Pro Wrestling & Pornography

Pro wrestling is almost like a lot of things. Pro wrestling is almost like real sports due to the athletic and alpha-personality types that go along with both. Pro wrestling is almost like interpretive dance–like mime or ballet–due to its usage of physical movement in communicating story. Pro wrestling is almost a fantasy realm of super heroes and villains, due to an abundance of two dimensional and over-the-top caricatures. But pro wrestling isn’t any of these things because there are three very hard-line roadblocks in their way.

Pro wrestling can’t be a sport because it is orchestrated, it can’t be high-minded theatre because it consistently slums in low-culture, and it can’t be fantasy because it takes so much of its drama from real life (and real life has a way of affecting it in unexpected ways1). One might say that pro wrestling really only finds parallel with one other facet of popular culture, and this one, while it might not be a flattering comparison at first, is probably the most apt.

Comparing pro wrestling to pornography is an easy argument that only gets easier as the evidence piles up. On the most basic level, each industry produces a product revolving around performances of physical exertion. Each scene (or match) is scripted beforehand (usually leaving a little room for improvisation) occurs for a formulaic amount of time, requires a series of positions and maneuvers, and involves participants becoming exhausted over time. The rules are generally known, but breaking those rules rarely results in a predictable consequence. Sometimes there is outside interference. Sometimes things go wrong. But ultimately, the scene (or match) ends in a climatic moment.

Just as nobody watching a porn for the story, wrestling fans rarely turn in to watch the plot.2Because of this, writers for both pornography and wrestling spend as little time as possible fine-tuning story elements, because they are aware just how capable fans are of tuning them out (or fast-forwarding right through). Stories in both porn and wrestling are used mostly to deliver basic context for the scene. This is actually a fairly recent trend in both industries. Up until the mid-90s, it was easy to find an entire wrestling show on tv filled with “exhibition” matches (i.e., they were happening for no discernible reason). It was also quite easy to come across completely context-free (though often scrambled) sex scenes. Partly due to the afterthought writing, both industries have been crippled with the stigma of being incapable of delivering a captivating plot.3

Both industries are focused on delivering assistance to basic human functions. While most television (and live events) are focused on entertainment, porn and wrestling have other emotions in mind. The pornography industry is helping release sexual tension, while wrestling releases violent tension. The release of sexual tension is much easier to describe, as well as illustrate. With wrestling, the release of catharsis is much more difficult to calculate. One generally watches wrestling to watch intense bouts of physical violence, and one does so largely to “let off some steam.” This is a reason people watch sports, too, but with wrestling the feeling of catharsis is focused because wrestling is all about physical violence (as opposed to watching a hockey game where only 3–4 minutes are spent watching a fight). I used to be surprised how many wrestling fans found watching theraputic, but it all makes sense. Much in the same way Rome was capable of satiating dissent in its citizens by offering up colosseum contents on a daily basis, wrestling leaves the crowd calm and satisfied that justice has won the day.4

Both pornography and professional wrestling have staggeringly impressive production schedules that allow them to pump out many hours of product every week. While porn produces far, far more product than wrestling, they’re both well and above any regular television show. Even a second-rate program like TNA (and, of course, we can’t get away from the fact that a major wrestling company is named TNA) can get away with charging their fans to watch the climax episode in their monthly series and then have the gall to release the same program two months later on DVD (or on iTunes for considerably less money). Consider being a fan of TNA Impact and being a fan of the hit show Lost. Say you watch every episode each show produces in a year, plus all the specials (and reruns). At minimum, you will spend twice as much time in front of the television watching TNA. Now, factor in Pay Per View purchases. Sure, it costs about $75 to own a season of Lost on DVD, but TNA charges $30 per month to watch their “big” shows. Now, take a quick gander at any pay on demand porn website and see which business arrangement it looks like more. Both businesses have far more footage that is produced for far less money, and yet they still charge their customers far more than regular TV producers.5

Speaking of casts, don’t wrestlers and porn stars look an awful lot like one another? Pro wrestling’s presentation is largely about exaggeration, and the physical appearance of wrestlers usually accentuates their body parts. Men have massive chests and arms, shaved legs, and out-of-touch haircuts. Women for the most part have massive chests (sometimes fake), toned arms and legs, exaggerated makeup, and colourful clothing. Both sexes wear next to nothing while performing, and both have a strange relationship with HD televisions.

The most important comparison is in fact the very reason neither industry’s product is classified as art. Both professional wrestling and pornography are looked down by mainstream society as being “deviant” forms of entertainment, as in, they are not good for you. Let’s go over the reasons why that is.

Professional wrestling promotes the idea that violence solves all your problems6and that being a two dimensional idiot with muscles will net you girls, money, and fame.7Characters with traits such as intelligence and common sense are often portrayed as villains, bulldozed over by heroes using only gut determination and single-minded ideals of justice. Everyone is always lusting after prizes just as easily lost as won, and nobody ever seems to retire when they say they will. None of this makes any sense.

On the flip side, all porn really does is portray a fantasy world where all anyone ever does is fuck all the time (and get really stressed out by work that they never seem to be doing in their incredibly luxurious offices). Women are seen as generally horny objects and men are seen as walking hard-ons who can juggle multiple partners and never fail to orgasm within 8–12 minutes. Nobody seems to ever get any diseases and society has exiled everyone under the age of 18 and over the age of 30. Hugh Heffner rules the world with an iron fist and nobody ever gets murdered or sick or raped (because everyone always wants it, all the time.)

Now, these two “worlds” that are looked down on by mainstream society for reasons that all fairly sound. While the odd fantasy is a good thing (such as believing the Toronto Maple Leafs might someday win a Stanley Cup), some fantasies are so out of whack that they threaten to manipulate one’s actions in the real world. Most complaints about porn and wrestling deal with how seductive these worlds are, and how impression can lead to action. Watching porn can lead to a reduced respect of women. Worse, watching too much porn might make you actually treat women badly. Watching wrestling can lead to thinking that violence is a viable option to dealing with problems in the real world. Worse, watching too much wrestling might lead to you jumping off your roof onto your equally stupid friend. I’m not trying to disprove these claims. There have been completely awful instances of both these things happening. What I am going to suggest is that an art form shouldn’t be completely discounted simply because idiots tried it for themselves and failed.

Being a good wrestler and being a good porn star take talents, and trying these things at home or in public is usually going to end up in embarrassment, pain, arrest, and in rare and unfortunate cases death (yes, all four from both industries).8I’m also not going to try to define art, because I believe one of the things that makes art fun and interesting and beneficial to society is how many forms it can take. Having said that, it’s difficult not to find that porn and wrestling have both been given the cold shoulder by society. Many kinds of art are considered deviant (graffiti being the most obvious example) but there just aren’t that many groups out there fighting for the artistic legitimacy of either industries.

There is the argument, of course, that wrestling and porn can’t be art because they would be terrible examples of human expression. All porn stars and wrestlers ever do is fuck and fight and collect paychecks until their bodies get used up or they die. This description is apt, but in no way does that make them bad people. In fact, the whole thing is pretty noble, if you ask me.

Here it goes, my big sell on why both industries should be considered art: no two groups of people in history have done a better job at capturing the wells of simplistic human emotion. No painter, architect, writer, musician, or any other type of “legitimate” artist has ever shown the building blocks of human behaviour in a way that speaks to the audience of its time better than any professional porn star or professional wrestler. Say what you will about the ethics of the business and how dead inside these people might be, when people watch their performances, people react, and more importantly they react in fascinating ways. Not everyone is jerking off to porn, and not everyone is releasing their violent tendencies to wrestling. Some people want this stuff banned from society. Some people want to study them in school. Some people just want to watch them because it’s more entertaining, pound for pound, than anything else on TV. Some people want it to evolve or devolve. Some people want to participate one day but never will. Some people never want to do it and one way or another find themselves part of the show. Some people write books about them, hoping that a discussion might bloom.

To summarize, it’s impossible to completely dismiss these things because there are inherent complications, and these complications are artistically fascinating. The kind of questions we face when we uncover porn or wrestling are the same kinds of questions being asked of real art. There are too many people writing about porn and wrestling in artistic contexts, unpacking deep meanings about performances, trends, details, and participant behaviour. We’re not all crazy. There’s something here.

1. Superman never had to take 6–8 weeks off for a torn pectoral muscle.
2. There have been a few instances where the story was everything and the match was nothing, and they almost always revolve around Hulk Hogan.
3. Though there’s always the question of why a captivating plot would ever be necessary.
4. Except on nights when the bad guys win big. That really pisses wrestling fans off, especially if they’ve been promised a big win for the hero (see Wrestlemania 2000, every WCW PPV in 1998).
5. For this reason and a few others, it’s also undoubtably clear that neither industry pays anyone properly.
6. I would strongly argue that wrestling has never, ever suggested this, even when that’s exactly the intended purpose from everyone involved, but that’s an entirely different book.
7. Though one could say that they have a point with this one.
8. Being neither a professional porn star or a professional wrestler, I’m not even going to begin wondering which is tougher or more impressive from a physical or mental standpoint.