Pro Wrestling Is Real: Difference between revisions

* Both [[WWEWorld Wrestling Entertainment|WWF]] and [[WCW]] had licensed comics at one point that depicted their product as real; WWF's was published by Valiant, while WCW's was by [[Marvel Comics]]. Later, [[Dark Horse Comics]] would acquire the WWF license, and began publishing comics featuring WWF wrestlers in their kind of stories (such as [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] as a rebellious [[Anti-Hero]] battling a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]], and [[The Undertaker]] being the focal point of a power struggle in Hell).

* The first ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]]'' film also depicted wrestling as real as a direct adaptation of his origin story. In that world, Spider-Man beat a wrestler named ''Bonesaw McGraw'', played by [[Randy Savage]]. This is a not-entirely-realistic depiction of a practice known as "hooking", in which a wrestler who actually is a skilled fighter is advertised as taking on anyone who cares to try their luck with a large cash prize on the line, and proceeds to mop the floor with the rank amateurs who come gunning for the prize while making the matches look more even and dramatic than they really are in order to entice more suckers—err, contestants to step up, pay their entry fee, and try to win; it was so named because each actual wrestler involved would have a "hook", or a simple submission hold they could quickly execute to end a match in seconds if it stopped going his way. Not entirely realistic because, generally, steel cages aren't involved in shooting, nor do the marks (non-insider fans) have spider powers. Hooking isn't generally practiced in the post-[[Kayfabe]] era, but was done recently enough that some of its practitioners, the most prominent of which is [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] wrestler William Regal, are still active in the business today.