From powerbombs to piledrivers, and DDTs to suplexes. Watching wrestling comes with a wide variety of entertainment.
But is watching wrestling considered a hobby? And is it also considered a sin as some others think? Let’s talk about this topic in a little bit more detail.
Is Watching Wrestling A Hobby?
Yes, watching wrestling can absolutely be considered a hobby. For the most part, a hobby is something you do regularly in your own spare time.
Some people may argue that watching wrestling is not a hobby because you are not actively participating in the sport. You are still learning about the storylines, characters, and even the ins and outs of the industry.
Watching Wrestling As A Hobby: 3 Reasons To Enjoy
Wrestling may be intimidating for people that have just started to watch it as there is a lot to take in. But the best part about wrestling is there’s a little bit of everything for everyone to enjoy.
1) Watching Wrestling Is Entertaining
There are a lot of different styles of wrestling. There is the high-flying Lucha Libre style from Mexico that focuses on speed and death-defying leaps, and the hard-hitting Shoot Style of Japan with its stiff strikes and kicks.
Don’t forget about the Hardcore style that was popularized by the promotion ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling), which uses weapons such as steel chairs, tables, and even barbed wires.
The most common style however is something that is familiar to you or anyone who knows even the slightest about wrestling, The Showman style of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment).
It is a style that mainly focuses on the story of a match and the connections that wrestlers have with one another. With rivalries that have lasted for years and back and forth matches, it feels more like watching a movie or TV series.
Another interesting part about wrestling is how many different match types there are. We have your standard one-on-one or two-on-two (Tag-Team) Matches of course. But we also have Multi-Man Matches like Triple-Threats (3 People) and Fatal 4-Ways (4 People).
There are also special type matches like Ladder Matches where you have to scale the ladder to retrieve a hanging object or Table Matches where you have to put your opponent through a table.
2) Watching Wrestling Allows You To Be A Fan
In the same way that you can watch musicians, actors, or sports teams as a fan, you can also be a fan of Wrestlers. There are many larger-than-life characters that have held up over the years, including:
- Ric Flair.
- Lex Luger.
- Hulk Hogan.
- The Undertaker.
- Doink The Clown.
- Stone Cold Steve Austin.
- The Rock (Dwayne Johnson).
It’s easy to connect with these characters due to how they present themselves, but also because of the “Baby Face” and “Heel” dynamic.
A Baby Face or Face is someone that is considered a hero or a good guy. They are the wrestlers that react positively to the audience and they win their matches with skill alone. For example, John Cena, CM Punk, and Bianca Belair.
The Heels are the villains or the bad guys, and they will do anything and everything to win their match. It could be by using illegal weapons or by interference, like Roman Reigns, Kenny Omega, and Becky Lynch.
Factions are another big thing, Factions or Stables consist of wrestlers that share a common goal or interest and use their numbers to basically be the top of whatever promotion they’re in.
Such notable Stables are the NWO (New World Order) and D-Generation X, and the more modern Factions of Bullet Club and The New Day.
3) Watching Wrestling Is A Very Inexpensive Hobby
Watching wrestling at home has never been easier. With both WWE and AEW (All Elite Wrestling) being on most cable TV. Other than that, you can also catch certain promotions through their online streaming subscriptions.
Most of these subscriptions allow you to not only watch their weekly shows but also their monthly Pay-Per-Views and other extra content.
Impact Wrestling (Formerly TNA) has their Impact Plus which is priced at $7.99 US a month. It gives you access to previous episodes and Pay-Per-Views as well as the upcoming ones.
NJPW (New Japan Pro-Wrestling) has their New Japan Pro Wrestling World that is priced around $9 US per month, though English commentary only begins at the events from 2015 onwards.
WWE with their WWE Network however may be the best bang for your buck option with it being priced at $9.99 US per month.
However, not only does it have the same features as most other subscriptions, with its Pay-Per-Views and weekly episodes. It also has most if not the entire catalog of shows from WCW (World Championship Wrestling) and ECW alongside exclusive shows and documentaries.
Is Watching Wrestling A Sin?
No, not at all. Wrestling has had adult themes in their shows every now and then, though you will see this more often during the late 80s to the early 2000s.
Shows nowadays rarely ever get to that same point. This is even more so when you consider that WWE has been a PG-13 product since 2008.
That being said, you can still find other promotions like AEW or ROH (Ring of Honor) going for more serious or adult tones in their shows, with the most common being wrestlers bleeding or getting busted open from a weapon or the use of curse words.
Watching Pro Wrestling As A Hobby: Final Words
In terms of entertainment, there is and never will be anything like Professional Wrestling. No other form of entertainment can make you feel so much emotion from a wrestler who vowed to never wrestle again make his return to the ring, or an annual winning streak that has lasted decades suddenly end. This is why wrestling is Special.
From the many different promotions you can choose from to the sheer amount of wrestlers that you can watch, you rarely ever get bored of watching wrestling.
One minute you could be watching a magnificent story-driven match between Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi, the next you could be laughing at an Orange Cassidy Vs Chris Jericho match.
At the end of the day, you can absolutely say that yes, watching wrestling is a hobby. Wrestling demands both your respect and time for you to fully enjoy the product.
And sure it might seem confusing at first with who is on who’s side or what’s the name of a certain wrestler’s finisher. But after you get a feel for what wrestling is, there’s nothing better.
