Wrestling in General

The average Joe/Jane will come up to me and say that wrestling is "fake." I simply reply by asking, "What do you mean?"

Sure, professional wrestling is predetermined;  the bumps, blood,  morning-after soreness, stiffness, and injuries are real. Take it from someone who has been doing it since 2008.

When I first tried out for WAW Wrestling, the first thing I learned was how to play it safe. The slams and suplexes that some of you may have seen have a method of working out fine so the person taking the bump doesn't get seriously injured. There are certain spots to post on your opponent so that he/she doesn't kill herself trying to lift you. If the post isn't effective enough, your opponent won't be able to support your weight and the attempted move may be in danger of botching up - or in other words - fucking up pretty bad. Accidents do happen, but wrestlers try hard to prevent them with such standard safety precautions. I'll get back on that later.

With that said, bumping doesn't sound too shabby. What the wrestler taking the move has to do is to "sell the move." Selling is part of the acting. Once you see somebody get slammed in the ring, you usually see him/her act as if it was the worst thing that has ever happened to the targeted part of their anatomy, which gives off a sense of realism.

Punches and kicks make contact most of the time, but they aren't given much force. With kicks, one barely touches his/her opponent around the gut. Punches, on the other hand, are not done full-knuckle. Since punches are blurs when you see them in motion, you can't really pick up that the worker is using the closed palm of their hand as opposed to their knuckles. If sold right, it looks realistic.

Since we are talking about realism, let's talk about the blood you see on TV. There has been folklore stating that the blood isn't real. Allow me to say that it is in fact real blood you are seeing. When someone is scheduled to bleed in a match (which is usually done to add a dramatic effect to the match), the said wrestler performs a task called "gigging," "juicing," or "blading." What the wrestler does is that he sells a heavy-looking shot to the head (whether it be a hit from a weapon or getting smashed by an exposed turnbuckle), and during that moment of selling his/her head, he/she covers his/her face and cuts it with a blade. The blade may be taken out from the taped wrists or from the referee.

That is one way of gigging. The other way is a much stiffer way, which involved real effort to make the other opponent bleed. In wrestling terms, this is called a "work shoot." Punches, kicks, and weapon shots are real, but as far as moves are involved, they are performed without intention to be stiff.

That is all I can think of in terms of what is fake and what is legit. I've had my share of injuries besides the typical morning after soreness and stiffness. I had tendinitis in my right Achilles tendon, which kept me out of action for three months after taking a bad bump that had my leg get caught under me. I've taken legit chair shots and kicks to the head, and I'm still ticking.

Here's a match clip from a WAW event. And to think I didn't break my neck in that fall...

Ladder Match