Since Dot Net readers had plenty to say regarding my most recent blog: What to tell people that say pro wrestling is fake, I decided to break up the feedback into two separate mailbags. Enjoy!

As someone who has been in the business for 18 years, I have gone on a personal campaign to rid peoples' vocabularies regarding what I call "The 'F' Word"…. Now as far as what happens in the ring, I will trade chests with you any time you want. You can feel what it's like to have to get up earlier than necessary just to get past the pain in my body. You can dread feeling a sneeze coming on just like I do because the pain shoots from my sternum to my spine. Then you can tell me how "fake" it is.' which tends to shut them right up.

Steve Cain

Twilling replies: It is hard to argue with someone who has been there, but I am sure that will not stop anybody from doing so.

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Professional wrestlers are not only the greatest athletes in the world, they are the greatest actors as well. What they do, night after night, live, with only "one take," is nothing short of remarkable. Film actors get multiple takes to get a scene right. Wrestlers are more comparable to the great stage actors (who are considered the truly great of their profession) , who only have one take to get it right. The difference is, those stage actors aren't having to depend on another very large human being getting their part right as well, with the possibility of serious physical harm to one or both performers as a consequence if a mistake is made.

Steve Huckleby

Twilling replies: I would not call them great actors, but I know what you meant here. You make a very different, very interesting, and very correct comparison.

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My thoughts are simple. If I were to tell an avid NBA fan that all the games are pre-determined and all the winners and losers are decided ahead of time, would they still enjoy it? Of course they would. Would the athletes still put in hours of practice to get as good as they are? Yes, they would, just like wrestlers. They practice, train, work out, and do all they can to be the best they can be. There are risks of injuries and potential health hazards.

Sean Walsh

Twilling replies: This is another great point. Even if major professional sports were predetermined, many people would still watch. Also, not only do wrestlers work out like other professional athletes, they (the good ones) watch and study film, and they do all of this year round.

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Wrestling is fake? Fine. Let's set a table up and climb up somewhere about 15 feet above the table and let me throw you off and see how you come out of it. Let's see someone try to play a "real" sport after tearing their quadriceps, after tearing their knee up, after tearing a hamstring, after dislocating an elbow, after tearing their pectoral or breaking their collarbone. You have baseball players who go on the disabled list with a frigging blister, and you are going to sit there and tell me that wrestlers are not real athletes?

Todd Cohen

Twilling replies: I love this argument and I am a former college baseball player. Todd also mentions Triple H finishing a match with a torn quadriceps and Steve Austin finishing a match with a broken neck. I do not even think people need to fall through a table; if they ran the ropes for a few minutes, they would be spent.

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….Anyways, he told me that his grandmother thought that wrestling was real and the moon landings were fake. I would use this if someone would say that wrestling was fake. Usually, I would display mock anger and state "it (wrestling) is not. Now, the moon landings, those were fake."

Kelly Mullins

Twilling replies: This wins for most creative response. It works twofold as well because some people actually believe the moon landing was staged.

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Next thing you'll tell me "Friends" or "Angel" are not real or that most shows on TV use actors! Why do you watch fake people act out fake lives? I usually go on to explain it is just like any of those to me. I like it, I enjoy it (much of the time), and it is the same as watching any other show on TV.

Ralph Harless

Twilling replies: A lot of people went in this direction with their replies and the arguments are solid ones.

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I've always found the biggest roadblock to helping people understand wrestling are wrestling fans themselves who insist on calling it a sport. It is not. It is not an athletic competition. It is entertainment show featuring talented athletes in character rolls. Some of them can act really well, many of them can't. But that's part of the appeal and charm.

Bradd Mielke

Twilling replies: I have no problem calling a sport an actual competition, which would eliminate professional wrestling as a sport. You called it correctly by saying wrestling is entertainment featuring talented athletes.

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