Performance wrestling should be an Olympic sport

[I Heart Cena]

What is performance wrestling, you ask? It's what we watch. Scripted wrestling. But "Performance Wrestling" sounds better, and has been used before to describe the artform we love.

Anyway, imagine this: 8 countries, 2 wrestlers each. Each has to put on a match, and a panel of judges will judge each match. The 3 highest scores will get gold, silver and bronze. Like figure skating or gymnastics, except these will be wrestling matches.

There would be booking limitations: 20 minute time limit, no run-ins or foreign objects. The referee and booker must also be from the same country as the wrestlers. The wrestlers, ref and booker (if the match isn't booked by the wrestlers and/or ref themselves) would all get medals at the presentation.

I think it'd be awesome. It probably would never happen, but we can have fun with this.

So, I ask y'all: Who would comprise the 8 teams to compete at the 2012 Olympic performance wrestling competition?

Which countries would make the cut? Which wrestlers would represent which countries? Which refs would be involved? Would these teams need a booker or would they book the matches themselves?

Let's hear y'all opinions. NBC would get phat ratings if this ever went down. But Vince and Dixie would never release their wrestlers and let them risk injury. Unless they saw it as an opportunity to promote their promotions on global TV.

 

[I Heart Cena]

http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/WWE_News_3/article_68650.shtml

If the International Olympics Committee is going to drop wrestling from the Olympics, WWE star Chris Jericho says why not add choreographed pro wrestling to the summer games?

“Think about it, pro wrestling as an Olympic sport would be pretty cool. Look at figure skating or gymnastics, what is it? It’s a choreographed performance that is judged. It’s whoever puts on the best performance," Jericho told Scott Fishman of the Miami Herald in an interview promoting Syfy's new "Robot Combat League" show.

 

[Gelgarin]

I'm in the mood to take something dumb overly seriously.

The problem with the idea is that it doesn't work. Figure Skating and gymnastics are not simply judged by a bunch of people watching the performance and giving it a rough mark of ten based on how impressive it was.

There are incredibly complex scoring mechanisms in place which take into account the complexity of the routine and the accuracy of the performance. That would never, ever be possible for a full length professional wresting match.

 

[JGlass]

If they're going to cut a real competitive combat sport from the Olympics, what makes you think they'd want to pick up a scripted combat sport?

 

[akathelaw]

Jericho is mainly making a point that pro wrestling is very similar to existing Olympic sports. Actual wrestling is a great sport and shouldn't have been dropped. Table tennis is a joke, drop that and bring back wrestling!

 

[Papa Pillman]

If they're going to cut a real competitive combat sport from the Olympics, what makes you think they'd want to pick up a scripted combat sport?

Not that I'm advocating in favor of this, but specifically to your point, the primary reason for dropping wrestling is that with the new streamlined line-up they are aiming for the IOC claims wrestling isn't a fit. The reality is that it doesn't fit nicely in their little primetime box, it doesn't draw ratings, and many portions of the world don't have much in the way of organized freestyle/greco-roman wrestling. That has sadly left wrestling as a tragic casualty. Professional wrestling as an alternative would draw the kind of ratings that amatuer wrestling doesn't draw, even if only for the novelty at first.

 

[Gelgarin]

Jericho is mainly making a point that pro wrestling is very similar to existing Olympic sports. Actual wrestling is a great sport and shouldn't have been dropped. Table tennis is a joke, drop that and bring back wrestling!

People give a shit about table tennis.

 

[Dirk]

If this means spotfests and gold'll go to people like JoMo vs Mysterio, I'm all for it...

 

[I Heart Cena]

If this means spotfests and gold'll go to people like JoMo vs Mysterio, I'm all for it...

That's if Oscar doesn't choose to represent Mexico instead.

There's an online petition out there to make scripted wrestling an Olympic sport. I'm all for it. Imagine the matches team South Africa or Japan can put on. Good stuff.

And it won't be hard to find 5 Meltzer type guys to judge these matches, even if we won't agree with their criteria. People grade matches all the time.

 

[TLC]

Haha, do it. It'd be fucking great.

 

[shattered dreams]

There are incredibly complex scoring mechanisms in place which take into account the complexity of the routine and the accuracy of the performance. That would never, ever be possible for a full length professional wresting match.

Why?

 

[Remy LaCroix]

People would bitch about lack of psychology.

 

[Lee]

If they're going to cut a real competitive combat sport from the Olympics, what makes you think they'd want to pick up a scripted combat sport?

Cos it draws brother.

 

[Coco]

20 minute time limit, no run-ins or foreign objects.

Soft.

 

[ABMorales787]

Might as well pitch Olympic Poker while we're at it.

 

[I Heart Cena]

Might as well pitch Olympic Poker while we're at it.

Poker isn't physical like wrestling.

 

[Барбоса]

Professional wrestling is not a sport. Therefore, it should not be in the Olympics.

 

[Gelgarin]

Why?

I find it unlikely that you can't work this out for yourself, but whatever. Most Olympic sports that require judges strive towards objectivity in their judging requirements. We'll take floor gymnastics as a model because its probably the discipline closest to the standard professional wrestling product.

A floor routine is not judged simply on the basis of 'how good do you think that was?' Every single move that the athletes make is categorized in terms of complexity, with gymnasts scoring more points for attempting more complex maneuvers. At the same time they are judged on their execution: how few errors there are in their routine.

If you applied these standards to a professional wrestling contest then what you would end up with is a spectacle where two performers try to chain together the most complex and visually impressive wrestling maneuvers possible during their time allowance. In other words you'd end up with Ring of Honour on crack.

Selling, storytelling and ring psychology would have no place in the sport, because there is no objective standard by which to judge these things. How long should a man stay down after a powerbomb for an optimal score, nine seconds or ten? How many finishers can be kicked out of without sacrificing points for believably? An almost unlimited number of unanswerable questions are brought up after thirty seconds of trying to work out the specifics of this new sport.

Nor, unlike synchronized swimming (before some wise arse brings it up) is it possible to create the necessary subjective standard by which to judge the sport. The artistry of professional wrestling is simply too complex to possibly be graded in any kind of reasonable or consistent manner; it's art rather than sport, and art has no place in the contemporary Olympic games.

But that's not all; you also run into massive problems when trying to judge the aspects of wrestling which should present no problems - the complexity of moves. Let us take the common brainbuster for example; how would you define a faultless execution of that move? Surely the scale for marking would have to be "how much does it look like this guy is getting dropped on his head" with points being deducted in inverse correlation to the recipients chances of survival.

So to summarize for the brain dead cretin who is even now scrolling past these words to type tl:dr and then have an orgasm over his own cleverness, turning performance wrestling into a competitive sport would lead to an illogical and irrational mess which wouldn't more closely resemble tandem gymnastics than the medium that we know and love.

 

[Remix]

Not to mention that if the IOC wanted to include an event where teams of performers go out and do as many complex and visually impressive moves as they can within their time limit, they've got acrogym, which does exactly what Gelg described, only without the pretence of being wrestling, and is better for it.

 

[ABMorales787]

Poker isn't physical like wrestling.

No shit.

 

[shattered dreams]

I find it unlikely that you can't work this out for yourself, but whatever. Most Olympic sports that require judges strive towards objectivity in their judging requirements. We'll take floor gymnastics as a model because its probably the discipline closest to the standard professional wrestling product.

A floor routine is not judged simply on the basis of 'how good do you think that was?' Every single move that the athletes make is categorized in terms of complexity, with gymnasts scoring more points for attempting more complex maneuvers. At the same time they are judged on their execution: how few errors there are in their routine.

If you applied these standards to a professional wrestling contest then what you would end up with is a spectacle where two performers try to chain together the most complex and visually impressive wrestling maneuvers possible during their time allowance. In other words you'd end up with Ring of Honour on crack.

Selling, storytelling and ring psychology would have no place in the sport, because there is no objective standard by which to judge these things. How long should a man stay down after a powerbomb for an optimal score, nine seconds or ten? How many finishers can be kicked out of without sacrificing points for believably? An almost unlimited number of unanswerable questions are brought up after thirty seconds of trying to work out the specifics of this new sport.

Nor, unlike synchronized swimming (before some wise arse brings it up) is it possible to create the necessary subjective standard by which to judge the sport. The artistry of professional wrestling is simply too complex to possibly be graded in any kind of reasonable or consistent manner; it's art rather than sport, and art has no place in the contemporary Olympic games.

But that's not all; you also run into massive problems when trying to judge the aspects of wrestling which should present no problems - the complexity of moves. Let us take the common brainbuster for example; how would you define a faultless execution of that move? Surely the scale for marking would have to be "how much does it look like this guy is getting dropped on his head" with points being deducted in inverse correlation to the recipients chances of survival.

So to summarize for the brain dead cretin who is even now scrolling past these words to type tl:dr and then have an orgasm over his own cleverness, turning performance wrestling into a competitive sport would lead to an illogical and irrational mess which wouldn't more closely resemble tandem gymnastics than the medium that we know and love.

I thought your assertion was that it could not be done, not that it would be in a form that wasn't as enjoyable. To me figure skating is an interesting comparison. When people go to see figure skating they usually go see professional shows that tell a story opposed to competitions that stress technical ability. However, they still do have competitions that stress artistry and technical ability. Their Olympic sport contains costumes, music, athletic ability judged on degree of difficulty and form, choreography and the attempt to mix them all together. Keep in mind this is amateur professional wrestling, not a PPV. I wouldn't mind seeing what amounts to a skills competition in the vein of pro wrestling. I'd rather watch ROH on crack than Curling. Of course it wouldn't be as good as a PPV but that is a different topic than what was originally being discussed.

 

[Gelgarin]

Curling is pretty hard core.

 

[shattered dreams]

Curling is a bar game on crack. Is darts in the Olympics yet?

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Curling is a bar game on crack. Is darts in the Olympics yet?

No, Phil Taylor and Britain would win every time. He wins pretty much everything as is, don't give him another thing.

 

[VictorySauce23]

I like this idea. Maybe we could start one of those online petitions to get our point across.