New Delhi: WWE or World Wrestling Entertainment may just be the longest running show in the history of television and is still occupying the prime slot in the US over certain networks.
But is it a sport? Is it fake? What exactly is it?
Well the WWE defines itself as a Sports-Entertainment company and here's how pro-wrestling works. A wrestling organisation like the WWE has a pool of wrestlers who are not only top notch athletes but also good actors and great speakers.
All the atheletes are given a character or a gimmick, like the Undertaker "who is said to be a dead man and from the army of darkness".
But every wrestler in the business has to be classified under two categories. He is either a babyface or "good guy" for whom the crowd cheers — like Hulk Hogan — or he's the bad guy or a heel as per wrestling terminology — someone like our very own Khali — whom the crowd loves to hate.
And just like in the movies when a babyface is pitted against a heel, the fight is on.
But what makes pro-wrestling really interesting is that with time, the characters keep evolving — good guys turn bad and vice versa. Interesting storylines, heated rivalries and unexpected twists in the show keep the viewer hooked.
A character's popularity is determined by the amount of POP — a wrestling term for the reaction that a wrestler gets on his entrance — he gets.
And no, most of the fighting is not fake.
Ironically in pro-wrestling, only 30 per cent of the show is about actual wrestling in the ring. Matches are scripted and winners pre-decided but with each wrestler doing 300 shows a year and getting thrown on tables and hit by chairs almost every other day, it's a often a pretty hard day at work.
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