The Wrestler

"The only place I get hurt is out there." Saw the Blu-ray staring at me from the corner of my eye at CeX a week or so ago, and it felt like fate. Been meaning to watch this for years. I never shut up about it, but I was a wrestling fan first and a film fan second. I didn't really watch many films until I was in my teens, but wrestling has been an obsession of mine for my whole 19 years of life so far. Watching the last match in this movie reminded me of a Tweet of all things. The tweet said something about how whenever you go back and watch a Chris Benoit match, you always find a moment where you go "There. That's what did it. That's what made him kill his family." Wrestling is one of the most beautiful forms of art when you see it at its best, but it is also the most brutal, grueling, and unforgiving sports to performer's bodies. Not a year goes by without a tragic wrestling story. Wrestlers dying young, left and right. But something about that spotlight, the money, the recognition, the fans, it calls. Pro wrestlers dedicate their lives to something that has a built-in expiry date but no exit plan. Wrestlers are wrestlers, it's what they do. It's all they know how to. It's kinda corny, but there have been a few times where I walked out onto a stage through a curtain and received a raucously loud cheer for events much less exciting than wrestling. I've been itching for that feeling for years since. It's intoxicating. I don't even really want to be a major celebrity or anything, but receiving an ovation like that is one of the most intense highs I've ever felt. I can't imagine what it's like to live that for years and then have it all stripped away from you.