Didn't think everyone would stand up for Pro Wrestling, but I guess I didn't think so many PTP folks would come out against it, either. I used to make fun of pro wrestling really hard, especially during the Hulk/Ultimate Warrior years, when all of my peers were going apeshit for it.

But my senior year in high school some of my friends got into it and despite how much I made fun of them, I eventually started having fun watching it, too. It was always a social thing, and really I was only somewhat engaged with the sport for about a year or so. But I had fun. The live events are a trip, and yeah, a lot of that comes from watching the fans with you jaw on the floor, but they do put on a good show, even if it is definitely aimed at the lowest common denominator. But when I catch any of it on TV nowadays, I still am entertained by it, even if a lot of it is pretty despicable.

If I had to compare it to something, I'd compare it to the way that I'll find myself watching bad stand-up. I'm not laughing, which is the primary directive of the medium, but something about the process is interesting to me. In fact, knowing its fake (wrestling, I mean) enhances that. I wonder what's improvised and what's planned. I wonder what they're whispering to each other. I see mistakes and how they compensate for them. All of that is enough that I'll watch for a few minutes before I move onto something else.

In one of the comic book analogies, I think buckshot asked where are the Alan Moores, etc. And while its true there probably isn't an equivalent (at least on the scripting side) I think most comic book fans would agree that they enjoy reading bad comics sometimes. Good wrestling = bad comic books.

So I guess I do feel Wrestling is an inferior form of geekdom, in that it requires you to get into the process more than other forms of geekdom. You guys don't post about the pens (or whatever they draw with) that your favorite comic book artist uses, because there's more interesting stuff to talk about. With wrestling, you need to care about the pens, so to speak, to satisfy the intelligent side of your geekdom. It's not like Star Wars where the false world presented to you is enough for intelligent fans to get lost inside. The Wrestling geeks tend to be really into the business side and the behind the scenes stuff, and they consider that part of the whole package, not peripheral to it. Because otherwise, there isn't enough to obsess over. (I'm just talking about the wresling geeks I know, maybe I'm off base with the larger contigent.)

Oh, and just because I can be entertained by it doesn't mean I think it's a positive thing. It could go away forever and I'd be okay, except that I know it would just be replaced by something worse.