Drunken Post: Fake Pro Wrestling is Awesome

So you think you’re so high and mighty, loving the shit out of predisposed music from your predisposed music blogs, and following the predisposed films from the predisposed film blogs of the Twin Cities – maybe even from us, who knows. But regardless.

Lately, not a single music movement has made a difference, nor has the movie movement. But you know what? Four days into the new decade, and there’s one entertainment unit that’s pushed itself to the limits. It’s the WWE – World Wrestling Entertainment.

The argument of the wrestling industry as ‘fake’ whereas other entertainment industries get their bullshit pass has been heresy since day one. Over the course of the last decade, ‘pro’ wrestling has been a familiar entertainment staple, and have been the one to rigorously try their best to portray themselves highly in the eyes of new generations who care nothing except for . . . what, Jersey Shore? I don’t even know.

It’s much like carnival freakshows – everybody sees it but nobody appreciates the subtlety. So it’s scripted, does that make it less entertaining than sideshow fire breathers? Or less athletic? Nonsense. What they’ve done is play off of serious entertainment stress factors, which ‘real’ sports never do. You never get satisfaction from ‘genuine’ sport rivalries.

But tonight, goddamn, Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart and Shawn ‘Heartbreak Kid’ Michaels buried their rivalry after 12 years, and not a single emotion of that was fake. This is one of the ‘greatest ever’ sport rivalries, with those guys hating the living shit out of each other but standing in the same ring and shaking hands is a miracle of the sport entertainment business. It’s absolutely real and absolutely genuine.

I don’t even begin to assume any outside force could begin to respect this industry given its unjustly tarnished reputation, but I can do one thing – post highlights of Bret Hart’s revolutionary Wrestlemania XII match against Shawn Michaels which lasted over an hour. It’s extraordinary, and far more engaging than any ‘real’ sport clash I can recall in over the last ten years. So goddamn it, open your mind and give it a try, because shit just got intense!