CM Punk called it fake and all the IWC smarks jumped on it so they don't look like morons.

Why are people so adamant in comparing pro wrestling to other things - sports, dramas, TV shows, MMA? Sure, it's a hybrid of athletics and theatrics. But can pro wrestling not exist as its own distinct, unique product? That's exactly what it is: it's an entertainment product that is unlike anything else out there. So when people try to label this original, one-of-a-kind art form as 'real' or 'fake,' they only come off as condescending morons.

"fake" isn't the right word. It's a live-action performance art.

Sports entertainment is a great term for it because it combines athletics with drama, all under a written script. It combines the two.

I'd say calling it "fake" is fair just like "fake" would be a fair way to describe entertainment in movies, etc. Fixed or scripted are the better terms though.

Eeyen wrote:

"fake" isn't the right word. It's a live-action performance art.

Fake is the right word, it's just not the best word to describe it. Live-action performance art is good tho.