Years ago, <Mrs. PGP> and I used to go to the matches when they came around to one of the area high schools. If you think the wrestlers are fun to watch, you should see the fans. Sometimes the action outside the ring was a lot more bizarre than the action in the ring.

For a few seconds, the wrestler ignored the kid. But the kid persisted, and the wrestler stopped and bent down, a sort of dramatic show for the crowd, to let us know he was listening to the kid. The wrestler straightened up, made a faux pretense of being honored, appropriate facial expression, even placed his hand on his chest, like "You want MY autograph?" Then he verrrrrrry deliberately took off his elbow length white gloves, ostensibly to be able to sign. After he did, the kid handed him the program.

It was all very comical, but apparently much of the crowd was a little hazy on the world of wrestling, since people were even whispering "Oh, that's nice." The kid had a bit of hero worship on his face as he handed the heel his program to be signed. The heel took the program, examined it for a second, and then very theatrically.......tore it in half and threw it in the air. With the kind of evil grin you'd expect, he then started walking to the ring. The kid immediately started crying, some of the crowd was laughing, more were shocked, but all great drama.

<Cue Theme From Jaws louder> One person who didn't think it was funny was a man who apparently was the kid's father. (FWIW, I think this was all legit, or that 5 year old kid was the best child actor in history) Dad screamed at the wrestler, who turned around with a bored expression. He was less bored when dad jumped the cordons and began running at him with blood in his eyes. Several other black people with dad, I assume family, also jumped up and began running at the wrestler.

The wrestler quickly jumped up into the ring, and several other people with the wrestling program sort of gently tried to calm dad down. There was obviously some kind of signal for trouble, since within 15 seconds, every wrestler on the program, several security people, and other random people came running out of the back area to defend the perimeter of the ring. Another group of black spectators also ran up toward the ring, at which point it wasn't funny at all, and I know I wasn't alone in worrying about some kind of racial riot.

Another ancient tradition is bad guys putting on their act a little too convincingly and getting attacked by members of the audience. It's amazing, how many wrestlers have been knifed that way.

I went a couple of times with my dad, and was amazed how different it was in person. Most noticeably the ring was extremely loose and bouncy, making it look as if the wrestlers were hitting each other even harder, and also, I guess, providing a little cushioning when they crashed. It was a lot of fun (we saw Gorilla Monsoon, Haystack Calhoun, Kinji Shibuya). What my dad really admired was the how well the announcer played the part of the straight man.

http://ultimatebadguy.com/wrestle.htm

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