News flash; Breaking Bad didn’t use real meth, The Walking Dead doesn’t have any real zombies, and no actors really died in Pretty Little Liars. Usually, these statements would be met with the response, “Obviously. Do you think I’m stupid?” and justifiably so. When people admit that they enjoy watching professional wrestling, they are bombarded with comments about how what they watch is just “fake” to which they reply with, “Obviously. Do you think I’m stupid?” because people watch it for entertainment, just like any other TV show. Short Fil maker, Max Landis, chose to take on the task of explaining this to other when he made the film “Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling” and posted it to YouTube. The film made a splash early, earning over 1 Million views in around a week. Landis used visual effects and an all-female cast to go on to explain how the show was no different than other forms of entertainment. His strategy was showing the character development arch of one of the most popular characters, Triple H, from the most famous wrestling company in the world, WWE.

The film had a definitive style that resonates with most of the work Landis produces. At the opening shot, Landis sits in a large armchair, cracks open a beer, and starts to tell a story. The story continues to be portrayed by actresses following his narrative, including lip-synching his dialogue. The point of immersing the story in an all women cast was, according to Landis, to get away from the traditional, macho view of professional wrestling; being able to focus 100% on the story being told.

There are certain points made by Landis that are strongly supported by wrestling fans, while of course there are also pieces that some think that he goes a bit far on. For example, it is generally accepting that professional wrestling isn’t any different from any other scripted TV show; the difference being that if something is messed up in wrestling, you can’t fix it. Wrestling is one take so if you mess up, you have to fix it fast or risk getting seriously injured. This adds stakes to the show, making an already interesting show even more complex.

A point that people seem to bring up about why people need to constantly ridicule wrestling for being “fake” is the rapid rise of the UFC and other forms of mixed martial arts. The most popular period of time for wrestling was when people had no idea if it were real or not. Characters like The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Hulk Hogan were blurring the lines between reality and script every week and it made fans think their onscreen characters were their real personalities. The big problem with the entertainment factor for the UFC is that there can be huge main events that get months of buildup, only to end in about 12 seconds because one fighter slipped, or one got a lucky punch in. In wrestling, months of build for one match will guarantee, usually, a good, long match to further the story until its end.

A major disagreement that is pointed out by viewers is that Landis claims that the thing that makes everybody popular is the stories. He feels that characters can’t really become popular without sufficient stories. He points out a current star, Daniel Bryan, as a man who is insanely popular, “but nobody really knows how.” There are certain people, Bryan being one of them, that don’t need stories out of the ring, because their physical work speaks enough for them. Landis has this thought process due to Bryan in real life not being seen as a great actor, thus not really useful to an entertainment company as their main star. He may not be the best actor, but the crowd gets behind him as he could be one of the greatest in ring stars of all time. People noticed his talent and latched onto him, refusing to let go.

However, regardless of agreements or disagreements throughout the process, everything boils down to peoples’ individual tastes in the end, just like other forms of entertainment. Not everyone will love every movie. Not everybody will read every comic book. Not everyone will watch wrestling. It was never the intent of Landis to say, “Look, wrestling is awesome; everyone needs to watch it.” His whole point behind the film was to say, “Wrestling may be fake and dumb, but so is everything else that we love anyway.” People can love things that others find trivial and that’s just a fact of life. With that message, it’s hard to disagree. There’s nothing in the world, universally loved just because that isn’t how people work. There are ways to break down the stigma behind professional wrestling, and that is to just treat it like any other form of entertainment. If people follow his lead, the stigma will soon be left behind, and people will be able to just enjoy what they enjoy without worrying about opinions of others.  People could be themselves, which is the best thing they can be.