It was still real to me, dammit...

[Patrick McFadden]

I wasn't watching wrestling when it happened but at some point the wall of kayfabe began to deteriorate and, over time, was obliterated.


There's a whole new generation of fans who have grown up in this day and age where the overwhelming majority of us know it's a work but that wasn't the case back in the day.

I can remember all too well hearing arguments in grade school where that ONE kid was ridiculed because he was STUPID enough to think it was 'fake'. Like, duh, why would you LET someone hit you with a chair, dumbass....sheesh. Of course it's real.

Ah, childhood.

But at some point it ends, there comes that time when you realize 'My god....that punch...it's not even TOUCHING his opponent...'

When was it for you? At what point in your life did you realize that it was fake and how did that affect you?


For me it was Zeus being thrust into in-ring competition after the release of No Holds Barred.

The idea was that Zeus was SO JEALOUS of Hulk Hogan that, after the release of the film, he decided to take on Hogan himself in a REAL LIFE wrestling angle.

I thought it more than strange that this individual would SO embrace the role of Zeus and the fact that the WWF would ALLOW this disturbed individual to get anywhere near the ring. He's not a wrestler, how did he get to ringside?

I smelled shenanigans. And it was at this point I realized that, yeah, not just a little, not just most of the time but ALL of wrestling was a work.

I remember not understanding how a company could get AWAY with being so deceptive....oh, to be young again lol

[Chris.charlton]

Can't remember who exactly was in the match, but it was someone bumping off an invisible drop kick on wcw worldwide in 1990 that confirmed suspicions for me. Was six at the time.

[Jack Raines]

I remember putting a videotape in slow-motion when I was like 8 years old and seeing that the Ultimate Warrior's punches didn't connect, which confirmed my suspicions that it was all 'fake'.

[Reed Benzo]

I'd heard it was fake before I'd ever watched it. As a kid, I only knew Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, Sgt. Slaughter (from GI Joe), and maybe Randy Savage (I think I saw him on Slim Jim commercials before I ever watched wrestling). I'd never seen a single match before 1998. I used to be the sort who thought it must be stupid without ever actually watching it. I don't think that I ever ridiculed anyone for liking it, but I don't think I really knew anyone who liked it. I know I actively thought negatively of it.

While I was in junior high, I saw an ad for Mike Tyson being on Raw. Oddly enough, even though I'd never watched boxing, either, I felt like I had to see that.

Even though I knew it was all a work, I was hooked.

[Gee Hall]

Growing up, my best friend's older cousin was HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED. His first weekend down in Calgary he stayed at their house for the weekend to check out training at the Dungeon. He body slammed us a couple times on the couch that weekend (and this was very cool, because he was a real life wrestler). Later on that day, my best friend broke the news to me. I didn't really care, and kept watching.

[Irwin R Schyster]

I think I still believed in Santa Claus longer then i believed wrestling was real, but I didnt care since every other TV show i was into wasnt real either, but to me this was much more interesting because of the performers, also every show felt like a spectacle.

[Nairby and Chubb]

i started watching in 1986 just before WM2 but it took about a year for me to catch on to what was really going on. the one think i was never 100% sure of until 1997 was that vince mcmahon owned the company, even though the apter magazines always said he did.

at first i thought jack tunney owned the company. then i thought it was a mystery person or group behind the scenes. then i started kind of thinking the apter mags were telling the truth. and finally it was during an in-ring interview with shawn michaels where he hinted that vince signed the checks and vince gave a little grin that i knew vince was the man.

shortly after that i got internet access for the first time and it fucked it all up.

i liked it better when you were called a loser by non-wrestling fans just for watching ''fake wrestling''. now you get called a loser by so-called ''smart'' fans if you watch it for what it is as opposed to using backstage internet rumors to critique and shit all over everything.

i dont understand why watching something you think has sucked for years, and continue to watch it despite that, makes someone smart. it'd be like eating dog shit every day hoping one day youll find a piece that tastes good.

[quickstrike83]

i started watching in early 99, i was 15 so i already knew it was staged. I think knowing ahead of time and being older kept me from being let down at a later point.

[Irwin R Schyster]

Apr 22, 2012 2:59:23 GMT -5 Nairby and Chubb said:

i started watching in 1986 just before WM2 but it took about a year for me to catch on to what was really going on. the one think i was never 100% sure of until 1997 was that vince mcmahon owned the company, even though the apter magazines always said he did.

at first i thought jack tunney owned the company. then i thought it was a mystery person or group behind the scenes. then i started kind of thinking the apter mags were telling the truth. and finally it was during an in-ring interview with shawn michaels where he hinted that vince signed the checks and vince gave a little grin that i knew vince was the man.

shortly after that i got internet access for the first time and it fucked it all up.

i liked it better when you were called a loser by non-wrestling fans just for watching ''fake wrestling''. now you get called a loser by so-called ''smart'' fans if you watch it for what it is as opposed to using backstage internet rumors to critique and shit all over everything.

i dont understand why watching something you think has sucked for years, and continue to watch it despite that, makes someone smart. it'd be like eating dog shit every day hoping one day youll find a piece that tastes good.

Its funny i knew it wasnt real, but I also thought that Jack Tunney was the one who owned the WWF, and I remember how shocked I was when I found out Vince owned it ("That commentator guy is the owner??"), same thing happened with Bischoff in WCW when I found out he was the guy in charge.

[dombag85]

finding out it wasn't real never really bothered me, but my old man used to always emphasize, falling 30 feet off a ladder onto plywood covered in canvas is pretty hard to fake, so i at least learned to respect fake wrestling from a young age

[Babyface]

I started watching wrestling when I was around 5-6 years old and I don't remember ever thinking it was real. The matches never looked convincing enough for me to believe it was real, even as a 5 year old.

[Jason X]

I never thought it was real. Even at 6 or 7 or whatever it was when I started watching I could tell it wasn't completely kosher. I could tell that punches were pulled and that some moves couldn't possibly hurt but it was an extension of Saturday Morning Cartoons so I didn't care if it was "fake".

I still remember when The Detroit News would print insider information and my dad would tell me "So-and-so has been fired from the WWF" or "Randy Savage will win the WWF Championship at WrestleMania 4" and even though I was a kid it wasn't over my head. I knew that Earthquake didn't really hurt the Hulkster, he was just away filming a movie.

So I guess I was a "smart" before even the Web or my knowledge of The Observer

I've always known it was a performance but it didn't matter. I've also always known that Freddy can't really kill you and that Helen Slater can't fly... or act for that matter

[Patrick McFadden]

I was very, VERY sheltered as a kid and I wasn't even allowed to watch in my own home, thankfully I had friends who were more than willing to have me over on occasion to watch.

I think at some point, 6 or 7 onward, I felt that SOME of it was real, it HAD to be....because nothing completely rigged could ever be shown on TV.

My Dad was completely against me watching, he felt that it would warp my mind. Boy, was he right lol.

But seriously, it took me being reintroduced to wrestling in 2000 to realize that it's art. It's theater at it's best because instead of going from a script they're telling a story using their athleticism and physical prowess.

And if anyone wants to blow it off as 'well, it's FAKE...', it's hard enough to play any sport, imagine how hard it would be to try and follow a script?

'All right Derrick...we'll need you to get by this defender, run into another in the lane, jump, shoot the ball and then take a hard bump as the ball bounces off the backboard into the hoop netting two points....'

I respect the living hell out of anyone who laces up and heads into the ring, it's an art form that doesn't get nearly the amount of respect it deserves.