Neumann wrestles with guilt

By Andrew Neumann
Collegian Staff
April 12, 2006

On the surface, I would appear to be the typical American male when it comes to sporting interests and hobbies. I played football in high school, baseball and basketball recreationally my whole life, and I live and die with the Yankees, Giants and Knicks. Just below my generic veneer of fandom, however, exists a passion that equals traditional sports: I love professional wrestling.

To many people, pro-wrestling is the fake sport that only redneck hicks like. To me, wrestling is a passion that has provided me with some of the most emotional moments I can remember. I started watching wrestling at the age of six, and I was hooked. I loved the good guys, especially Hulk Hogan, and was equally scared of the bad guys. I bought the figures, the costumes and the tapes. Whenever a pay-per-view was on, my brother and I would shell out $29.99 to buy it. I’ll never forget the fateful night in November of 1991 when Hulk Hogan lost the title to the Undertaker and my parents tried to console me by telling me that wrestling wasn’t real. Most people would assume that a revelation such as that would cause me to stop watching, but my interest only grew as I was now able to appreciate wrestling as a show rather than a fight.

Despite differing levels of interest throughout the years, I have remained a wrestling fan in some capacity to this day.

I think the reason is that wrestling provides a unique experience. I have often heard wrestling called a “soap opera for guys,” and I think that’s a pretty accurate term. I know that wrestling isn’t an actual competition, but I still can get hooked on the storylines, much like you do with a movie or TV show. I can appreciate that the guy who just fell off of a 16 foot cage onto a table actually is hurt and doesn’t just “know how to fall.” I can have long talks with friends about the genius of men like Ricky Steamboat and Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake.

I understand that wrestling is not for everyone, and even people who understand it may not like it, but that doesn’t make anyone’s tastes superior to mine. Yes, I know that wrestling is staged and that the characters are merely fabrications, but those characters have provided me with very real, emotional memories, so I am proud to call it my guilty pleasure.

neumanna1@lasalle.edu