Television's 10 Best "Wrestling Episodes"

When the boys see a WWE event, they decide to dedicate their lives to wrestling. They start a backyard wrestling league -- the titular Wrestling Takedown Federation -- which unexpectedly evolves into an elaborate, semi-improvised soap opera with almost no actual fighting. To the mortification of the school’s wrestling coach, the local rednecks consider the amateur soap-opera to be thrilling wrestling. When Vince McMahon himself shows up, the coach decides that the only way to save real wrestling is to kill McMahon. Failing at this, the coach instead lays bare how the WWE has ruined his life, and, impressed by his gravitas, McMahon hires him as his new top babyface.

Few shows have dealt with the wrestling’s athleticism/showmanship dichotomy as deftly as did South Park. They skewer every single aspect of the WWE’s entertainment cocktail, from less-than stellar Diva workrate to John Cena’s strangely nebbish persona to making Mr. McMahon a stuck-up patrician, just like all those snooty Connecticut neighbors he hates. Mr. Connors, the wrestling coach, is also an inspired creation, and one does wonder why so few members of the current WWE roster can cut a promo as well as he can.

Immortal Dialogue: “He don’t run away from fights, just responsibilities.”