To make it look natural, athletes spend hundreds of hours rehearsing.
Wrestling. How often we hear that it’s all fake and made up. On the one hand, it may seem so: most of the moments in it are prescribed from the beginning, and many dangerous techniques, which are so in the eyes of fans, in fact, as calmly as possible turn athletes. But on the other hand – for this you have to hone all the tricks with hours of training, to work out the mechanisms. We deal with the main secrets of wrestling, which make it so spectacular and interesting for the public.
Buried alive
A wrestler is thrown into a grave, then covered with earth, and some time later he comes back as if none of this ever happened. How is this possible? The secret lies in the design of the so-called grave and the filming of the burial process. The pit contains a hatch through which the wrestler can safely escape backstage, and to the fans, it looks like he’s actually being buried in the ground.
The last match like this in WWE took place in 2010 and is now out of use. It was often used when a wrestler needed to be taken off the screens for a period of time. The delight in the fans’ eyes was mixed with horror at what was happening.
Wrestlers talking during matches
Each match in wrestling goes according to a certain scenario. Of course, it is impossible to fully prescribe the events of even a five-minute segment, so the scriptwriters fix only the main points: a special hold, the final result, the challenge of a new opponent. The rest of the time wrestlers are engaged in improvisation, which brings them to the prescribed episodes.
In order not to forget all the intricacies of the script, wrestlers often talk during fights so that it looks like they insult each other with their last phrases. The referee also comes into play: the referee can direct the wrestlers at the right moment, tell them when the commercials have started, and remind them which move or moment to perform. Also through the referee is the communication between the wrestlers and other characters responsible for the layout of the fight.
Ring Destruction
Two giants meet in the ring – what could possibly go wrong? The match will go on as normal, unless suddenly the wrestlers want to commit to a third-rope submission hold. There’s a fall, and the ring breaks. Athletes fall under it, and it’s a complex structure. Isn’t there a danger to health and life?
To prevent wrestlers from getting injured, the ring for such an event is prepared in advance, and the fighters themselves during the execution of the technique must land in a certain point, then the trick will be safe.
Monitor under the ring
Let’s imagine a situation where there are two wrestlers in the ring, the lights go out, and when they come back on, a third competitor appears on the mat. He couldn’t have come running from backstage or out of the audience so quickly, could he? Of course not. The thing is that the wrestlers who appear out of nowhere during the darkness are under the ring. They have a monitor that lets them know at what specific moment they need to make their exit.
Trash cans, chairs, ladders, tables
Trash cans are made of thin aluminum or other lightweight metal that will easily crumple on contact with the wrestler’s body without seriously injuring him.
Chairs and ladders are made of slightly different materials, which is why WWE has long since banned hits to the head with these items. It looks spectacular, but with a high risk of injuring the opponent. It is worth noting that, in addition to the very feature of the objects, fighters daily train the points where exactly to strike can be as painless as possible.
Not all techniques pass for wrestlers without a trace:
When wrestlers perform a dangerous move with one of the objects, the broadcast of the match seems to “freeze”: this helps to hide the fact that the wrestlers do not hit the opponent with a chair or a tank, creating the impression that this blow was still carried out.
It’s the same story with the tables. They are made of very thin wood, so they break almost from any touch. The main thing with this technique is to land correctly.
