Women Wrestling for Fun and Sport

The world we live in has not seen many women wrestling each other.  Wrestling has seemed to be exclusively a men's domain and throughout the ages, that's all we'd seen- until now.  Thanks to men and women becoming more equal, we are finally starting to see a real interest in women wrestling.  And although right now most of this interest is focused on so-called Women's Pro Wrestling, it goes a lot further than that.  There's women's freestyle wrestling, which recently became the third type of women's combat competition in the olympics in 2004 (the others are judo and taekwondo).  This is true wrestling where the aim is to dominate and pin your opponent through strength and skill- it's the kind that we have teams for in high school and university.  For better or worse, the rest of women's wrestling consists of either straight out entertainment or womens erotic wrestling.  There is nude wrestling, oil wrestling, mud wrestling, and variations on these themes.  And that's only women vs. women wrestling, you can also find wrestling women vs. men, as in mixed wrestling.  This mainly involves women who wrestle men for money, however, and is usually not competitive, freestyle wrestling.

Anyone who complains that women's wrestling isn't real is missing the point of the whole thing.  Attractive, usually slim and buxom women performing body slams and more on each other not real?  Who would have thought?  But if anything, women's wrestling (as well as men's wrestling of the same variety), is presented as an escape from reality.  Although the fighting is not real, the marvelous physical feats that "combatants" must perform are not computer- generated and depend on top physicl conditioning and careful choreography.  Just because it's set up doesn't mean it doesn't take a lot of skill and hard work to pull off.  It's more accurate way to think of women's pro wrestling and pro wrestling in general as putting on a show.    
It's not clear to me whether or not fans are truly aware of this little fact; I suspect that they do know it's a show.  But they hide this knowledge well, because wrestling fans ('wrestling' in this article refers to wrestling as entertainment as opposed to competitive wrestling like in the olympics) are some of the most loyal, diligent, and downright fanatic fans of…well, anything.  They get into it with a gusto that's not to be found even in sporting events.  Why would people of all ages and backgrounds from all over the world be so drawn to watching scantily clad women dole out fake physical punishment on each other? 
These days, women's wrestling is growing fast with more fans and wrestlers joining the circuit all the time.  Not only that, but new wrestling federations are being formed, too.  Japanese women pro wrestling is huge in that country and many japanese pro women wrestling can be found on the internet.  It makes a lot of sense, if you think about it.  What traditionally attracted folks to the WWF (World Wrestling Federation- now defunct) and now the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) were the wrestling personalities, the back stories behind alliances and rivalries, and the plain old-fashioned ass kicking.  Womens pro wrestling organizations such as the WOWE (Women of Wrestling) feature all this plus one more key component: instead of watching half-naked men go at it in the ring, the matches consist of watching beautiful, scantily clad women beat each other up!  And beauty IS a factor- just look at one of women wrestling's former stars, Chyna (Joan Laurer).  A former bodybuilder, Chyna was one of the first to get into pro wrestling and did a lot to make women wrestlers more accepted.  She saw her popularity with fans soar after getting plastic surgery to reshape what had been a strong jawline, and getting massive implants.  These days, too, a beautiful woman who is just a so-so wrestler is still accepted on the scene. 

Freestyle wrestling is just like men's wrestling.  Two opponents square off on the mat,  and attire is usually a none-too-flattering singlet plus head protection to help avoid concussions and other head trauma.  Wrestling matches are not scripted and each person tries to win by pinning their oppoenent.  Failing that, there are pretty elaborate rules regarding scoring points, and if there are no pins a win will be awarded based on most points amassed for things like take downs, reversals, etc.  Freestyle wrestling is a "serious" sport and scholarships are awarded for it.  It is probably more strenuous than pro wrestling because things aren't scripted and there aren't breaks built in during the matches.  It takes even better physical conditioning than pro wrestling, because you have to have speed, stamina, and strength.  All these S's could be said to be less important in pro wrestling, because as long as you can do the moves, you're fine.  As someone who has been on a wrestling team, let me tell you that there are few things more tiring.  Nor is it merely physical- success in freestyle wrestling relies on a strong mind as well.  It would be too easy to give up in the middle of a match because your body is just plain exhausted, and this is where the power of the mind comes into play. 
Althought women's freestyle wrestling is not all that common, it does have a presence in high schools and universities.  Oftentimes here, where it may not be possible for women wrestlers to compete with other wrestlers, women may train and wrestle alongside men!  This has caused some controversy, but it looks like the sport of wrestling will only become more popular with women as time goes on.