Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

The first question comes from Christian Long who asks, Ok, this question has been bugging me for a long time now… Why WWE??? I mean, but, it is just, but why?

First, I should correct you. It isn’t just the WWE. WWE is the largest wrestling promotion. There are many other smaller promotions, including AEW, TNA, and a host of smaller regional promotions around the world.

Second, the premise of your question, I’m guessing, comes from the fact that you consider professional wrestling to be low-brow. You are probably thinking that as someone who covers so many high-brow subjects on this podcast, how could I possibly be interested in so mundane as wrestling?

The answer is that your assumption is wrong. Wrestling isn’t low-brow entertainment. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is the greatest performance art in the world today.

A top-tier professional wrestler goes to school to learn their craft and might spend years honing it by performing in front of small crowds in bingo halls.

Those who make it to the big time are not only performing on television to an audience of millions of people every week, but they are also performing 3-4 times a week in front of live crowds with as many as ten or fifteen thousand people in an arena.

Professional wrestling involves a level of improvisation that most professional actors can’t copy, and of course, the physical requirements are on par with that of a professional athlete.

So, if you look down on professional wrestling, and I know a lot of people do, I would suggest you just reconsider it. When it’s bad, it can be pretty bad, but when it’s good, it can be great.