Slam Bunk

Yeah, we know it’s not real, and by acknowledging it, pro wrestling is adding fans and gaining respect

- Dan Greene

A WARNING FOR uninitiated social media trawlers: Aug. 20 was WWE’s SummerSlam. If this seems irrelevant to you, perhaps you can relate to this scenario instead: You were spending yet another evening on Twitter, scrolling away your ennui, when the accounts you follow for sports and news suddenly started posting about superplexes. Soon you realised this was a full-scale invasion of the bodyslammers. You were left scratching your head. Why, you wondered, is my timeline suddenly filled with . . . wrestling?

This is not a phenomenon specific to the Twitter verse. In recent years pro wrestling discussion has steadily seeped into mainstream media in unexpected ways, with surprising staying power. SI.com now runs weekly wrestling features and interviews while regularly spotlighting viral worthy in-ring moments. Last August, ESPN.com launched a WWE-focused vertical, almost a year after it began devoting weekly SportsCenter segments to interviews with wrestlers. Other outlets, including The New York Times, are giving more frequent space to the subject as well. Stars like John Cena have gone Hollywood. Suddenly pro wrestling—the scripted pseudo-sport long dismissed by virtually everyone but its fans—is seemingly everywhere. What gives?