Pro-wrestling taught me how to fight

While Pro-wrestling is mostly choreographed and pre-determined, the fighting aspects of it are real. Critics will say "oh it's fake! It's not based on any real fighting! It's too violent!" Tell that to the Undertaker and Brock Lesnar who are legitimate MMA fighters. In any case, i'm not here to write about whether or not wrestling is a realistic technical system of fighting. People argue that violent media may set a bad example for kids to follow but not for me. What truly inspired me as a kid was the message pro-wrestling sent. Before martial arts, pro-wrestling was the first to teach me how to defend myself. When i looked deeply into the art form, i realized how realistic it was from an abstract point of view. To the outsider, two pro-wrestlers feuding is full of meaningless jibber-jabber and drama. That's because they don't understand what exactly going on. In order to comprehend Pro-wrestling, you must look at it from an artist's perspective.

When two opponents stand face-to-face, this is where the real battle begins. It is not as many believe just for show. This is a test to see how brutal each wrestler is physically, mentally, and emotionally. They want to see how psychologically strong both of them are. They want to see if just one person will crack under pressure or show any sign of weakness or fear. They want to see just how far each of them are willing to dominate one another. A skilled fighter knows just how important psychological warfare is. Everyone has pride regardless of whether or not they believe in violence. Everyone has something to protect be it life, friends, family, a reputation, and so on. Everyone has enemies whether it's the Devil, the self, and so on. Pro-wrestling inspired me to stand up for myself and value what truly matters.

That being said, there will be pain and agony. There will be people who will try to steal what is rightfully yours. It is one of life's greatest tragedies. When i saw multiple opponents ganging up on one wrestler, one tag team partner betray his own for a title, cheating during matches, i realized how realistic it was. I realized that's how vulnerable we are to the circumstances in life. Ultimately, it is you who must fend for yourself because no one will always defend you. Do you realistically believe that security is going to step in between two wrestlers who weigh more than 300 pounds? How would you fight against multiple attackers in prison? How would you handle someone who bypasses the law and robs you? Pro-wrestling creatively depicts these situations because that's how life is.

People protest "I don't want to watch two men get it on in the ring! It's disgusting the way they feel each other's blood and sweat!" It should disgust you. Violence is brutal, bloody, cruel, painful, and depressing. Your are going to be hurt and you are going to be hurt bad! In any fighting competition, you are going to be badly injured and suffer the most tormenting agony. That is the reality of violence. No one wants to suffer. It's inevitable but that's not the point. The purpose of suffering is the choices we make in spite of it. Are we going to allow ourselves to be downcast, beaten, tortured, humiliated, and defeated? Or are we going to defy our own fate and embrace our destiny? This is what ought to inspire people to lift more weights than they did their last work out session and push themselves to their limits. This is one of the reasons i watch wrestling - to see how each competitor overcomes each obstacle in the face of excruciating pain and dismay. The real questions we ought to be asking is how far will each one of us go to succeed in life? How much will we sacrifice to grow and become what we are destined to be? Do we have what it takes to do more than just survive, but thrive as individuals?

And after we put our best in everything that we did, we win and reach our end goal. We reap the rewards in spite of what we've endured. We finally reach our utmost potential and continue to reach it because there is no limit as to what we can do. This is what is symbolized to world titles and battle scars. This is what inspired me to love pro-wrestling and carry these lessons with me to my adulthood.

Pro-wrestling is a vicious, violent, brutal, bloody, and dangerous sport but it is very rewarding. It is what entertains us but also what motivates us to accomplish what everyone said we couldn't. This is how pro-wrestling has taught me how to fight in all aspects of my being with passion, purpose, and power.