CHAPTER 156

2026-05-22

Professional wrestling is obviously fake, and this becomes especially clear in Canada when watching American wrestling. Compared with the Australian wrestling once watched by Hong Kong audiences decades ago, American wrestling is far more exaggerated, while the Kangaroo Country version felt much more down-to-earth.

During my childhood, wrestling programs brought a great deal of joy to me and to countless television viewers in Hong Kong. Did it influence me? In what way? Was the influence good or bad? I cannot say for certain.

Yet the scenes engraved in my mind from those years remain incredibly vivid to this day. It feels such a pity to let this piece of history fade away, so I cannot resist writing about it.

Professional wrestling is obviously staged, especially when watching American wrestling in Canada. Compared with the Australian wrestling Hong Kong people once watched, the American version is dramatically over-the-top, while the Australian style was much more straightforward and modest.

Wrestling is a form of combat performance in which punches are not allowed. In essence, it is entertainment. Wrestlers, whether male or female, are professionally trained performers acting according to scripts, and their greatest skill is stirring up the emotions of the audience.

In Canada, a former wrestler once sued both the company and his opponent because the opponent went off-script during a match, causing him injury, and he sought compensation.

Although they are performers, wrestlers still have to exert force, endure punishment, display athletic skill, and sometimes even bleed during matches - whether accidentally or intentionally. After performances, medical treatment is often necessary. They truly earn their living through blood and sweat, and their professional careers are usually short.

After growing older, I watched genuine competitive Greco-Roman wrestling, and realized it is completely different from American-style professional entertainment wrestling. My younger son also experimented with various forms of martial arts and combat training. He said Greco-Roman wrestling consumes the most physical energy because both competitors use their entire bodies and all four limbs simultaneously in continuous grappling and twisting. Therefore, in terms of both fitness and combat, I admire Greco-Roman wrestling the most.

In 1966, when I was six years old, my family moved to a new flat in the same housing estate. Three new electrical appliances were added to our home: a refrigerator, a washing machine, and a black-and-white television set. From then on, television replaced the radio as the king of entertainment. Fourteen eyes in the family were glued to the screen, and six years later, two more eyes were added, making eight family members in total. Somewhere along the way, we also upgraded to a colour television.

As soon as our family started watching television, we started watching wrestling. At six years old, I was just like the rest of the family - unable to tell whether it was real or fake. As long as it was entertaining, that was enough. My father was the calmest viewer among us.

From then on, I automatically memorized the characteristics and information of most of the personalities involved, including both the regular and guest wrestlers. Most importantly, I first divided them into the “good” and “bad” camps, then remembered their names, nicknames, nationalities, titles, heights, weights (usually changing by no more than five pounds), costumes, finishing moves, legendary stories, and rankings. Later, I even added other recurring characters to my mental records, including the suited announcers, the muddle-headed silver-haired elderly referee, and the foreign aunties, grandmothers, and uncles who always sat in the front rows.

From a very young age, I already knew Santa Claus was not real. Yet it was not until around grade nine that I truly accepted in my heart that wrestling was fake. Perhaps this was because Santa Claus only appeared once a year on printed advertisements and mainly delivered gifts, with very little interaction involved.

How each person experiences and distinguishes truth from falsehood is itself a fascinating subject. Everyone must go through the tempering of reality in order to develop the courage to face it, as well as strengthen the ability and practical skills needed to deal with it. These qualities ultimately shape the quality and depth of a person’s future life, thoughts, and soul.

If I continue writing about wrestling, I should begin with the wrestlers themselves.