Udaipur recently witnessed its biggest wrestling entertainment extravaganza on 24-Feb with top international stars coming down to Khelgaon and competing against each other. While the event did attract a lot of crowd, it also attracted a lot of questions about whether WWE fights are real or fake?

We dug into the web and tried to figure out the answer. The answer it seems is a big “YES” to WWE fights being fake and staged. There are various videos uploaded on the web (we have showcased a few in this article) that show the fakeness of the acts on the part of wrestlers. The narrative floating around is that prowrestlers place immense weight on working safely with their opponents – meaning they are trying to deliberately ensure that they do not end up injuring the opponent.

For the ardent believers that WWE is true, take a look at Brock Lesner in UFC versus Brock Lesner in WWE. A UFC fight involving someone like even a Brock Lesner ends in less than 5 mins with one punch to the face often being enough to take down the fighter (because injuries are real). In case of WWE, despite innumerable punches hit(or maybe not) to the face, the wrestler comes back as fresh as coming from a shower.

But before we shun all these WWE wrestlers, spare them a thought. They take about 200 prowrestling fights every year. With a small injury this would never be possible. While WWE fights may be staged and practised, the injuries sometime may be very real and ugly. For e.g. Scott Steiner once got kicked in his throat during a match and that required emergency surgery for a damaged trachea. Similarly, Mick Foley had his ear ripped off in an injury. The most tragic incident of course is the death of Owen Hart who died during his choreographed descent into the ring when his harness failed.

Wrestlers are a master illusionists. Fans want to see specific action in a ring and the master craftsmen help them see it.It takes a lot of effort and hours of practice to ensure that the wrestling moves are done safely at the same time preserving the TRP value.

WWE is also a game of camera angles. A lot of action that we see (and that we dont see) can be attributed to the camera angle. A big punch shown from behind the wrestler actually would have missed the wrestlers face by inches but TV audience would believe the wrestler hysterics and feel that he/she was actually hit hard.

So, is WWE wrestling fake or real – the answer it seems lies in the name itself. WWE stands for World Wrestling Entertainment.