Do You Feel Lucky?

(and feel free to comment! My older posts are certainly no less relevant to the burning concerns of the day.)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Is Mud-Wrestling For Real?

I know they say it is, and all. And the fans will bite your head off if you so much as question it! But I don't know, it just seems a little staged sometimes. Rather than an earnest bout, may-the-best-wrestler-win, a contest of technique and athleticism, sometimes it seems as though both combatants are just sort of...cooperating out there. Collaborating, with the goal not to win the match, so much as to put on the best possible show for the audience. As if the focus were entertainment, not competition.

I'm sorry, but that's how it comes off! It comes off less as sport and more as theater, frankly, and I apologize if it offends some people to hear it but for me, this impression - right or wrong - can't help but taint my experience as a spectator. If I'm going to go see a sporting event, I want to see a real contest, a serious struggle with both participants pressing every advantage they can and trying hard to win! Less show-biz, more skirmish! Less drama, more duel.

Now don't misrepresent what I'm saying, here. I'm not charging anyone with fraud. I'm not saying the outcome is necessarily pre-determined, either by the athletes or their handlers, and I'm not saying that one or the other competitor is going in there to "throw the fight." But it doesn't help to see some of the showboating and gratuitous display going on there, in the ring. There are moments when it just seems clear to everybody that winning is not foremost on either of these contenders' minds. They're just trying to put on an exhibition, please the crowd, everybody goes home happy.

Well I hate to be a spoil-sport, but that's not what wrestling is about. It's supposed to be epic clash, not flash and dazzle. Let's get it back to basics, people. Flaunt your will to win to the limit. 

That's what the audience came to see!

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