Cult Corner: Take me to church

Consider: If attending a play, would you stand up at intermission and yell loudly that everyone on stage is just pretending?

Would you sit in the front row of a movie theater and, just as the lights go down, turn around to remind everyone in attendance that what they’re about to see is not real and, not only that, the movie was filmed out of sequence and edited to the final form?

If you answered “no” to either of the above, take a moment to consider the following about professional wrestling. WrestleMania 41 starts Saturda y (streaming live on Peacock, with a premium or premium-plus subscription). No professional wrestling fan needs to answer the continual “Isn’t that fake?” question on wrestling’s biggest annual holiday.

Professional wrestling is a theatrical, athletic spectacle. It’s staged in the same way a play is staged. The wrestlers are characters, and the winners and champions are decided beforehand. Most wrestling fans know this. We are in on it, and we are part of it. The beauty of wrestling is that the audience is a participant.

So, no. It’s not fake. Save for a handful of cinematic matches during the pandemic, it’s always performed in front of a live audience. The wrestlers are trained athletes who learn the art of combat performance, and the threat of injury is real.


Now that we’ve addressed the first elephant in the ring, let’s address another: the storytelling. In short, it’s a soap opera, and it’s meant to be simple, so of course it’s overdramatic. Pro wrestling originated in traveling carnivals in the first half of the 20th century. Staging match outcomes began as a way for carnies to make money when patrons gambled on the match. Wrestler feuds came about as a way to generate interest in a match when the carnival rolled into town. Why continue the tradition? It keeps wrestling immediate. Anyone stumbling onto a match can become engrossed instantly, and it’s here that wrestling works its magic.

When watching a movie or a play, suspension of disbelief is a foregone conclusion, but with wrestling, it’s a conscious decision. This is the audience participation I mentioned. Yes, the stories are, at least on paper, thin and usually ridiculous. Yes, these people are cartoons, but that’s the point. Everyone is on the level, audience and performer, and part of that level is that everyone is willing to let it happen simultaneously. We come together to cast a spell and, for a moment, create a reality where good and evil settle their problems in mankind’s oldest argument-settling tool: combat.

To make another comparison, wrestling is a lot like going to church. We enter a building with an agreed-upon purpose. We engage in simple rituals and, by the time the ceremony is over, we have, ideally, engaged with something that isn’t tangible and requires belief. The singing, praying and overall participation of a churchgoer is essential, just as the wrestling fan must cheer the babyface and boo the heel. Without it, the experience is empty.

So, as Day 2 of WrestleMania 41 and Easter Sunday coincide this year, I invite you to join me in the time-honored tradition of looking beyond ourselves to what could be, suspending disbelief and creating an experience not of what simply is, but what we dream of and create.

Thompson, VHS.D, holds a doctorate of cult media in pop culture from University of Maine at Castle Rock. He delivers lectures on movies and other pop culture topics under the moniker Professor VHS. Find him on Instagram as @professorvhs.

Wrestling vocabulary guide:

Babyface: The morally upstanding wrestler in the match. Follows the rules. Usually.

Heel: The bad guy/gal in the match. Will use underhanded tactics to win and is traditionally arrogant.

Bump: When wrestlers perform a move and fall.

Spot: A planned move or series of moves designed to wow the audience and sometimes help tell the story of the match.

Finisher: A wrestler’s signature move that, despite its name, does not always end the match, but is, at the very least, expected to.

Heat: Excitement and popularity, whether positive or negative.

Pop: Cheering generated from a moment of surprise.

Kayfabe: The term used to refer to the illusion that pro wrestling is real. The lines between a wrestler’s real persona and character they portray can become blurred when someone’s real-life injury or personal circumstances are written into a storyline, for example. However, a wrestler can be said to be recovering from an injury when they’re simply taking some time off. In this instance, it would be a kayfabe injury.

Selling: A wrestler demonstrating the effects of an attack. Similarly, if a wrestler takes a move and does not react, this is referred to as “no selling.”