8 Things Non-Wrestling People Don't Believe About Wrestling
1. Everyone Has Known It's Fake Forever
Paradoxically, as much as the business has repeatedly defended itself against accusations of phoneyness throughout its entire history, the vast majority of those interested in the pseudo-sport have known its dirtiest secret since pretty much the beginning.
As far back as 1921, esteemed sports journalist Grantland Rice was instructed by his editors not to bother covering a pretend sport such as pro wrestling. When Polish promoter Jack Pfefer sought to discredit his rivals by exposing their fakery in 1933, he did so with the assistance of New York's Daily Mirror journalist Dan Parker - a man who for years had prefaced any snippet on the 'sport' with a wry suggestion that all his readers knew the truth behind the theatre.
Groucho Marx's revelations in the '50s that he had watched wrestlers 'rehearse' similarly didn't cause a stir; by this point, everybody knew the magicians weren't actually magic. Preserving kayfabe was as much about maintaining the illusion than suppressing a prevalent open secret.
And yet even today, wrestling fans are forced to face down a variation of the 'standard question' levelled at Vader and Schultz: "you know it's fake, right?" Yes. We know. We've always known. We just don't let it spoil our enjoyment.