In Japan it's a
sport. In
Canada, it's
tradition. In
Mexico, it's
religion. In the
US - it's a
joke (NSFW language).
Perhaps rightly so.
In step with it’s
history, American professional wrestling has a
sordid, carnival-like
backstage atmosphere, replete with
insider slang. Extensive travel schedules and
backstage politicking (QT movie, NSFW language) take their toll in the form of
drug abuse and an
unusually high mortality rate. While a
few transition into
mainstream careers,
most don’t.
A
billion-dollar industry , it has seen a fair share of
success (NSFW image) over the years:
Books,
movies,
video games,
cartoons,
records (not to mention an
ECW nod in the lyrics to
El Scorcho) and even punching
John Stossel in the head. But it’s
inconsistent and never seems to meet the level of popular acceptance as in other countries. It is, by and
large, dismissed as a novelty for the
NASCAR crowd, barely respected enough to be
kitsch.
In truth, it’s a
back-breaking,
death-defying, colorful
soap opera of questionable taste that is
anything but
fake
posted by StopMakingSense
on Feb 16, 2005 -
30 comments
