Professional Wrestling is Not a Sport, It’s Entertainment
In what All-American sport can skin-tight spandex be worn and women flaunt giant biceps, while brandishing names such as Disco Inferno or Manna the Headhunter and still are adored by a mass audience? Why, in wrestling, of course. The dramatically choreographed sport entertains an audience of violence-starved fans who covet moves, such as the coined "People's Elbow". In fact, wrestling rises emotion from almost every viewer the industry draws in. Whether the emotion is intrigue, or pure disgust, this form of entertainment relies on the audiences' reactions, nonetheless. In this day and age, an industry has been built based on wrestling as a revolutionary form of mass culture entertainment. Polan explains how mass culture is essentially the regime of content, theme, the formulaic regularity of simple explanatory myths, an art tied to the gives of an everyday world (169). Even though some individuals may have reserve to whether wrestling is art or not, the sport certainly "finds an emotion resonance in the genre's audience" (Polan 167). Wrestling's main motive is to reach a large-scale audience, and the sport relies on a predictable audience and appealing, symbolic entertainment.
Truly, without the hundreds of fans that swear allegiance to wrestling, there simply would be no sport. The wrestlers go about entertaining the masses with outrageous matches and just a tough of cheesy drama. As proof of this, Putterman states:
Most sports begin as games that the press and public then overlay with their own wish-fulfillment fantasies in order to turn the game into melodrama. Wrestling begins with the situation and characters of melodrama and then, t...
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Clearly, wrestling is in existence for the show business, but relies on a mass audience to create the sport of wrestling. The money and fame come merely as seconds in wrestling, for the audience must be entertained. Thus, the wrestling industry's ability to bend the audiences' sediments with every move is a raw example of mass culture entertainment. There is no doubt that wrestling is effective in controlling its audience, for it consists of all the elements that embody mass entertainment. Do not let the acronyms fool you, for wrestling is an up-front form of mass entertainment that has no shame and does not try to hide what the sport is all about. So, keep watching, continue to be entertained, even attend a match, and remember that the sweaty, emotion soaked crowd is much more unpredictable than the actual match. That's the effects of entertainment, baby.
Vince McMahon’s WWF is a multi-million dollar corporation and has been wildly successful in capturing the sports entertainment market. “Monday Night Raw,” the weekly soap opera on TNN, is one of the three most watched cable shows each week. In addition, the WWF has weekly wrestling shows on UPN and MTV. Personally, I am caught up in the phenomenon. I set aside my Monday evenings to watch Monday Night Football and professional wrestling. I enjoy attempting to figure out the storylines before they unfold and attempt to guess the action that may happen in the next segment.
Billy Joel once sang, “Only the good die young”. In life, it is true, the young and innocent seem to touch more lives around us than anyone else. In the Casey Anthony trial, Anthony was a suspect in the murder of her daughter Caylee. Caylee’s life shouldn’t be counted in years, it should be counted by how many lives she affected, the love she has gained, and the support the country has given her to find out what really happened. In the play, Twelve Angry Men, a boy killed his father; however, both cases were challenged by the obvious and the abstruse evidence. Large cities towards the east coast, in 1982, Twelve Angry Men, and 2008, Casey Anthony Trial, affiliated with two major trials able to modify the lives of the living and the dead. For that reason, during the Casey Anthony case, jurors were conflicted throughout the trial.
In Justin Pearson's memoir, From the Graveyard of the arousal Industry, he recounts the events that occured from his early years of adolesence to the latter years of his adulthood telling the story of his unforgiving and candid life. Set in the late 1970s "Punk" rock era, From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry offers a valuable perspective about the role culture takes in our lives, how we interact with it and how it differs from ideology.
What are you willing to risk in order to lose weight? Giving up soda, candy, and other treats is an extremely minimal task compared to what most wrestlers go through. Are you willing to starve yourself, cut out liquids, or work your body to extreme levels of pain? Are you willing to risk your life for that final weigh in goal? Losing weight is a common goal for many citizens in the United States and in many other countries as well. The people who are looking to lose weight are generally overweight and want to become healthier and stronger in the process of losing weight. Wrestlers, on the other hand, are losing weight to qualify for a lower weight class. 78% of wrestlers are already in great shape, yet also have unrealistic weight goals placed on them. Why should they be punished to lose weight when they are strong, fit, and ready to compete all year round? Nine out of ten wrestlers at West Salem High School give up sweets or soda constantly to be the best athlete they can be during all of their sports. Adding water to the list of things they cannot consume is a horrible consequence for losing that final pound because water is a huge factor in losing or gaining weight. Dieting and dehydration can lead athletes to more extreme habits like anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. Most wrestlers use dangerous techniques to lose weight rapidly. The use of saunas, harsh diets, deliberate dehydration, and induced vomiting are just a few strategies for wrestlers use to compete at a lower weight class. The dangers with cutting weight are very serious and can cause a lot of damage to the body. Many of these strategies can cause death in extreme cases. Cutting weight should be eliminated from wrestling because it hurts both the ...
After many of World War II’s harmful effects, the 1950s served as a period of time of musical change that reflected the dynamic of society as well as the traditional norms and values. Many factors contributed to this transformation. For example, the civil rights movement heightened many racial tensions, and the music produced consequently manifested this tension in itself. Rock-n-roll and R&B music universalized music typically associated with African-Americans, and many African-American musicians gained fame; however, as with any relatively-widespread success, there were many musicians as well who missed their opportunities due to the same racial segregation. While “radical” genres such as R&B and rock-n-roll laid the foundation for music future forms of music, the standard pop, jazz, and country music adhered to traditional values, and thus continued to maintain popularity amidst phenomena such as the Elvis craze.
When you almost any young kids, teenagers, or even young adults to define rock ‘n’ roll and who they believed are the pioneers of this genre, you shouldn’t be too surprised by the answer you receive: Elvis Presley, Nirvana, Rolling Stones, or Little Richard. The combination of sexuality, gyrating hips, and the chance to rebel against parents are all factors that made rock ’n’ roll successful, but blissfully unaware, a lot of people do not know that Rhythm and Blues (R&B) was actually a huge part of creating this new music genre, and that rock ‘n’ roll also signified a big change for African Americans in the 1950s.
One of the most eloquent attacks on the death penalty ever delivered in an American courtroom came in the Leopold & Loeb Case in 1924. Clarence Darrow's eloquence is often credited with saving the lives of two confessed teenaged murderers.
JOHN ADAMS – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY HISTORY 1301 – U.S. HISTORY TO 1877 WHEN SEARCHING FOR THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSON DURING THE EARLY U.S. HISTORY, GEORGE WASHINGTON COMES TO THE FOREFRONT. INCIDENTLY, DUE TO THE GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION OF THE RESEARCH, THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION ON PEOPLE OR EVENTS ON HISTORY BEFORE 1877. TO MY SURPRISE, INFORMATION WAS LOCATED ON JOHN AND ABIGAIL ADAMS. JOHN AND ABIGAIL ADAMS SUPPOSIVELY HAD A WONDERFUL LIFE AND MARRIAGE TOGETHER. JOHN ADAMS SOMETIMES SEEMED TO BE A CONTRADICTING, RUDE AND OUTSPOKEN MAN, BUT AT OTHER TIMES PLAYFUL AND TENDER. ABIGAIL’S INTELLIGENT, CARING AND WITTY CHARACTER MADE UP FOR JOHN’S MANNERS, THEIR MARRIAGE SIGNIFIES THE POSITION IN WHICH A WOMAN WAS INVOLVED IN THE EVOLVING OF A GREAT MAN, FOR HER IMPORTANT FAMILY CONNECTIONS PROBABLY BENEFITED HIS CAREER. JOHN ADAMS WAS BORN IN 1735, BRAINTREE, MASSACHUSETTS TO JOHN ADAMS AND SUSANNA BOYLSTON. JOHN ADAMS WAS THE ELDEST OF THREE SONS. MR ADAMS WAS A DEACON AND FARMER (WHICH MEANT THE FAMILY WAS NOT WEALTHY). MRS ADAMS WAS BORN FROM ONE OF THE FIRST FAMILIES OF MASSACHUSETTS (THE BOYLSTON’S OWNED A LOT OF PROPERTY). JOHN ADAMS GRADUATED FROM HARVARD IN 1755. UPON GRADUATING, HE WAS OFFERED A JOB TO TEACH IN WORCHESTER. LIKE MOST BACHELORS, JOHN HAD NO INTEREST IN CHILDREN OR THE SLIGHTEST UNDERSTANDING OF THEM. BUT LIKE ANYONE HE ADAPTED TO THE SITUATION, PROBABLY BECAUSE HE HAD TWO YOUNGER BROTHERS. JOHN MARRIED ABIGAIL SMITH IN 1764. ABIGAIL WAS THE SECOND OF FOUR CHILDREN, BORN IN 1744.
Since the 1700’s forms of the death penalty have been used for one reason or another, but today some disagree with this judicial practice. The death penalty is the ultimate punishment imposed for murder or other capital offenses, and in Alabama a capital offense is murder with eighteen aggravating factors. In 1972 the Supreme Court moved away from abolition, holding that “the punishment of death does not invariably violate the constitution” (Bedau, Case against 2). Since 1900, in this country, there have been on the average more than four cases each year in which an entirely innocent person was convicted of murder (Bedau 7) and because of these startling numbers people are against capital punishment. It is a horrible reality to convict an innocent person of a crime and even worse to put this person on death row. There are even more horrific stories, like the one of Roger Keith Coleman, who was executed in Virginia despite widely pu...
Americans have become addicted to gaining quick rewards of satisfaction through sports and action because they want to be entertained thoroughly without needing to ponder any hidden meaning so it doesn’t take away from the pure entertainment of the action. In his time, Bradbury was fearful of the way that the television’s empty shows were in invading every home in America. The culture in the novel demands for “everything (to be boiled) down to the rag, the snap ending” (Bradbury 52), leaving nothing for the viewer to ponder; they would rather enjoy themselves “a solid entertainment” (Bradbury 58). The same is true in today’s movies and shows, in which most must contain many action scenes in order to keep the viewer’s attention, and the meaning and symbols must be clearly spelled out for them. This is also why Bradbury includes sports as being the main focus of schools in his story, since th...
There is only one thing that is worse than wrestling practice, and that is having to sit out at wrestling practice. When I hurt my shoulder and couldn't wrestle, I wanted nothing more than to be on the mat with my teammates. No matter how hard, painful, or stressful wrestling may be, it means more to me than just being comfortable for those two hours. A sheer feeling of accomplishment surrounds a wrestler after removing completely soaked work out gear after practice. The discipline that it takes to be a member on the mat is something I will always have the utmost respect. Although I may always hate humidity because of it for the rest of my life, I will forever carry the discipline that the Hotchkiss High School wrestling room has given me.
Wrestling is a great sport to better yourself and earn a bunch of awards and titles to look back on later on in life. It 's something i will never forget and cherish always. But the memories of losing all the weight and making myself miserable for all those seasons is something i will not miss. People around me were only worried about the medals i had gotten and not about my personal being, that 's where wrestling goes wrong. That 's what needs to change in the future for not only wrestlers but the people around them as well.
Research guided by conflict theory generally falls into the following categories: 1) studies of how athletes become alienated from their own bodies; 2) studies of how sports can be used to coerce and control people; 3) studies of sports and the development of commercialism in society; 4) studies of sports and various forms of nationalism and militarism; and 5) studies of sports and racism and sexism. (Coakley, 1998) In the book, Meggyesy provided examples of each of these categories which occurred during his footba...
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, echoes through my head as I walk to the middle of the mat. "At 160lbs Aidan Conner of La Junta vs. Rodney Jones of Hotchkiss." All I can think of is every bead of sweat, every drip of blood, every mile, every push up, every tear. Why? All of this: just to be victorious. All in preparation for one match, six minutes. For some these six minutes may only be a glimpse, and then again for some it may be the biggest six minutes of their life. Many get the chance to experience it more than once. Some may work harder and want it more than others, but they may never get the chance. All they get is a moral victory. Every kid, every man comes into the tournament with a goal. For some is to win, for some is to place, others are just happy to qualify. These six minutes come on a cold frigid night in February at a place called the Pepsi Center. Once a year this gathering takes place when the small and the large, the best of the best, come to compete in front thousands of people. I am at the Colorado State Wrestling Championships.