10 Things Nobody Has Told You About Wrestling Yet
3. Wrestling Has Never Looked Realistic
The problem with modern wrestling, some say, is that it has abandoned realism in the pursuit of cheap pops.
There are various means by which wrestling can look and feel more logical in its own exaggerated context. Borrowing and working legitimate techniques; working snug on safer surfaces; avoiding positions of vulnerability; selling so authentically that the audience, transfixed, becomes convinced that the performer is in agony: all are utilised by the best technicians to aspire towards "realism". Even then, it can be picked apart by anybody who isn't willing to suspend their disbelief.
If you've ever seen a real fight involving real people untrained in a combat discipline, you've barely seen it. It's an animalistic blur of limbs. Moreover, in many legit combat sports fights that end by knockout, it's difficult to ascertain the landing blow. At first glance, you often only see the loser falling to the canvas. Only on slo-mo action replay can you really see the impact. The most lethal strikes are delivered with such speed that they almost seem innocuous. There's no wild, delayed swing because what the wrestling audience sees to build anticipation - by design - could be anticipated and countered in a flash by a trained, real combat athlete.
Wrestling, virtually all of it, is inherently unrealistic - but that doesn't mean it shouldn't adhere to its own set of dramatic rules...