Guys who thought wrestling was real

[OGBoardPoster2005]

When they jumped in the business? Any cases of this?

[Magic knows Black Lives Matter]

Chris Jericho said in his book he thought it was legit until his first day of wrestling school. He was shocked to see that the "fake" wrestling him and his buddies did wasn't too far off from how actual wrestlers do things.

[Deleted]

Gangrel said it in a shoot that he did along with Luna back in the day.

[Ken: The Hero of WWE]

Bret Hart. He still believes it's real.

[keezy]

Power Uti.

[Todd Pettengill]

Hogan wasn't smartened up until he became a shooter & had his leg broken by Matsuda.
When he came back, they smartened him up.

[Nickybojelais]

In the recent Jim Ross podcast, Jake Roberts said it wasn't until he was asked to referee a match that he realised Wrestling was a work. I forget the time scale but I know he had been around the wrestling industry for some time before this.

[Bad Moon]

Apr 17, 2014 16:44:12 GMT -5 Nickybojelais said:

In the recent Jim Ross podcast, Jake Roberts said it wasn't until he was asked to referee a match that he realised Wrestling was a work. I forget the time scale but I know he had been around the wrestling industry for some time before this.

According to Dusty Rhodes on the Steve Austin show he was only "smartened up" in the middle of his first match.

I think the old guys all like to embellish their stories a little, they just wanna put over how wrestling back then was still real to everyone. 

[Woo]

Jake did say his Dad used to tell him it was all real. Poor naive Jake.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Apr 17, 2014 9:50:39 GMT -5 Magic knows Black Lives Matter said:

Chris Jericho said in his book he thought it was legit until his first day of wrestling school. He was shocked to see that the "fake" wrestling him and his buddies did wasn't too far off from how actual wrestlers do things.

He also stated he had a classmate who trained with them for longer than you'd think who was amazed when Lance didn't beat Jericho in their match, because she felt Lance was a much better wrestler.

[Amazing Kitsune]

Austin did. He tells the story all the time that they didn't smarten him up until his first match.

[Mozenrath]

Apr 17, 2014 18:19:08 GMT -5 Woo said:

Jake did say his Dad used to tell him it was all real. Poor naive Jake.

Isn't this also listed as among the reasons Jake had a horrifically bad relationship with his father, putting him through undue mental stress of worrying about his dad's wellbeing?

I know Foley said he always downplayed the risks to his kids and it was only after Hell in a Cell that he couldn't hide that what he did was dangerous anymore, and that part of his decision was horror stories of lots of guys in the business who had huge fallings out with their kids or their fathers, etc, over keeping kayfabe due to how much that f***ed with them.

[Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite]

I know it sounds funny now to think about, but yea the idea of being a little Kid and thinking that Andre The Giant/Bam Bam Bigelow or some other giant is trying to injure my dad (and possibly his family too) would be pretty damned scary to a young kid.

[Capt Lunatic]

"It's still real to me dammit!" 
                                           - Lou Thesz

[Woo]

Apr 17, 2014 22:59:09 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Apr 17, 2014 18:19:08 GMT -5 Woo said:

Jake did say his Dad used to tell him it was all real. Poor naive Jake.

Isn't this also listed as among the reasons Jake had a horrifically bad relationship with his father, putting him through undue mental stress of worrying about his dad's wellbeing?

I know Foley said he always downplayed the risks to his kids and it was only after Hell in a Cell that he couldn't hide that what he did was dangerous anymore, and that part of his decision was horror stories of lots of guys in the business who had huge fallings out with their kids or their fathers, etc, over keeping kayfabe due to how much that f***ed with them.

Yeah that was one of the reasons Jake fell out with his Dad. Of course his Dad was a total prick too, so there is that.

Foley if anything went in the opposite direction by downplaying it. "Nah, Daddy's just play-acting. I won't get hurt. Come watch me fight the Rock at the Royal Rumble. It'll be a fun day out!" 

[Mozenrath]

Apr 18, 2014 4:49:16 GMT -5 Woo said:

Apr 17, 2014 22:59:09 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Isn't this also listed as among the reasons Jake had a horrifically bad relationship with his father, putting him through undue mental stress of worrying about his dad's wellbeing?

I know Foley said he always downplayed the risks to his kids and it was only after Hell in a Cell that he couldn't hide that what he did was dangerous anymore, and that part of his decision was horror stories of lots of guys in the business who had huge fallings out with their kids or their fathers, etc, over keeping kayfabe due to how much that f***ed with them.

Yeah that was one of the reasons Jake fell out with his Dad. Of course his Dad was a total prick too, so there is that.

Foley if anything went in the opposite direction by downplaying it. "Nah, Daddy's just play-acting. I won't get hurt. Come watch me fight the Rock at the Royal Rumble. It'll be a fun day out!" 

Luckily, Foley's kids were more forgiving, given they get along with him great, but he's also not a massive creep like Grizzly Smith seemingly was. Not sure if Sam Houston or Rockin' Robin, Jake's siblings, have ever commented on it.

[Deleted]

Funny thing about Kurt Angle was when Bruce Baumgartner told him to not do the fake-[stuff], and Kurt said he won't lose to anyone.

I still believe he thinks that way.

[________ has left the building]

In Puerto Rico, kayfabe is still strong so a majority of the people getting into the biz still think it's real.