Is anyone else getting sick of this “pro wrestling vs. MMA” paradigm that we can’t seem to escape? I’m a fan of both, and it’s downright tedious to see all these uninformed comparisons and accusations of one thing trying to bully its way into the other thing’s fanbase. Heck, Triple H had to sit down with WWE investors and explain the differences not too long ago. I mean, if we’re tracing the lineage here, the similarities are highly-trained athletes and the premise of combat. That’s where it begins and ends. From there, wrestling is about theatricality and grandeur, whereas MMA is purely about athletic superiority. It’s not that hard… and yet, here we are.
I’m getting verbose with you boys and girls because Joe Rogan decided to talk about pro wrestling on his podcast recently. SPOILER ALERT: It went about as well as you’d expect. Here’s the choice quote that’s been getting mileage:
“One of them is real. One of them is people battling for their lives in the most difficult content in all of sports. The other is some weird, ****** jerk-off thing where strange guys sit in front of the TV and pretend they don’t know it’s fake. You don’t want to know. You shut that part of your brain off.”
I don’t know what the asterisks are censoring here, I can’t be bothered to sit through an hour of rambling about hallucinogens just to get one soundbite. Rogan actually got in a bit of a back-and-forth with former Ring of Honor champion Michael Elgin saying he respects the athletes at the end of the day. You know, because nothing says respect like accusations of being weird jerk-off material.
You probably know Joe Rogan – comedian, podcaster, and commentator for the UFC. I don’t dislike Joe — when it comes to mixed martial arts, he’s one of the most knowledgeable people on the planet. He’s a walking encyclopedia of fighting history. But here’s the thing about him — do you remember that guy you met in college? The one who was convinced he had the world figured out, but never actually did anything about it? The one who said if we could just legalize recreational drugs and ban organized religion, we’d move forward as a society? Add about fifteen years and a few million dollars, and that’s Joe.
These days, I’m more or less done trying to explain wrestling to people. You either “get it” from the first time you see it, or you don’t. I’m fine with that. I’m not a missionary trying to get people to repent and flock to their nearest indy show. But I do still feel like I need to correct certain misconceptions that start to take hold in the mainstream, especially this “pretend they don’t know it’s fake” line. Question: Isn’t that what you do for any entertainment medium presented as fiction? I didn’t go into Guardians of the Galaxy looking for astrophysical flaws, but that doesn’t mean I turned my brain off. That’s what people are failing to realize about the modern wrestling fan — we have this weird mutation that allows us to process reality and enjoy fiction at the same time. And we don’t even have to take any drugs! Crazy, right?
