A Sober Viewpoint- Pro Wrestling and Mixed Martial Arts

I have watched, and been a fan of, professional wrestling since I was a child. I always enjoyed the variety of characters that seemed like caricatures in a scripted distillation of everyday life: the buzz cut bully, the nazi, the bleach blonde narcissist, the crazy arab, the suave and acrobatic Englishman- or Frenchman, the fiendish oriental martial artist, the hulking norwegian or polish strongman, the noble indian, the villainous cowboy, etc., etc. It always seemed to me like comic books coming to life, but with slightly more human- and therefore slightly more believable- superhero figures. Every weekend morning, I would glue myself in front of the television to watch the stars of the AWA (the dominant wrestling promotion in the midwest at the time): Dick the Bruiser, The Crusher, Nick Bockwinkle, The Blackjacks, Baron Von Raschke, Bobby Hennan, Dusty Rhodes, Hulk Hogan and (future governor of Minnesota) Jesse “The Body” Ventura. It was, for me, as close to pure fun as I felt television could provide at the time.

However, as a form of sport, pro wrestling always bore the stigma of  phoniness. Non fans would ridicule what they saw as obviously phony fighting, not even believing the blood flow or real life injuries sustained by the wrestlers on a fairly regular basis. As I got older and learned that pro wrestling had, in fact, been staged since the 1940s, I remained fascinated by the very culture of it, the way many people are fascinated with the circus. Pro Wrestling is, in a way, akin to the circus, especially since it no longer pretends to be real, and the many documentaries and programs about this form of entertainment have made it only more interesting to me. But I never stopped feeling strongly that these were very tough, very athletic men and women to do what they do. Not only has that not changed, but I feel that professional wrestlers are probably among the toughest individuals, period. While the matches are staged, the injuries these performers sustain, and the way they go on with the show often while suffering such things as broken bones, torn muscles and genuine gashes has always amazed me. In some ways, staging a fight can be as risky as actually engaging in one.

So it has always puzzled me that detractors of pro wrestling would think wrestlers are not legitimate tough guys or athletes, just because they stage their violence with choreographed moves and pre determined outcomes. After all, many pro wrestlers were collegiate or world class wrestling champions before turning pro- (state and collegiate champion) Jim “Baron Von” Raschke, (collegiate champion) Brock Lesnar,  or (1996 Olympic Gold Medalist) Kurt Angle, to name a few. Suggesting that pro wrestlers are not legitimately tough or athletic just because they stage their contests is almost like saying that martial arts film stars aren’t really martial arts experts because they are acting. How do you think Bruce Lee would have reacted if you said something like that to him?

This negative perception has only intensified with the emergence of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) as a legitimate sport. MMA stars exude an aura of toughness that make many of them seem invincibile, even though they are often knocking each other out or submitting each other in mere minutes. And because MMA fighters have far fewer restrictions on what they can do than collegiate wrestlers, pro boxers and even kick boxers, they are often presumed to be the toughest men in the world. Their fights are absolutely legitimate, so the injuries they sustain during such fights are obviously real.

Which brings me to the aforementioned Mr. Lesnar. I first heard of 2000 NCAA wrestling champion Lesnar several years ago, when he was introduced to fans of pro wrestling’s WWE- World Wrestling Entertainment as “the next big thing.” Over the next several months, Lesnar was built up into a major WWE star,  ”defeating” some of of the biggest stars in pro wrestling history en route to becoming the youngest WWE heavyweight champion ever to that point. Then Lesnar abruptly left pro wrestling altogether for an ill fated attempt at pro football, before returning to pro wrestling in Japan.

When Lesnar embarked on a MMA career, alot of people, including yours truly, thought he was making a big mistake, and setting himself up for some embarassment. After all, his wrestling achievements, while impressive, were only at the collegiate level, and he had spent the past several years acting out fights, not actually engaging in them (MMA legend Ken Shamrock, by contrast, fought legitimately throughout his career, pausing only briefly to dabble in pro wrestling). How could Lesnar compete with the likes of seasoned mixed martial arts champions like Chuck Liddell, Randy Coutures or Frank Mir? How would his large frame (6’3″ close to 270 lbs) not be a liability for him against smaller, quicker people more skilled in martial arts?

What I, and apparently most of the MMA fan base failed to recognize, was that Lesnar’s pro wrestling tough guy persona may have been acted out, but it was by no means phony. The same drive that helped Lesnar to win the NCAA wrestling championship, helped him become a star in pro wrestling’s WWE, and earned him tryouts with the Minnesota Vikings pro football team has also underscored his meteoric rise to the top of the MMA ranks. After losing to Frank Mir via submission in just his second outing, Lesnar focused training on improving his brazilian jiu jitsu skills, sharpening his wrestling skills and utilizing his superior size, strength and power to overwhelm his opponent.

Lesnar’s focus paid off handsomely only a few fights later when he knocked out living legend Randy Couture out for the MMA heavyweight title. Even though Couture, at age 45, was well past his prime, the victory showed MMA fans that this former professional wrestler was no phony when it came to real fighting, and there would be more to come.

Of course there were still die hard wrestling detractors that cited Couture’s advanced age and diminished skills. Much of those slights were put to rest, however in Lesnar’s latest match a few weeks ago- his rematch against Frank Mir, the man that submitted Lesnar in his second MMA match. Lesnar won that match handily- against a man who is not past his fighting prime- by doing the very things he focused his MMA training on. Lesnar even displayed some of the bad guy gamesmanship that characterized him as a villian during his WWE days, an unfortunate residue from that career.

Lesnar is not the only former pro wrestler to make a splash in the real fighting of MMA. Bobby Lashley, another star from the WWE wrestling promotion, has gone undefeated in his first few matches, including a convincing win over 6’5″ 300 lb. Bob Sapp. Lashley and Lesnar, though still young in MMA, are the biggest news in that sport right now. And both have served notice to the entire MMA world that they are only going to get better. 

And what does this say for pro wrestling? Is it possible that the real toughest men in the world are, in fact, they guys that usually play at it? Pro wrestling as a whole may in fact get a significant boost of credibility as a result of this, a small twist of irony for a form of entertainment that spent so many years yearning for credibility then so many years disregarding it.

I’ve always suspected that many professional wrestling stars would more than hold their own against anyone in a real contest. The quick success of Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley not only serves to validate my suspicions, it may even give new weight to the claims of pro wrestlers that have always contended they are the equal of any other athlete. Fans of pro wrestling can enjoy their favorite stars and wrestling programs even more, comfortable in the knowledge that these guys probably really are as tough as they pretend to be. And detractors of pro wrestling have to eat a little crow, and (perhaps begrudgingly) give pro wrestlers the respect that they so casually denied them in the past. If Lesnar and Lashley continue to improve as MMA fighters at the rate they have been, they could end up making the rest of the MMA competition look like the phonies.

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