10 Times WWE Tried Too Hard To Be REAL

The cat has been out of the bag for years in regards to whether professionally wrestling is "real" or not. Aside from children new to sports entertainment, most people recognize the fact that it's a bit of a cross between combat sports and vaudeville. Still, that has never seemed to stop the weak rhetoric of "it's fake" by critics of rasslin'

During the height of the Attitude Era, the fact that pro-wrestling wasn't completely on the up-and-up still stigmatized WWE's product, so the company felt the need to go out of the way to convince fans that it was actually real.

Starting with an ad during NFL's "Big Game," WWE ran a series of advertisements that showcased many of the top talents during the time. In each one of these videos, the wrestlers called out naysayers and provided their real-life accolades and list of injuries to demonstrate just how "real" sports entertainment was.

It might have been entertaining to hear the lists of accomplishments and downfalls from the performers themselves, but the hard push to convince people WWE consisted of "fake" pro-wrestling that was "real" was a bit uncanny when simply advertising the best of their content was another viable option. Sceptics weren't going to change their minds, and the promo pieces brought up the conversation of "wrestling is fake" rather than playing it down.