Professional Wrestling Should NOT Be an Olympic Sport-Here’s Why

The Olympic Games will be held in Tokyo Japan starting July 23.  We will once again get to see the best athletes on the planet compete against each other in real competition.  I say real competition because I have a friend who thinks that professional wrestling should be added to the Olympics.  Granted, he does make a good argument but I do disagree with him.

First off, I should say that I am a huge fan of professional wrestling.  However, I do consider it a form of entertainment and not a sport per se.  What happens in the ring takes an extreme amount of athleticism.  There is no denying that.  My issue with it being a part of the Olympics is the fact that all matches are pre-determined and quite honestly very subjective.  What you see as a good match might be terrible in my opinion.

Now, if you read what Travis suggests on making professional wrestling a part of the Olympics, he makes a pretty good argument.  He says you take the best wrestlers from each country and you judge the match they put on as you would say a figure skating or gymnastics routine.  In the end, the country that has the best-scored match would win the gold medal.  This is where I have a problem.

Get our free mobile app

My issue with scoring a wrestling match as you would a gymnastics routine is that wrestling is way more subjective.  Yes, in this instance, you would have a set of guidelines to judge off of.  Travis suggests that you go off of “technique, storytelling, and execution”.  However, even with these guidelines, each judge is going to be partial to what they want to see in a match.  It’s a bit more difficult to be subjective when judging gymnastics.

When you see an amazing floor routine you instantly know it.  This athlete clearly hit their spots better and they threw more impressive tricks with higher degrees of difficulty.  They hit everything they needed to, to secure their place on the podium.  I suppose the argument could be made that wrestlers do the same thing.   But what if I don’t want a lot of crazy things in my matches.  What if I don’t like that form of entertainment?

I think that word is what sums up this whole argument.  Entertainment.  Professional wrestling is a form of entertainment that is no different than a movie or TV show.  What, are we going to start putting movie-making into the Olympics?  I don’t think so.

As someone who has witnessed first-hand the amount of time and effort, it takes to participate in an Olympic sport this argument, to be honest, is ridiculous.  You can’t say a pre-determined skating or gymnastics routine is the same as a pre-determined form of entertainment.  The athlete may know what is supposed to happen ahead of time but pulling it off to perfection takes a very special type of human.

(H/T: Travis Sams)