BY: EMILY HOLLWEDEL | JUNE 15, 2024
“You know they’re faking that, right?” “That’s nothing like real wrestling.” “How can you qualify that as a sport?”
As the iconoclastic nature of wrestling changed over time, less and less was being done to hide the behind-the-scenes of pro wrestling. This fanned the flames for a fresher debate: does professional wrestling count as a sport?
The short answer is— yes, it does.
For starters, just like other sports, athleticism is imperative to the success of any wrestler. Take Bianca Belair for example, the current WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion alongside Jade Cargill, as well as a former 3x Women’s Champion. Champion alongside Jade Cargill, as well as a former 3x Women’s Champion. Belair, a former collegiate track star and occasional fitness and figure competitor, excels greatly in athletics. At WWE’s Performance Center Combine, which tests raw athletic ability, she’s achieved first place three total years and racked up four of the seven possible event wins (broad jump, deadlift, ring agility, and strong run) in 2019.
Here’s a summation of Belair’s work in 2017:
Ricochet, another one of WWE’s stars, has a signature “450 splash,” where he jumps from the top rope and spins 450 degrees in the air before landing on an opponent. Former Olympians like Mark Henry and Kurt Angle have also exhibited incredible feats of strength within the ring.
Here is Ricochet’s 450 as seen from the rafters at WWE Raw:
Looking at the video above, one can gather that these moves pose a lot of physical risk for wrestlers, the most major being injuring oneself or an opponent. Many wrestlers continue to pursue the work even after severe damage. Take Kris Statlander, who is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling. In a short period, Statlander tore both of her ACLs and required extensive surgery to repair them. Just a few years later, she currently wrestles as one of the Women’s Division’s strongest athletes, with both legs locked into braces that make her almost appear superhuman.
Wrestlers are also able to incorporate more aerial, agile movement into their styles, as well as deeper physicality with martial arts moves –which appear “more realistic” to audiences– into their repertoires.
With major wrestling promotions having at least one show a week, that means wrestlers also spend a major chunk of the year traveling from place to place to perform. During this time, they must take care of their bodies and ensure they can perform to the best of their ability.
In addition, they must communicate with one another to gauge how to continue a match based on audience reaction—so while the end of the match is predetermined, they must improvise choreography throughout it to build up the intensity and excitement for viewers. They cannot necessarily appear as tired as they may feel, unless it is part of the match’s story. So, in some ways, they have to mask what they are truly experiencing—even when they are injured during an event.
So, yes, wrestling has predetermined components. But so do gymnastics, skating, and dance, where athletes must perform a set routine. These staged elements do not delineate from professional wrestler’s agility, endurance, strength, or overall athletic ability.
In short, any wrestling match involves running, jumping, and/or flipping around the ring, diving from the top rope and onto the floor, lifting and minorly striking opponents, as well as maintaining a persona to an outside audience for an average of ten to fifteen minutes. Running, gymnastics, and weightlifting are all major Olympic events, and all of them are necessary for wrestling.
All of the action takes an immense amount of conditioning and coordination, both mental and physical, to maintain bodily control and ensure the safety of all parties involved in a match. They not only have to perform the move, but ensure it doesn’t injure their opponent—something that requires a great deal of bodily awareness and control. Under these qualifications, there’s certainly an argument to be made for professional wrestling as a sport.
What do you think? Could professional wrestling fit into the Olympics? Are there any other sports that aren’t deemed “sports” that you know of?
Works Cited
WrestleDads. “Ricochet 450 Splash onto Bronson Reed through Commentary Table!! #Wweraw after #Wrestlemania #Wwe.” YouTube, 23 Apr. 2024, youtu.be/2F5HYawV1tU?si=U9SeXjSwScqO-rhg. Accessed 15 June 2024.
WWE. “Bianca Blair Devours the Field at the WWE Performance Center Combine.” YouTube, 15 Sept. 2016, youtu.be/oqlbnr1rha8?si=GLrGxOUXst0Oq-Rh. Accessed 15 June 2024.
Zucker, Joseph. “WWE PC Combine 2019: Bianca Belair, Riddick Moss Stand out and Top Highlights.” Bleacher Report, bleacherreport.com/articles/2838148-wwe-pc-combine-2019-bianca-belair-riddick-moss-stand-out-and-top-highlights. Accessed 15 June 2024.
