Of course it's fake. But they are trained to take falls just like stuntmen. Which is why many of the moves they do don't hurt them as much as it would an untrained person. The ring is on springs and gives quite a bit to take some of the sting out the contacts too. It is extremely impressive though to see the athleticism displayed by these huge men. One of my favourite wrestlers is Ricky Steambout and back in those days, he had some classic matches which lasted an hour with Ric Flair similar to the rare Ironman matches in the WWE except they did it a bunch of Great American Bash events over and over again during the same summer. Some wrestlers are just big dudes with no skill (Undertaker, Kane, etc)but others are extremely gifted both physically and cardio-wise.( Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit) Also, for anyone who doesn't follow wrestling, most of them work injured and that explains why they disappear for months at a time as they heal from surgery for shoulders, knees, necks, etc.
The blood is real, mixed with sweat for great effect especially since the forehead bleeds real good. Ever get a close up look at Dusty Rhodes' forehead, ewww, scar tissue galore. The tables and chairs are real too and most times they get hit in the meaty parts of their bodys or move with the hit. Foley and his kind are destined to live the rest of their lives on painkillers. When the Rock gave Foley, 10 chairshots in a row a few years back, it was a sickening site to see his head swell up. Sabu, Terry Funk and Foley are just sick in the head along with a few other crazy dudes like Tommy Dreamer. Edge, Randy Orton and Triple H all have had their hardcore moment but can't do it over and over like the true hardcore guys. It is a career killer to be a hardcore wrestler.
I'm an older fan who has been following it since the late 70's when I was a little kid. I hate all the talking they do now, next time you watch the 2-hour RAW, time the actual amount of wrestling and don't count the entrance or exit, just pure wrestling. You will probably be lucky to get 30 minutes or so of actual ring action. I don't watch any PPVs anymore since generally they suck with the odd exception of a handful of matches which normally never include the main event which turns out to be a yawner. I heard Foley vs Edge was great and I think someone said the McMahon match was decent too but the rest blew. Sounds like a typical WM event. After you have seen as much wrestling as me, it takes something special to make you go WOW!!!! Brock Lesnar was one of those things, he had crazy strength and his first cage match with the Undertaker was sick. TLC with the Dudleys, Hardys and Edge/Christian was another. Petey Williams Canadian Destroyer is sick too. I miss ECW too, Mike Awesome vs Tanaka matches were just sickening to watch.
Triple HHH is one of my favourites to watch now especially when he is pissed along with Benoit.
