Back in the 1980’s, they released a movie about pro wrestling called I Like to Hurt People. I don’t think I ever watched the movie — it doesn’t stand out in my memory — but I always thought that was an interesting name for a movie. The cover on the video tape said: “Kick people, stomp people, crush people. It’s disgustingly real.” While I don’t think wrestling is “disgusting,” or “real,” I do think the implication that a wrestler takes pleasure from hurting his opponent is part of the appeal of pro wrestling.
It seems some wrestlers are not just performing a job — not just fighting an opponent to make a buck. They’re not trying to win in order to earn prize money or a belt. They derive pleasure — a charge — out of physically beating someone. “I like to hurt people” sounds like something an addict would stand up and say at a Twelve Step meeting: “Hello, my name is Boris, and I like to hurt people.” “Hello, Boris!”
The commentators on the wrestling television shows would point out the pleasure and enjoyment a heel wrestler was feeling as he dismantled his victim. It was as if punishing a man was his hobby, like someone else might enjoy collecting stamps or hikes on the beach or golfing. Picture Gordon Solie’s voice: “Fans, you can clearly see the pleasure this man is taking from the punishment he’s delivering on young Robbie Samson.”
The wrestling magazines would push the envelope even further, describing the sick and twisted villains and their outrageous passion for maiming and bloodying other men. They used colorful provocative language, coupled with images of violence and brutality to get a charge out of the fans. Well, at least it got a charge out of me.
As an innocent young wrestling fan, I figured they were simply describing an evil person, a “bad guy.” Just like the Joker and Lex Luthor and Skeletor often laugh with pleasure and enjoyment when hurting people (because they were born evil), so too did Kevin Sullivan and The Sheik, and Bruiser Brody. That’s what villains do. They’re just meanies.
Later I learned what “sadism” was all about, which is defined as “gaining of pleasure or sexual gratification from the infliction of pain and mental suffering on another person.” It seemed the wrestling heels behaved like they did because it turned them on. That’s what we were being led to believe.
So when they said a wrestler likes to hurt people, I guess they were implying that he likes it, likes it. He gets off on it. He wasn’t pure evil, he was plain horny. The concept of the sadistic wrestler, aroused by the devastation and humiliation he inflicted each week, certainly explained his cruel actions. For some dirty villains, inflicting pain and locking on those harmful holds was apparently like pornography for them.
Did anyone else get this impression, or was I the only one thinking they were into sadism? Certainly having them stripped to the waist, rolling around together in suggestive positions added to the inference that they “like” to hurt people. This concept added a seedy, provocative, and exciting element to the sport of wrestling. It added sex appeal. Maybe we weren’t just watching a wrestling match any more — maybe we were watching foreplay.
I UNDERSTAND THEM, THE PAIN AND DOOM OF A STUD IS THE PARADISE