Dana White got it wrong calling wrestling “fake.” Wrestling got it wrong getting upset at Dana White for calling it “fake.”
Two wrongs, indeed, don’t make a right.
First, to White. Mr. UFC likes to stir the sh-t, and before UFC 190, headlined by Ronda Rousey, with really nothing else on that card worth watching, he was busy stirring and churning and whatever else with his comment on Twitter about wrestling being “fake.”
And of course he’s right. Wrestling, as we all know, is “fake.” The matches are scripted, the outcomes predetermined. I’m not letting any cats out of any bags when I say that.
I’ve written wrestling TV, and booked some big indy shows (and written some big checks to pay for them). It’s actually something that I like about wrestling, that it’s “fake,” because one thing about it being “fake,” from the perspective of being a writer, being a promoter, being a fan, is that if wrestling is done right, you can’t f—k up having a good show.
UFC, on the other hand, has to get damn lucky to have a good show. Sports have to happen, and MMA, at its best, is quite entertaining, but at anything other than its best, MMA is two guys (or two gals) rolling around on a mat or stalking around the ring trying not to get hurt.
What White and UFC has done to try to pump up the excitement of its sport is to borrow from what wrestling does well. Pre-match trash talk. Ring entrances with music and flashing lights and pyro. It’s the embracing of the theatrical that has helped UFC grow from niche bloodsport to whatever place it has now on the fringes of the mainstream.
And then White thanks wrestling by demeaning it as “fake.” Which, yes, it is, and wrestling fans have taken to social media to defend their favorite pastime by pointing to the very real injuries suffered by their heroes.
John Cena, most recently, ended up on the shelf after having his nose broken on a live match on WWR Monday Night Raw. Former WWE champs Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler and Daniel Bryan have been on and off the DL in the aftermath of concussions, proof, say the diehards, that wrestling isn’t “fake.”
Which makes no sense to offer as a defense. Stuntmen are injured on movie sets, and that doesn’t make the movie any less “fake,” scripted, outcomes predetermined.
Pro wrestling is what I call “combat theater.” If you ever get a chance to hang out backstage at a show, a local house show, a TV show, a pay-per-view, whatever, you’ll be witness to an amazing set of scenes with the combatants working out the details of their matches in what is basically a pantomime of the match that is to come in front of the live audience.
It’s amazing what the guys and gals who put their bodies on the line every night can do on the fly in front of live crowds and TV audiences. There’s no comparing what a TV or movie actor does to what a pro wrestler does. The closest analogy is to Broadway, the difference between an actor on Broadway and a performer in a live pro wrestling match being that the actor doesn’t have to take bumps.
But in the end, yes, it’s scripted, the outcomes are predetermined. UFC and other MMA is a sporting competition.
The two get mentioned in the same conversation because to the naked eye they are so similar. Both involve combat scenes; both have winners and losers.
UFC’s winners and losers aren’t known ahead of time; wrestling’s are.
UFC’s entertainment value isn’t known ahead of time, either. Wrestling, you know pretty much when you see who is matched up in the ring whether the match is going to be entertaining or not.
Watch a UFC pay-per-view, and you sit there all night through a series of prelims, like you did at UFC 190, with competitors you’ve never heard of, don’t really care all that much about one way or the other, to see a main event that may or may not go longer than 34 seconds.
Watch a wrestling pay-per-view, and even if you don’t care much about the undercard, you’re going to get 15 minutes out of each match, with requisite drama, and a main event that’s going to go a half-hour with a dramatic finish.
Give me the “fake” stuff any day of the week.
– Column by Chris Graham
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