h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was a fervent fan as a youngster, but, I must admit, I outgrew it. Cheezy plot lines, bad acting, it just got too much for me, I guess. I know plenty of guys who never gave it up, which just goes to prove that some kids refuse to grow up.

Cheesy plots are half the fun, GB! The plots are so intrinsically stupid that any clever intellectual pretensions you might have are of no use to you, so you genuinely have no idea what's going to happen. Will a match be won fair and square? Will a combatant use a chair or pull something a foreign object out of his pants (oo-err)? Will their be outside interference and who will side with whom?

Something I also find quite amusing, is the astonishing amnesia that can occur in regards to either wrestlers jumping ship (to WCW and vice versa) or old plotlines, one week a couple of wrestlers could be bashing each other over the head with a chair, the next week they're fast friends united against a common foe.

Even knowing that it's all fake doesn't stop me liking it. Quite the opposite in fact. The real "acting" is in the ring. It makes me wonder how they don't injure themselves more, doing what they do, week in, week out. Leaping out of the ring onto the floor or off the top turnbuckle, and piledrivers and suplexes that require coordination from both wrestlers in order to prevent serious injury. We admire stuntpeople in the movies for doing this stuff, why not professional wrestlers?

Actually, it was when I was able to forecast the events that I gave up on it...the plotlines became too predictable. I've come to understand that the WWF has made an effort to overcome that, but I just haven't been able to get back into it.

I think the WWF is a waste of space.

Bread and circuses....... Keep the prolls spending their dosh to keep some very dodgy geezers in loads a money! It's one very big marketing ploy.....

Wow! That's...uh...quite a sentence! What the hell did it mean?

Good, 'innit? *Scratches head* Oh, just a little something I dragged up from the back of my incredibly muddled mind.....

"Bread & circuses" refering to the Romans and their arena activities which kept the masses entertained at the same time filling their penchant for violence, allegedly keeping said violence off the streets. It was the equivalent to our "sports" entertainments of today...

I'm not sure about the "Soap operas for men" label - I'm female and have been a WWF fan since the early 80s, much to the despair of all my friends and family who were sure I would grow out of it! People ask me "why do you like that, its fake and its rubbish" to which I reply...

1) Its big muscled men with (in many cases) long hair and tattoos

2) Its fun - the pantomime of the sports world (and I used to say theat before they satrted calling themselves "sports entertainment")

3) Even if its fake you have to be incredibly fit to do all those moves.

4) I LIKE that is fake. I don't want to watch some 'sport' which involes genuinely hospitalising and maiming your opponant. I think aiming to make it look as if you're hurting them when you're not is a much more admirable motive than aiming to beat the other guy til he can't stand.

5) Its just about as well acted and believable as any of the other soap operas on the go at the moment!

Gar

Soap Operas, perhaps but WWF is more a comic book and action figures that are manipulated for the viewer. Knowing that it is all choregraphed does not spoil the entertainment of the corny aliances and when Vince MacMann gets his butt kicked and trying to figure out why this mayhem does not produce broken bones and blood. I've quit making excuses to myself and others for why I'm in front of the tube at 8 EDT every Thursday for Smack Down and I sit back and enjoy.

PS Chyna can beat on me anytime she damn well pleases....

Exactly! I am a RABID Wrestling fan in general, and a WWF fan in particular. The real beauty and fun, is as you say, the "acting" inside the ring. Even though it is all fake, do you really think it is so easy pulling off those, VERY physical, albiet fake move, night in, and night out. Even though you only see them twice a week on TV, these guys are usually out working at least 4 or 5 days in a week.

Sorry but I don't get it, WWF or whatever that is.

If you are going to watch a fight, then there is boxing (which though not always evenly matched is fighting) or if you want to watch people playing at fighting, watch a Bruce Lee movie.

Not even close to being a sport or entertainment.

Spot on K57. What the WWF does, it does exceptionally. The only comparison you can make with Soap Operas is that occasionally characters get killed off (read: hit 40, grow man-breasts and move over to WCW). And anyone who thinks that it's an easy ride should bear in mind what happened to Owen Hart last year. Quite a high price to pay for a part in a soap opera.

To tweak the subject slightly, I was reading over the weekend about a new film that's coming out quite soon called Beyond The Mat. Due to hit Britain this week I think - anyone know whether it's worth seeing yet?

Oh yeah, if you are into wrestling, catch this flick!

Helping Chyna beat on geezer3 would be great fun!