March 6, 2026 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, from the days of Hulk Hogan to modern WWE, wrestlers travel constantly, train relentlessly, and perform feats that demand strength, timing, and endurance. The spectacle may be designed for drama, but the toll on the body is no joke. Riley Evans, sportswriter and CEO of RealPodcasting.com, shares the real story and cost behind professional wrestling.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
And we continue with our American stories. Oftentimes, when the
topic of professional wrestling, then called hogan, comes up, it's
almost guaranteed that someone will scoff that it's just while
all fake. Yet those who enjoy watching professional wrestling won't disagree.
What they will say, or likely say, is that they
(00:41):
enjoy the characters, the athleticism, and the stagecraft. They know
it's scripted, and they love the storylines the same way
we all enjoy watching any scripted story on TV or
in the movies. Here's Riley Evans to tell the real
story about professional wrestling, a story he's titled pro Wrestlers
(01:02):
deserve to be called athlete.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Over two hundred days a year, no off season, just running, jumping, bumping,
and crashing into concrete, steel, and wooden rings with only
the thinnest layer of padding. Bones break, ligament snap, and
even the absence of serious injury leaves the constant ache
(01:25):
of smaller ones. Short of something debilitating, there's no time
off to recover because if you stop, there's always somebody
waiting to take your place. Whether it's a high school
gymnasium or one hundred thousand seat stadium, the show must
go on for the entertainment of some of the world's
most rabbit fans. It's ironic that pro wrestling, the most
(01:47):
grueling athletic endeavor on Earth, is laughed at by most
sports fans. Fans of most traditional sports often balk at
professional wrestling being mentioned in the same breath as their favorites.
Read the comments section on any Fox Sports article on
the WWE, you'll see the word fake so many times
that after the fiftieth comment, you'll start mixing it up
(02:08):
with the word them. What these trolling keyboard warriors are missing, however,
is that even if pro wrestling isn't quite your taste,
it contains much of what we love about legitimate sports.
Let's get one thing straight from the outset. Pro wrestling
matches are not competitions. The results are predetermined. Furthermore, various
(02:31):
major elements of each match are also determined ahead of time,
the exact amount of which depends on the wrestlers in question.
This has been the case since the start of the
twentieth century, when traveling carnival performers made the transition from
shoot aka legitimate competition wrestling to a more entertaining style
of athletics that necessitated the fixing of matches. Modern wrestling
(02:54):
is not fixed. It is not rigged, dishonest, or fake.
It is exactly what Vincent Man hereby referred to as
Vince from Now until the End of Time told the
New Jersey State Athletic Commission in nineteen eighty nine, an
activity in which participants struggle a hand to hand, primarily
for the purpose of providing entertainment to spectators rather than
(03:15):
conducting a bonifide athletic contest. Vince coined the term sports
entertainment to differentiate his product, known then as the WWF,
from other pro wrestling organizations at the time, but the
term actually provides the perfect description for the industry as
a whole. The problem is that so much time has
(03:36):
elapsed between pro wrestling's divergence from shoot wrestling and the
current era that people can't see the forest through the trees.
They no longer see the sport that provides the foundation
for the entertainment. Despite the fact that pro wrestling is
the most athletic that it's ever been, the top pro
wrestlers in the world must possess a rare and diverse
skill set. This is especially true for WWE super stars,
(04:00):
as the WWE product is heavier on the entertainment side
of the spectrum than anybody else. Wrestlers must be competent
to great public speakers. They must have a keen understanding
of storytelling to build compelling matches and programs. They also
have to be skilled actors, both in their ring and
in their promos. Professional wrestlers are great performers, but today,
(04:22):
more than ever, they are called to be better athletes
because it always comes back to what they can do
in the ring. Pro wrestling is an exercise of pageantry
and spectacle. It's a muscled up soap opera where larger
than life personalities collide for the entertainment of paying fans.
The fact remains, however, that all the promos and storylines
(04:43):
in the world fade into oblivion if those collisions, those
in ring encounters between athletes don't live up to the
expectations created by the entertainers. What would have happened if
Hogan couldn't slam Andre at WrestleMania three, if Brett Hardenshawn
Michaels couldn't wrestle for an hour straight? Conversely, will we
(05:05):
remember the Festival of Friendship in ten years after Owens
and Jericho underwhelmed to wrestle Mania thirty three. I might
be reaching on that one. The point is that the
entire purpose behind the showmanship and the storylines is to
sell the in ring product. We care more about the
matches if we care about the people in them. But
(05:26):
as fans, we still demand high quality wrestling to make
the stories feel worthwhile, and the bar for what constitutes
high quality is higher than ever. While the Attitude era
pushed the envelope with edgy storylines and violence, today's talent
pushes the envelope with acrobatics. In the squared circle, it
takes the red arrow today to get the reaction that
(05:49):
a moon salt got over twenty years ago. I think
it speaks volumes that while many pro wrestlers are fieled
football players recruited for their size and physiques, those are
routinely outpaced by the likes of Kenny Omega, aj Styles,
seth Rawlins, or Sasha Banks, smaller performers with the balance
(06:09):
and body control of elite gymnasts. Fans are demanding bigger moves,
more action, and a higher degree of difficulty than we've
ever seen. With more complex moves comes a greater need
for the utmost precision because your opponent's life and livelihood
is literally in your hands at every moment. The outcomes
may be scripted, but the impact of bodies on canvas, steel,
(06:32):
and concrete are very real. One air at knee is
a broken nose. One bad pile driver is a broken neck.
Speaking of injury, let's talk about playing through pain. Because
pro wrestlers have the market cornered on toughing it out,
we praise athletes for playing through injury, especially around playoff time.
(06:53):
Imagine that, but every day is playoff time, and there's
no off season for surgery. You just keep going until
you literally can't bear the pain anymore. And if you're
not already a star, your spot might not be there
when you come back. By the way, if you're a
WWE superstar pre pandemic, you were working around two hundred
(07:15):
and fifty shows a year all over the world. One
of those superstars is a guy named Mark Callaway, who
some of you might know better as the Undertaker. For
my money, he's one of the two or three greatest
professional wrestlers to ever breathe oxygen. For anyone's money, he's
one of the most respective performers in the history of
(07:36):
the industry, not only for his talent, but for his toughness.
He famously wrestled for months with broken ribs by putting
on a flack jacket and having medical staff duct tape
it around his torso. The undertaker is six foot eight
and probably weighed around three hundred and twenty pounds at
a time. Do you think taking a three hundred pound
(07:58):
bump with broken ribs was fun? By the way, he's
kind of needed a hip replacement since nineteen ninety eight.
He retired in two thousand and twenty. Is he tough
enough to be an athlete? Part of the reason that
people like take Er do ridiculous things with flack jackets
is because they're competitors. They want to go out there
(08:19):
every night and compete. Now, I can already hear a
bunch of yelling at your mobile devices. They're not competing.
The matches are fixed. You even said that. I said,
the results of the matches are predetermined, and they are.
Nobody said that there's no competition. Every night, these performers
go out and do what all other truly great athletes do.
(08:43):
They compete to be the absolute best at what they
do better than anyone else. Every wrestler who still loves
what they do wants to steal the show and have
the best match every night. They compete for the adelation
of fans. Many of them probably compete with the hopes
of being recognized for what they are, high performance athletes,
(09:05):
sacrificing their bodies every night that they walk down that aisle.
Professional wrestling doesn't have to be your thing, and that's
fine because we're not talking about the product. We're talking
about the players, the ones that spend all the hours
in the gym, make all the sacrifices and get none
of the respect from so many people. I was incredibly
(09:28):
proud to bring a taste of pro wrestling to Grandstance
Central as well as to the listeners of our American Stories.
I look forward to engaging with people who give wrestlers
the credit that they deserve.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
And great job on the piece by Greg Hangler and
a special thanks to Riley Evans for telling the story,
the real story about professional wrestling here on our American Stories.
And we continue with our American stories. Oftentimes, when the
topic of professional wrestling, then called hogan, comes up, it's
almost guaranteed that someone will scoff that it's just while
all fake. Yet those who enjoy watching professional wrestling won't disagree.
What they will say, or likely say, is that they
(00:41):
enjoy the characters, the athleticism, and the stagecraft. They know
it's scripted, and they love the storylines the same way
we all enjoy watching any scripted story on TV or
in the movies. Here's Riley Evans to tell the real
story about professional wrestling, a story he's titled pro Wrestlers
(01:02):
deserve to be called athlete.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Over two hundred days a year, no off season, just running, jumping, bumping,
and crashing into concrete, steel, and wooden rings with only
the thinnest layer of padding. Bones break, ligament snap, and
even the absence of serious injury leaves the constant ache
(01:25):
of smaller ones. Short of something debilitating, there's no time
off to recover because if you stop, there's always somebody
waiting to take your place. Whether it's a high school
gymnasium or one hundred thousand seat stadium, the show must
go on for the entertainment of some of the world's
most rabbit fans. It's ironic that pro wrestling, the most
(01:47):
grueling athletic endeavor on Earth, is laughed at by most
sports fans. Fans of most traditional sports often balk at
professional wrestling being mentioned in the same breath as their favorites.
Read the comments section on any Fox Sports article on
the WWE, you'll see the word fake so many times
that after the fiftieth comment, you'll start mixing it up
(02:08):
with the word them. What these trolling keyboard warriors are missing, however,
is that even if pro wrestling isn't quite your taste,
it contains much of what we love about legitimate sports.
Let's get one thing straight from the outset. Pro wrestling
matches are not competitions. The results are predetermined. Furthermore, various
(02:31):
major elements of each match are also determined ahead of time,
the exact amount of which depends on the wrestlers in question.
This has been the case since the start of the
twentieth century, when traveling carnival performers made the transition from
shoot aka legitimate competition wrestling to a more entertaining style
of athletics that necessitated the fixing of matches. Modern wrestling
(02:54):
is not fixed. It is not rigged, dishonest, or fake.
It is exactly what Vincent Man hereby referred to as
Vince from Now until the End of Time told the
New Jersey State Athletic Commission in nineteen eighty nine, an
activity in which participants struggle a hand to hand, primarily
for the purpose of providing entertainment to spectators rather than
(03:15):
conducting a bonifide athletic contest. Vince coined the term sports
entertainment to differentiate his product, known then as the WWF,
from other pro wrestling organizations at the time, but the
term actually provides the perfect description for the industry as
a whole. The problem is that so much time has
(03:36):
elapsed between pro wrestling's divergence from shoot wrestling and the
current era that people can't see the forest through the trees.
They no longer see the sport that provides the foundation
for the entertainment. Despite the fact that pro wrestling is
the most athletic that it's ever been, the top pro
wrestlers in the world must possess a rare and diverse
skill set. This is especially true for WWE super stars,
(04:00):
as the WWE product is heavier on the entertainment side
of the spectrum than anybody else. Wrestlers must be competent
to great public speakers. They must have a keen understanding
of storytelling to build compelling matches and programs. They also
have to be skilled actors, both in their ring and
in their promos. Professional wrestlers are great performers, but today,
(04:22):
more than ever, they are called to be better athletes
because it always comes back to what they can do
in the ring. Pro wrestling is an exercise of pageantry
and spectacle. It's a muscled up soap opera where larger
than life personalities collide for the entertainment of paying fans.
The fact remains, however, that all the promos and storylines
(04:43):
in the world fade into oblivion if those collisions, those
in ring encounters between athletes don't live up to the
expectations created by the entertainers. What would have happened if
Hogan couldn't slam Andre at WrestleMania three, if Brett Hardenshawn
Michaels couldn't wrestle for an hour straight? Conversely, will we
(05:05):
remember the Festival of Friendship in ten years after Owens
and Jericho underwhelmed to wrestle Mania thirty three. I might
be reaching on that one. The point is that the
entire purpose behind the showmanship and the storylines is to
sell the in ring product. We care more about the
matches if we care about the people in them. But
(05:26):
as fans, we still demand high quality wrestling to make
the stories feel worthwhile, and the bar for what constitutes
high quality is higher than ever. While the Attitude era
pushed the envelope with edgy storylines and violence, today's talent
pushes the envelope with acrobatics. In the squared circle, it
takes the red arrow today to get the reaction that
(05:49):
a moon salt got over twenty years ago. I think
it speaks volumes that while many pro wrestlers are fieled
football players recruited for their size and physiques, those are
routinely outpaced by the likes of Kenny Omega, aj Styles,
seth Rawlins, or Sasha Banks, smaller performers with the balance
(06:09):
and body control of elite gymnasts. Fans are demanding bigger moves,
more action, and a higher degree of difficulty than we've
ever seen. With more complex moves comes a greater need
for the utmost precision because your opponent's life and livelihood
is literally in your hands at every moment. The outcomes
may be scripted, but the impact of bodies on canvas, steel,
(06:32):
and concrete are very real. One air at knee is
a broken nose. One bad pile driver is a broken neck.
Speaking of injury, let's talk about playing through pain. Because
pro wrestlers have the market cornered on toughing it out,
we praise athletes for playing through injury, especially around playoff time.
(06:53):
Imagine that, but every day is playoff time, and there's
no off season for surgery. You just keep going until
you literally can't bear the pain anymore. And if you're
not already a star, your spot might not be there
when you come back. By the way, if you're a
WWE superstar pre pandemic, you were working around two hundred
(07:15):
and fifty shows a year all over the world. One
of those superstars is a guy named Mark Callaway, who
some of you might know better as the Undertaker. For
my money, he's one of the two or three greatest
professional wrestlers to ever breathe oxygen. For anyone's money, he's
one of the most respective performers in the history of
(07:36):
the industry, not only for his talent, but for his toughness.
He famously wrestled for months with broken ribs by putting
on a flack jacket and having medical staff duct tape
it around his torso. The undertaker is six foot eight
and probably weighed around three hundred and twenty pounds at
a time. Do you think taking a three hundred pound
(07:58):
bump with broken ribs was fun? By the way, he's
kind of needed a hip replacement since nineteen ninety eight.
He retired in two thousand and twenty. Is he tough
enough to be an athlete? Part of the reason that
people like take Er do ridiculous things with flack jackets
is because they're competitors. They want to go out there
(08:19):
every night and compete. Now, I can already hear a
bunch of yelling at your mobile devices. They're not competing.
The matches are fixed. You even said that. I said,
the results of the matches are predetermined, and they are.
Nobody said that there's no competition. Every night, these performers
go out and do what all other truly great athletes do.
(08:43):
They compete to be the absolute best at what they
do better than anyone else. Every wrestler who still loves
what they do wants to steal the show and have
the best match every night. They compete for the adelation
of fans. Many of them probably compete with the hopes
of being recognized for what they are, high performance athletes,
(09:05):
sacrificing their bodies every night that they walk down that aisle.
Professional wrestling doesn't have to be your thing, and that's
fine because we're not talking about the product. We're talking
about the players, the ones that spend all the hours
in the gym, make all the sacrifices and get none
of the respect from so many people. I was incredibly
(09:28):
proud to bring a taste of pro wrestling to Grandstance
Central as well as to the listeners of our American Stories.
I look forward to engaging with people who give wrestlers
the credit that they deserve.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
And great job on the piece by Greg Hangler and
a special thanks to Riley Evans for telling the story,
the real story about professional wrestling here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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