The performers of World Wrestling Entertainment risk their lives each and every time they step into the squared circle. Their jobs are to entertain us, but in doing so they have to put their lives on the line. Professional wrestling is a dangerous business, and taking the chance of ending up like Droz is a thought that is constantly lingering in the minds of nearly every professional wrestler. To quote Chris Jericho, “The fear is always there”. So that brings up the question, just why exactly do wrestlers choose to put their lives on the line for us each and every time they perform?
What is it that drove Mankind to willingly be thrown off the top of the 15 foot high Hell In A Cell? What is it that pushed Kurt Angle to wrestle in the main event at Wrestlemania 19, knowing full well that his neck was in such bad shape that any bump taken the wrong way could have paralyzed him? What was the force that really drove Jeff Hardy to do a Swanton Bomb off the top of a 15 foot high ladder at Wrestlemania 16? In fact, another credible question could be what makes a wrestler take simple moves such as a DDT and a back body drop, common moves that if not done properly could lead to serious injury?
Perhaps the reason that wrestlers take these risks is because they are being worked by the crowd. That is, the crowd is pushing wrestlers to have good matches, and often times that may lead to the wrestlers doing spots that are putting their life and the life of their opponent in serious jeopardy. Is it possible that the WWE fans are the ones responsible for WWE wrestlers putting their lives on the line each and every time they step through the red or blue ropes and perform? Let’s take a closer look.
You will see that fans will often times make their voices heard if they do not like a match. This can be seen in that at Wrestlemania 20, during the Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg match, the crowd chanted “This match sucks”. This showed that the crowd was not pleased with the garbage that Brock Lesnar and Goldberg were giving to the crowd and calling a match. Standing around for about 3 minutes before they even locked up, having long, extended periods of just locking up… the crowd just wanted to see more.
In the past, the crowd (for the most part) could have cared less about the quality of a match. They simply cared about the wrestlers’ characters and wanted to know who the winners would be. This could clearly be seen in that wrestlers like The Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan, two mediocre wrestlers at best, were bigger draws than wrestlers like Bret Hart and The Rockers. In fact, the entire notion of a certain wrestler’s matches consistently being good probably never crossed most peoples’ minds in the past. They probably watched wrestling like any other sport, in that they wanted to see high profile competitors going at it, they wanted to see an opponent with a winning record vs. another opponent with a winning record.
Yes, they do like to see competitive games/matches, but in the end they are not going to hold it against a competitor if their games/matches are not exciting. They are simply trying their best to win, and their real intention can not be to put on good performances for the crowd. Any real athlete who tries to make their performances seem dramatic and entertaining to the crowd probably isn’t very good at what he or she does, and the audience understands that. How many times have you heard a “Boring” chant at a basketball game or a football game? Probably not very often, if you’ve ever heard one at all. And thus, the wrestlers did not push themselves to take overly dangerous high risks back then. There were no ladder matches, no swanton bombs, no 450 splashes, etc.
The WWE fans used to watch wrestling in this light. If a match was boring, they did not hold it against the wrestlers, they simply continued to watch to see who was going to win. But with the knowledge that wrestling is in fact sports entertainment, or a staged sport to be more accurate, the crowd began to have higher expectations for the wrestlers’ performances. Since they knew the wrestlers could put excitement and good storytelling into a match at their own will, they almost expected it of them.
And thus, we now have the crowd pushing the wrestlers to put on good matches, and often times this may lead to wrestlers putting themselves into dangerous predicaments. This may be the reason that Kurt Angle was pushed into working the Wrestlemania 19 main event and having an actually good match (IMO) when in fact he easily could have let the other 3 main events carry the show. But no, he knew the crowd was expecting a performance by Kurt Angle, and possibly would have raised hell had he not shown up to wrestle.
Or maybe the reason the wrestlers try to put their lives on the line every time they perform is possibly because of another reason all together. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the crowd simply continues to raise their expectations each and every time they see a wrestler top their previous performance. Is it possible that once the average level of wrestling becomes higher, the crowd’s thirst for good wrestling can only be quenched by something that is of that level and beyond? Think about it. This is different from the first possible reason, because instead of the WWE fans expecting more from wrestlers today as opposed to in the past because of how they saw professional wrestling, they now expect more of wrestlers because they are trying to out do themselves to live up to the fan’s expectations.
When Mankind was preparing for his now infamous Hell In A Cell match with the Undertaker, he watched the very first Hell In A Cell match with his best friend and in ring legend Terry Funk. They both contemplated how Mankind could be able to put on a performance that lives up to the crowd’s expectations for what the Hell In A Cell match should be like. That’s when Terry suggested that Mankind start the match on top of the Cell.
Of course we all know what happened afterwards. Mankind literally came close to dying because he had to live up to the crowd’s expectations. Living up to the crowd’s expectations was what drove Mankind to be thrown off the top of the cell. Trying to quench the crowd’s thirst for a good match was what drove him to get off the stretcher while the match was stopped and climb back to the top of the cell. The blue print was already set in the crowd’s minds as to what level a Hell in a Cell match should be at, and Mankind that’ what drove Mankind to finish the match, despite being nearly out of it.
Try to imagine this scenario: if you are reading this column, chances are you are probably a columnist yourself or a big fan of reading wrestling columns. When a columnist writes their best column, the bar has now been raised as to what the reader expects from that particular columnist. Any time a columnist writes something that is below the standard that is set by their best column, the readers will often times be disappointed to a certain degree. Even though they probably enjoy the column, there is a certain level of disappointment because they know the columnist they are reading can do better. We as columnists know this, and are constantly trying to put out the best column we possibly can. We know that our readers will be disappointed to a degree if we produce something that is less than our very best, no matter how good it may be.
This is how the crowd reacts to the WWE wrestlers. Take for example “Halftime Heat” that premiered during the Super Bowl half time show back in 1999. The WWE put on a classic, entertaining brawl between Mankind and The Rock that entertained nearly everyone who watched it. This set the standard as to what people expected in Halftime Heat show. But the next year when the WWE put on a show that was good, but not nearly as good as the one the year before, people were upset and disappointed with it. Not because it was a bad show, but because they had higher expectations for it.
Or perhaps the reason that wrestlers will take high risks is because they simply have a deep, deep passion for the business. They know that high risks are not always necessary, but can put the icing on the cake for a match that is already good. Take for example the steel cage match at St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Vince McMahon fell from the side of the cage onto the announce table, and was badly hurt by the bump. On the “McMahon” dvd, Steve Austin said that the match psychology was good, the action was good, and they had an entertaining match going. Taking that one extra dangerous bump was not necessary, but Vince did it anyway. Why? Simply because he had a passion for both sides of the business, both behind the scenes and on the performance side of things.
But maybe the reason that wrestlers will take high risks is because of the fact that some wrestlers simply can not get over with the fans any other way. Let’s take a look at Tommy Dreamer. Tommy Dreamer is a guy with little charisma and little technical wrestling ability. Yes, Tommy is a guy who truly loves the business. But he’s really only got one major asset that will set him apart from the rest of the pack: he’s tough as nails. He can get choke slammed out of a balcony though multiple tables, get thrown through a flaming table, get pile driven onto barbed wire, and god knows what other hardcore acts that may be conjured up in the future. He takes what talent he has (being hardcore, being able to take high risks) and uses it to his full advantage.
Yes, a wrestler is putting his life on the line every single time he steps into the ring. Whether it be from doing a moonsault off the top of a cage to taking a German suplex to simply taking fisherman’s suplex, a wrestler always faces the chance of serious injury and maybe even death when they’re inside the squared circle. The reason that wrestlers are pushed to risk their lives could possibly be because the fans of today started to actually care about the quality of the matches, and now they expected more out of the wrestlers. Or the reason might be because wrestlers might be raising the bar with their own performances, and would thus be letting the fans down with any performance that is sub par to their very best. Maybe it is because certain wrestlers just are passionate about wrestling, so they are willing to risk their lives for it. Or perhaps it is because wrestlers simply do not have anything else going for them as drawing power, so they are forced to take high risks if they can. Whatever the reason may be, the WWE wrestlers, and professional wrestlers everywhere, will always risk their lives as long as they are in the sports entertainment business.
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