Why is wrestling like Game of Thrones? Rules of Life

Wrestling is theater, and by no means a sport. That is why wrestling is not positioned as a real competition for athletes. Here wins not the one who is faster, taller or stronger, but the one who will do it beautifully and scripted, so that the story that tells us wrestlers, had a reasonable continuation or a logical conclusion. This is why wrestling is much more like Game of Thrones than the UFC.

Wrestling isn’t a scene from a movie, it’s a movie in and of itself. It’s not about muscular, sweaty men pretending to hit each other; wrestling is about how the confrontation between two athletes (and wrestlers are certainly outstanding athletes) tells a whole story, reveals the characters, and conveys the full range of emotions.

And importantly, wrestling never ends. It’s not like your favorite TV series, which has a limited number of seasons – wrestling goes all year round and the characters are always developing. In this, wrestling is very similar to life itself. Which means there are quite a few things to learn from wrestling.

You have to help your partner

This is one of the basic tenets of wrestling. Wrestlers are only opponents according to the plot, but in fact they are partners, trusting each other with their lives and health, and partners, as you know, need to help. It’s very simple: you won’t make a reception if your opponent doesn’t help you. And first of all you should try not to make yourself look better, but to make your opponent seem stronger, more technical and impressive. Then you will look the same.

“I need an enemy to find peace.”

Wrestling is inconceivable without confrontation. Every hero needs a villain. Superman would be nothing without Dr. Luthor, Rocky wouldn’t be as beloved without Ivan Drago, and Holmes would lose much of his appeal without Moriarty. Modern man is more inward-looking than outward-looking, so he needs an external stimulus, an external enemy, to get away from the all-consuming reflection. It’s like in Dolphin’s song. You need an enemy to make everything meaningless understandable.

To be a man, you have to beat a man

This legendary catchphrase by the equally legendary Ric Flair has become the main rationale behind how wrestlers move up the ranks and win world titles. For a wrestler to become a top fighter, he must first defeat a top fighter; and then he will be seen as something serious. It’s like that in life: to be the man you gotta beat the man.

Sometimes defeat only makes you stronger

Yes, it sounds like a terribly hackneyed cliché, but in wrestling (and in life) it sometimes works. A worthy defeat strengthens a wrestler in the eyes of the fans; for example, it was after losing to Bret Hart at Wrestlemania XIV that the legendary Steve Austin became a true superstar. An exhausted Austin lay in a pool of his own blood, heavily laced with sweat and foaming at the mouth, refusing to give up on his painful opponent.

Austin lost as he lost consciousness, but gained tremendous respect from the fans and became World Champion a year later. More recent examples include Daniel Bryan, who lost his title at Wrestlemania XXVIII in a fight that lasted only 18 seconds. Fans were even more supportive of Bryan afterward, believing that the writers had treated him unfairly, and Daniel soon became WWE’s most popular wrestler. After gaining the fans’ mad love, Bryan managed to change the management’s mind and still got him a chance to become the World Champion again.

Falling is a must

Wrestling is unimaginable without falls on the back – the so-called bumps; without them not a single move would be possible. A properly executed bump, a bump performed at the right time, only adds to the suspense and allows you to prepare the viewer for a counterattack. In life, falling is just as necessary: falling hardens and adds experience; without falling there is no success.

It is not the result that matters, but the process

Grantland Rice, the founder of American sports journalism, wrote that when the Great Equalizer comes, he will not write with a marker the result of your match, but how you played and proved yourself in it. The idea is very idealistic, but happiness is really a process, not a final result, so you should not evaluate your life only by achievements and victories. How one tried to achieve one’s dreams is equally important. A wrestler’s legacy (as well as a person’s) is not measured in terms of matches won and titles alone – what matters more is the impact a wrestler has left on future generations. Matt Osborne, a wrestler who has been wrestling since 1978 and became most famous in the second half of the 80s, playing the role of a psychotic clown in the WWF, tried a bunch of gimmicks during his career but never won a single meaningful title. Too direct and honest, Osbourne did not enjoy the trust of the management and it time after time forced him to perform in mostly stupid gimmicks, but Matt thanks to his natural talent, charisma and attitude to wrestling still achieved relative popularity among fans and left a visual guide to posterity, how not to give up and even from the most ridiculous characters given to him by the writers, mold something worthwhile. And such recognition is much more important than any world titles.

You have to love what you do

Wrestling is not an occupation that implies big money or big fame. Very few wrestlers really make a lot of money solely by wrestling and very few wrestlers become really popular outside of a very narrow community of fans of this sport entertainment. Moreover: wrestling is more harmful than beneficial, because it is not just painful, but wildly painful, and the constant falls on the back, on the neck, blows to the head and do not go in vain. It should be understood that wrestlers quite often experience real pain, chasing for more effectiveness and heat, although wrestling – it’s kind of not for real. However, there are many athletes around the world, whose profession – to play theatricalized fights in the ring, and this despite the fact that they know probably that money and fame – this is not what promises their chosen path. And, believe me, to be in wrestling for many years, you have to have a fantastic love for what you do. That’s what I wish for everyone.