UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and its ilk are really just a souped up version of early 20th Century wrestling promoted like a boxing tournament. In this way, MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) is just pro wrestling returning to its roots, as shoot or catch as catch can contests. How real or how worked mainstream MMA is, isnt or may eventually become is not really the issue here, but the fact remains that a LOT of pro wrestling fans are also MMA fans. Why not? The two sports share much in common. There really is no reason why you cant enjoy both. What appears to be happening today, however, is a bizarre competitiveness with MMA that is damaging the credibility of pro wrestling. Promoters are fawning over anyone with an MMA background, regardless of whether they can work a good wrestling match or not and selling MMA fighters as being superior to pro wrestlers in the process. MMA guys that get into wrestling, or wrestlers that cross over to MMA dont demonstrate that MMA is better or tougher than wrestling, merely that there are transferable skills that can be used in both forms of entertainment (same deal with amateur wrestling and martial arts). The truth is that you have to be a tough guy to make it in wrestling and that any good wrestler knows how to put a hold on for real. WWE might dress a guy up in a black and white singlet and force him to wrestle as Skunky McStinkington but a tenner says that Skunky could still break your leg in five places if you messed around with him. In addition, wrestlings competitiveness with its tenacious younger brother has led to the rise of some very boring wrestlers, who, whilst they are undeniably very tough fighters, really have no place at the top of a wrestling card because they are about as entertaining as watching paint dry.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
