by Edgar Suarez Lopez

Created on: November 26, 2009   Last Updated: November 27, 2009

Should WWE wrestlers be considered athletes if it is scripted?

Personally, my call is that WWE talent should NOT be referred to as athletes, wrestling is totally scripted, every single move has been practiced previously, (And in actual fact, the success of most moves, success being how real it looks, is 90% the wrestler who is recieving the move's responsability) the outcome of the match is pre-determined and the match itself is a choreography, making wrestling more of a dance or movie scene than an actual sports bout.

Based on this reasoning, WWE wrestlers are closer to being stunt-men, than Sportsmen.

The dictionary definition for Athlete is:

Athlete:A person trained to compete in sports.

Wrestling, Professional wrestling aired on TV has never been acknowledged as sport, and unlike "real" submission wrestling, the performers involved in the matches have no real desire to win the match, a match which doesn't technically even exist, for their purpose is to entertain the audience through their matches, and to "tell a story" through their speeches and matches, contributing to the storylines presented to the audience.

Nevertheless, to be able to perform the moves which are performed through the course of the match, wrestlers DO put themselves through lots of training to not only have an appealing physique for a very commercial industry such as pro-wrestling, but to mantain a physicall condition necessary to execute the various moves we watch in matches. In addition to this, moves are practiced by wrestlers, in order to perfect these, making them as harmless as possible for the other performer.

Even though the moves performed by wrestlers might be "very athletic", what goes on in the ring, simply does NOT fit the definition of a sport.- Wrestling involves choreographed and practiced moves, the result of the event is scripted too, and a wrestler's job is to make the fans entertained by their performance, unlike what we would call "real" sports, where the participant's objective is to actually win, outperform the other participant, team, etc. Sports have become mediatic and draw attention of viewers, and whether or not the personallity of the participant gets a reaction, the objective is to outperform your opponent.

On the other hand, wrestling is designed to draw a reaction from fans attending the live events, "heels", the baddies so to speak, act and wrestle in a certain way to get booed, with the sole purpose of their opponent getting a positive reaction from the fans, which can later be used to commercialize wrestling products, more than ever in these times where the WWE is orientated to children, who create most of the company's revenue by buying products such as bags, pencil cases, toy belts. The character developed by wrestlers are a key factor in wrestling, and wrestling itself, has lost some land to it. Floyd Mayweather might be arrogant and over-confident, disliked by boxing fans, but as long as he is able to box, and win, he will be a good performer, and would still be even if his persona was a little more "humble for example.

As much of a wrestling fan as I am, I must say...NO, WWE wrestlers are NOT athletes, what they do is not technically not a sport, but a show, as an interesting fact, not so long ago, commentators featured in WWE:Monday Night Raw, labeled the show as "the longest running weekly episodic television show in history" comparing the show with the likes of Friends actually saying that the show is a TV show in the same style Friends is.

As much of a wrestling fan as I am, I must say...NO, WWE wrestlers are NOT athletes.

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