When I was a kid, 12 or 13 years old, I was a huge fan of WWF wrestling. I thought it looked awesome. And while I sort of knew that the hits and kicks were not real, I was convinced that the outcome of the fight itself was not predetermined. Of course, this was just one childhood fantasy that got shattered. And eventually I dismissed pro wrestling as 'fake' and moved on.
However, lately I have been using youtube to look up matches of my old WWF heroes, and looking at those made me realize that Pro wrestling is indeed a full martial art. Granted, the hits and kicks are more for show and not full contact to the face (although there is a high level of contact) but the throws and techniques are solid. In that regard, it is comparable to aikido, which does not teach punching and kicking, but focuses on locks, thows and ukemi instead.
And pro wrestling also has a defining principle; something that defines the art and from which the techniques are born. This guiding principle is the generation of power to create maximum impact.
Other arts like Japanese arts make you use the other persons speed / power against him. In pro wrestling, you have to generate this power yourself, and rather than going with the direction of the opponent, you go for maximum impact in the opposite direction. The following is a good example of some throws and techniques that highlight this principle:
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To name a few examples: in the above clip you'll see a black man perform a clothesline with his arm forward while at the same time performing a hard leg sweep in the other direction. This generates an impact with maximum rotational impact and slams the other person into the floor. Another good example is the chokeslam performed by the undertaker, where he lifts someone up by the throat, as high as he can reach, and then changes direction and drives that person into the ground as hard as he can. These techniques require a lot of power from the person executing them, and generate maximum impact on the person on which they are executed.
Now, you might wonder: if this is really true, then why don't people get killed in the ring. The answer is of course that these are trained athletes, and they take care that the other person either lands in such a way that no vital body parts are injured, or they make sure that the technique is not performed in a lethal way. For example, if a wrestler performs a pile driver (crashing a person into the ground head first) he always takes care to keep the head from touching the ground by keeping it lodged between his knees.
Sometimes this fails. Necks have been broken more than once using piledriver techniques, arms and legs have been broken, and concussions happen regularly. Make no mistake. Despite the fact that the outcome of a wrestling bout is scripted, the match itself is extremely brutal. Injury is commonplace. And unlike the regular sports world where doctors monitor the health and safety and the bout is stopped as soon as there is a medical issue, WWF (or WWE as it is now called) is sports entertainment. The show must go on, no matter what happens.
The most awesome and brutal match I have ever seen, is the 1998 'Hell in a Cell' match that featured Undertaker (Mark Calaway) and Mankind (Mick Foley) fighting in a cage. That had me in disbelief for the sheer brutality, and it is testament to the endurance and willpower of both wrestlers.
Please take the time to watch that match here.
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Mark started that match with a broken ankle, yet still he continues with the match. When he throws Mick from the cage, he falls 16 feet onto a table. While the fall was planned (Mark actually didn't want to do it), the fall itself did not go as planned and injured Mick seriously. Mark himself thought that he had killed Mick for a moment.
But Mick continued the fight despite being advised that it was not wise to do so. They climb back up and continue the fight. Mark chokeslams Mick, and then the ceiling of the cage gives way. Long afterward, Mark said that that was not supposed to happen, and Mick slammed 13 feet down, flat on his back with the back of his head to the floor. He was actually unconcious for over 2 minutes. And during the fall, the folding chair hit him in his face, and drove one of his teeth through his upper lip up to his nose.
The fight inside the cage is actually fairly brutal as well. Afterward in his biography, Mick states that he had to view the match when he wanted to write about it because he couldn't remember. He was severely concussed. And Mark said in an interview that he told Mick several times to stay down so they could end the fight, but pride drove Rick to continue the match to the end, regardless of the injuries and concussion. And don't forget that Mark's foot was broken before the match. Both men went beyond the point where normal people would have given up.
So while Pro Wrestling matches have a predetermined outcome, I think that it is correct to label it as a martial art with a proper guiding principle, solid techniques, and lots of body conditioning and endurance training.
However, lately I have been using youtube to look up matches of my old WWF heroes, and looking at those made me realize that Pro wrestling is indeed a full martial art. Granted, the hits and kicks are more for show and not full contact to the face (although there is a high level of contact) but the throws and techniques are solid. In that regard, it is comparable to aikido, which does not teach punching and kicking, but focuses on locks, thows and ukemi instead.
And pro wrestling also has a defining principle; something that defines the art and from which the techniques are born. This guiding principle is the generation of power to create maximum impact.
Other arts like Japanese arts make you use the other persons speed / power against him. In pro wrestling, you have to generate this power yourself, and rather than going with the direction of the opponent, you go for maximum impact in the opposite direction. The following is a good example of some throws and techniques that highlight this principle:
[yt]UefC8gyk1yY[/yt]
To name a few examples: in the above clip you'll see a black man perform a clothesline with his arm forward while at the same time performing a hard leg sweep in the other direction. This generates an impact with maximum rotational impact and slams the other person into the floor. Another good example is the chokeslam performed by the undertaker, where he lifts someone up by the throat, as high as he can reach, and then changes direction and drives that person into the ground as hard as he can. These techniques require a lot of power from the person executing them, and generate maximum impact on the person on which they are executed.
Now, you might wonder: if this is really true, then why don't people get killed in the ring. The answer is of course that these are trained athletes, and they take care that the other person either lands in such a way that no vital body parts are injured, or they make sure that the technique is not performed in a lethal way. For example, if a wrestler performs a pile driver (crashing a person into the ground head first) he always takes care to keep the head from touching the ground by keeping it lodged between his knees.
Sometimes this fails. Necks have been broken more than once using piledriver techniques, arms and legs have been broken, and concussions happen regularly. Make no mistake. Despite the fact that the outcome of a wrestling bout is scripted, the match itself is extremely brutal. Injury is commonplace. And unlike the regular sports world where doctors monitor the health and safety and the bout is stopped as soon as there is a medical issue, WWF (or WWE as it is now called) is sports entertainment. The show must go on, no matter what happens.
The most awesome and brutal match I have ever seen, is the 1998 'Hell in a Cell' match that featured Undertaker (Mark Calaway) and Mankind (Mick Foley) fighting in a cage. That had me in disbelief for the sheer brutality, and it is testament to the endurance and willpower of both wrestlers.
Please take the time to watch that match here.
[yt]4boR7mpEAM0[/yt]
Mark started that match with a broken ankle, yet still he continues with the match. When he throws Mick from the cage, he falls 16 feet onto a table. While the fall was planned (Mark actually didn't want to do it), the fall itself did not go as planned and injured Mick seriously. Mark himself thought that he had killed Mick for a moment.
But Mick continued the fight despite being advised that it was not wise to do so. They climb back up and continue the fight. Mark chokeslams Mick, and then the ceiling of the cage gives way. Long afterward, Mark said that that was not supposed to happen, and Mick slammed 13 feet down, flat on his back with the back of his head to the floor. He was actually unconcious for over 2 minutes. And during the fall, the folding chair hit him in his face, and drove one of his teeth through his upper lip up to his nose.
The fight inside the cage is actually fairly brutal as well. Afterward in his biography, Mick states that he had to view the match when he wanted to write about it because he couldn't remember. He was severely concussed. And Mark said in an interview that he told Mick several times to stay down so they could end the fight, but pride drove Rick to continue the match to the end, regardless of the injuries and concussion. And don't forget that Mark's foot was broken before the match. Both men went beyond the point where normal people would have given up.
So while Pro Wrestling matches have a predetermined outcome, I think that it is correct to label it as a martial art with a proper guiding principle, solid techniques, and lots of body conditioning and endurance training.
