This week’s wrestling twitter fight caused by a rockstar saying adults shouldn’t watch wrestling has us thinking about all the phrases and cliches us wrestling fans are sick of hearing from people who don’t watch wrestling.

There is no form of entertainment, except maybe reality tv, that is more maligned and subject to ridicule by people who don’t watch it and have no stake it. Just leave us to our grown men fake fighting in spandex!

Also, quit saying stuff like this to us!

“Wrestling is for kids! Grow up!”

This one confounds me the most. Wrestling is geared towards kids because it is geared towards everyone! Go to a wrestling show and you’ll see the widest range of age, gender, and race you’d see at any event ever. Wrestling is great because it transcends modern issues and gets down to what people really care about: good vs. evil and the triumph of the individual. Follow a good story arc in wrestling and you’ll see the entire gamut of emotions. So what if kids enjoy it? Go to a wrestling show and I guarantee you’ll have a good time too.

“You know it’s fake, right?”

Yes, we ALL KNOW. We have always known. WWE knows we know. We know that they know that we know. And so on. Knowing something is simulated and staged doesn’t take the enjoyment out of it. People don’t watch Game of Thrones because they think people are actually chopping each other’s hands off and fighting off “ice zombies.” They watch because of the action and the thrill and the surprises. Wrestling is “pre-determined” but the action and the injuries are still very real. A genuine surprise in wrestling is like a good shock in any other form of media, it will have you yelling at the TV and running around your house in disbelief. For that brief moment you aren’t thinking “Oh, this is just a simulated situation that is not real” you are thinking “HOLY SH*T I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT HAPPENED!”

Also, it may be fake but the injuries and risks wrestlers take are VERY real:

“The acting is so bad!”

Yes. But no one watches wrestling just for the promos. Also, they’re speaking in one take in front of a live audience. Give them a break.

“It was better when I was a kid”

I assure you it wasn’t. A lot of people long for the Attitude Era but then when they watch it on the WWE Network they find gross humor and BAD wrestling. Every fan agrees that while the toilet humor has been flushed, the in-ring work has improved immensely. 7 of the ten best-rated Wrestlemanias by Dave Meltzer have happened in the last decade.

Upon hearing that an older wrestler is still going: “HAHA What, how is he still wrestling?”

This is most often heard when referring to Kane, The Big Show, and until this past Wrestlemania, Undertaker. Non-fans take this as proof that it HAS to be fake because if it was real then their injuries have sidelined them years ago. No. These guys are just supreme athletes who take good care of their bodies.

Did we miss any? Let us know. 

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