It sorta reminds me of a Chuck Klosterman essay (OK, showing my hipsterdom there) I read about country music. A lot of people who aren't really into country sorta look down upon mainstream country music cause it's so "Walmart" or associated with a "lower class" of people or whatever. Yet mainstream country is probably the most profitable and strongest part of the music industry today. Conversely you got a lot of alt country acts who are held up higher by outside critics and most outsiders but really, a lot of these acts are struggling to get by in comparison to your Dixie Chicks or whatever. Mainstream country pretty much exists in its own universe and speaks directly to its audience without much care about the outside world, sorta like wrestling.

I don't think I've met anyone who's really into wrestling (granted, I don't know that many people truly into WWE, but I do know a few) who really cares that it's "fake" or believes that it isn't staged. They are smart enough to know that. Yet the devotion to it is real, their devotion to it is just as real as mine is to my favorite football team or to music. And when you think about it, it all serves to entertain you. I care a lot about what happens to my favorite football team, but at the end of the day, do I draw some greater meaning from it because it's a real competition? Not really. But I still put a lot of time and thought to it. Who am I to look down upon wrestling fans just because their entertainment has a preordained conclusion?

I'd argue that wrestling fans may be the biggest geeks of us all. They exist in a world that has almost no regard for mainstream culture, is looked down upon by almost everyone else, and still show a high level of devotion. I mean I've watched wrestling, half of this shit would never fly on any sort of mainstream channel. I mean imagine if sitcom characters had the sort of gimmicks that wrestlers do, that sitcom would never get past the censors or be seen as politically correct. It is a fascinating subculture to me because it is so insular to to outside world.