• stinerman [Ohio]@midwest.social
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    10 months ago

    To be serious for a moment when people say “it’s fake”, they mean it’s not a legitimate sporting contest. That’s true…and completely misses the point. That’s not what it’s meant to be. It’s scripted entertainment. A high school teacher who was a big pro wrestling fan said it was a “soap opera for men.”

    Porn isn’t a legitimate sporting contest either, but it is fake in that it’s staged and scripted (minus amateur stuff). It’s the same scripted entertainment.

    • RQG@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      It’s a soap opera stunt show where the story revolves around a wrestling league.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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      10 months ago

      You’re ignoring that for the majority of its history both the pro-wrestling industry and fans have supported the kayfabe, so people saying “It’s fake” would be met with “No it’s not! Was that guy getting hit with a chair fake?!?!!”

      Does that happen in porn? In soap operas?

      And, of course, a lot of the fans of pro-wrestling were children. The “It’s fake! No it isn’t!” arguments mostly happened between eight year olds in various stages of figuring out the world lies to them.

      Even beyond that, this is just a ridiculous boomer argument on the whole. The kayfabe has been largely abandoned for a decade, because it was becoming a legal liability to pretend to be a legitimate athletic contest no matter how hard they winked.