My first thought on watching this was “those wrestlers need a union”.
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Does anyone else have to click on Twitter videos four times before they will play?
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I love the technique here. It totally looks like he is bowling them over, when in fact he is being caught by them. They are catching him, breaking his fall, and then letting themselves fall and being cushioned by the bouncy surface of the ring.
It’s not fake, in the same sense that what a illusionist does is not “fake”. This is a great trick that takes a lot of skill, and probably still hurts quite a bit. But that’s the thing, it will not hurt nearly as much as you would expect when this was done with the intent of hurting someone, instead of doing it with the intention of minimizing pain. That is the lie that is told the audience.
If you use your skill at these tricks to convince people that you are really good at actual fighting, and then attempt sell your advice as a guide to living, or even just for self defense then this is a problematic lie. Just like most people here probably have respect for illusionists but don’t have it for Faith healers, mediums and psychics.
I think the friction that usually occurs around this entire real or fake discussion comes from the fact that the wrestlers don’t want their acts to be called fake. They know that it is fake in some way, but faking it convincingly is still really hard. And they are afraid that people won’t be able to appreciate the difficulty of faking a fight convincingly.
Maybe a wrestler needs to take a look at how Penn and Teller are lifting the veil and still manage to amaze, without needing to pretend that they have actual magical powers?
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I agree it’s a great trick. However, I’m concerned with the children who don’t understand this type of rastlen’ isn’t real. Just two days ago my Wife broke the news to my son’s friend (who is 11) that WWE wrestlers are not really fighting each other. That realization was quite shocking for him. It was like watching someone have to re-experience the moment they learned Santa, the Easter Bunny, and Tooth Fairy don’t exist after years of being told that they do.
So (at the least) if parents let their kids believe these acrobatic stunt people are really fighting each other, they should dispel that belief once their child views a stunt like this. Especially if they see it at a live event.
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Also, I agree with you that lifting the veil so people can view the different fields of science study that are applied in order to successfully pull off wrestling stunts would be a great thing to see and learn about.
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I had recently watched this video about no-touch martial arts:
It’s a great video, it takes a while but it’s a real rollercoaster.
I think that video’s message, basically: “don’t teach people bullshit”, was still on my mind going into this discussion, and subconsciously influenced me into this strong reaction.
Well isn’t that what they did to an extent. “Look we know everyone thinks wrestling is fake and ok it is scripted. But look. No wires. No nets. I’m gonna jump of the second floor and knock these guys over. “
I’m impressed.
Would like to see how they trained and practiced this.
Your point is a bit confusing. Your saying that with this stunt they are saying: “look, we know you know it’s fake, but it’s also real!”?
What I am saying is that this jump is real, he really made the jump, and that’s really impressive.
But is also fake. What they are acting out is one fighter attacking two other fighters and knocking them out by jumping on top of them from a floor up. That is not really what is happening.
What is actually happening is a tightly choreographed move where they make it look like the above is happening while they are actually minimizing the harm done. The two guys being knocked out are actually catching the attacker and cushioning his fall. In a real fight you’d expect those guys to just step aside, they don’t do that because that would introduce a real injury.
I can really appreciate the trick on that level, making this look convincing while keeping it safe. I’m just not sure it’s a good idea to lie about it being real, because if you are not in on the secrets then attempting this is very unsafe.
I’m saying the same as you.
My reply was mostly regarding this part. Which it seems that are doing. They aren’t as strict with the kayfabe and seem to acknowledge at times it is scripted but here they are saying but look, We can still do some crazy shit.
I get you are saying a different part is fake. That they are catching him and falling back to soften the blown.
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