Professional Wrestling: Enjoying Staged Displays of Mock Violence

It’s probably not best to ponder at any great length what it is about professional wrestling that appeals so greatly to millions of North Americans; let’s just cross our fingers and hope that the (forgivable) desire to watch a freak-show in action underlies this passion for premeditated false brutality. Anyway, professional wrestling is funny and we need not quote the many "laughter is the best medicine" advocates in order to agree that humor undeniably has its merits.

Indeed, there is a certain element to the spectacle of grown men in face make-up and tights - as well as the thousands of people going stark, raving bonkers in the audience - that serves to puncture the pomposity of the standard notion of adults having to conform to set, tight and rigid standards of "mature conduct." Americans have long since been identifiable by their desire to escape the suffocating straightjacket of conformity and "real life" by proudly displaying fantastic theatrical spectacles that would no doubt have been the envy of a many an impresario at ancient Rome’s Coliseum.

In any case, whatever one might think of this essentially harmless modern form of gladiatorship, the fact is that professional wrestling is a money-making machine of the highest order. And, of course, American entrepreneurs have long since been all too keen to cash in on just about anything and are also usually clever enough with their marketing to keep the machine rolling well beyond the point of the given enterprise’s presumed demise. This is shown all too clearly, and perhaps even most clearly, when it comes to professional wrestling!