Wrestling--it�s huge spandex clad men tearing each other apart in front of millions of excited fans, talking trash, sweat pouring off their face as they accept defeat. We know it�s all fake, and that they�re not really slamming each other against walls, dumpsters, or any other hard object with the intent to kill. But we watch it all the same.
   Last Sunday night I watched my first wrestling match. My boyfriend David and his parents were watching Wrestlemania XIV on Pay-Per View, so I joined them. At first, I thought it was the cheesiest thing in the world. Why would so many people pay good money to see a bunch of guys pretend to fight? Was the entertainment value of it that good? The tickets were sold out within 90 minutes the first morning they went on sale. Dave�s parents tried to get tickets, but failed. So we had to settle for watching it without the cheer of the crowd around us, or the fear of being crushed by a wrestler thrown past the security fences and into our lap.
   Dave�s dad is a big wrestling fan. He knows all the stories behind all the wrestlers, the history of the sport, and even went to a show in Worcester. I was unaware that each wrestler had a story, like a character in a book. I never knew that their elaborate costumes meant anything. On Sunday night there were many matches. The first was the match between the Undertaker and Kane. They are brothers, and this was the first match that they fought against each other. For years, the Undertaker refused to fight against his brother. But Kane had pushed him too far.
   The whole story goes like this. The Undertaker burnt down his family�s home years ago, in which Kane suffered massive scars on his face, hence the mask he wore. A huge roly poly man named Paul Bearer (nice pun!) took in the Undertaker and took care of him. But then when he found out what he�d done, through Kane, he switched sides and plotted with Kane to kill the Undertaker by locking him in a coffin and burning it. But the Undertaker miraculously came back from the grave. After that stunt, he couldn�t not fight his brother.
   Each brother is the mirror image of the other. They have the same build and the same long black wavy hair. The Undertaker wore a black cape and was ushered in by monks carrying torches. Kane just had really neat music. All the moves were set up, and each wrestler knew who would win. It was a really complex, choreographed, play. But there was still the possibility of getting hurt.
   The Undertaker won, of course, though he was hit over the head with a metal chair, and tossed around the ring like a rag doll.
   The final event was between Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin with Mike Tyson as an enforcer. Mike was on Shawn�s side, wearing a D-Generation X t-shirt. But by the end of the fight, he had switched sides and joined the winner, Stone Cold Steve Austin.
   It must have taken months for the wrestlers to decide how the matches were going to play out. Dave�s dad made a comment, saying that wrestling was a man�s soap opera.
   And you know, that�s exactly what it is. You follow a plotline for all the characters and each match is like watching a climactic event in their lives, that will ultimately alter their stories. They play up to the audience and give them what they want to see. Once you�ve watched a match, you get sucked into the wrestling world. Your curiosity is peaked, and you want to know what happens to the wrestlers, as they are caught up in whatever fabulous story involved with them, as if they were comic book characters with super magical powers. The story continues with each day, and each match.
   My great-grandmother used to watch wrestling, and she would get so excited going to matches and watching them go at it. For years she didn�t know that it was fake. One day she found out, and never watched it again. I, on the other hand, have been sucked in by the fakeness, by the creativity of the storylines, and even now, I admit that I watched Raw, a weekly show on USA Monday nights, dedicated to WWF Wrestling. I am now part of the wrestling phenomenon, and though by no means do I consider myself a fan, I am interested in how events will turn out. I have discovered a world that many have fallen into, because I had no knowledge of it before. And now that I know a few things, I just might start watching it more closely, just to keep up with it. Even though I know it�s fake, there�s still the kid in me that wants to believe it�s all true.