Mental Itch Scratched

If I hear somebody broke the law and got caught, then I’m happy the corrupt bastard was made to pay for his crimes.  If I hear of somebody cheating on their taxes, or stealing from their company, or shoplifting or something, I lose respect for the person, sitting in judgement of their dishonesty.

So can somebody please explain to me why the same standards don’t apply to pro wrestlers?!  I love it, I totally get off on it, when pro wrestlers cheat to win.  I love a wrestler even more when he harms the goody-goody Baby Face with a Foreign Object, or dirty double-teaming, or other chicanery behind the ref’s back.  Why is that?

As I mentioned yesterday writing about bloody wrestling, there is a region in our brains (down near the stem I think) that has never evolved from being animals.  And that section happens to be closely wired to our sexual arousal neurons…

So we are conditioned to follow the rules, respect authority, and obey the Golden Rule, but there remains a powerful allure to rough violence and unjust savagery.  We can’t resist our arousal when we’re witnessing cruelty and brutality during a wrestling show and that bloodthirsty, Dog-Eat-Dog section of our brains turns on.  We can’t resist thinking “Oh man — THAT is hot!”

That part of our brain still believes might makes right — only the Fittest will Survive — the ends justifies the means.  Pro wrestlers are expert at tapping into those lingering, unresolved feelings and forcing us to confront our bloodthirsty selves.  “Look at what we’re doing to him now!” they say to us: “You like seeing that, don’t you!?”

The fact that this brutality is so common in pro wrestling — and has been for a long time — proves that many people enjoy these scenes of cruelty and injustice.

Dirty cheating is at the heart of most wrestling matches — really it’s the entire story — and pro wrestling gains popularity by portraying violent acts.  People must be tuning in because they like seeing it (even if they won’t admit it), so I am not alone in my feelings.

So it’s nice to know I’m not the only one with this odd fascination — not the only one with an unevolved monkey brain that responds to staged scenes of violence, cruelty, and smarmy gore. Clearly the wrestlers would not perform these random acts of torture if such brutality was not stirring up excitement and interest from the majority of the audience.  Pro wrestlers only perform the actions that sell tickets, which are the same actions that turn us on because sex sells faster than anything else.

The staged violence of pro wrestling must satisfy or appease the cravings of our unevolved brains, enabling us to exist in the boring, civilized, Politically Correct world without going off the deep end and biting somebody.  Maybe the reason I love guys who break the rules like this is because I realize they’re scratching that violent itch for me — keeping me sane with their disgusting cruelty.