Wrestling and Skepticism
Mark Honeychurch - 17th August 2026
On Saturday night I went to see wrestling. Specifically, I went to the All Star Wrestling Porirua 2 event, where eight different wrestling matches were held in one evening. Here’s the signed poster I paid $7 for, to commemorate the event:
For those of you who know me well, either through reading the NZ Skeptics newsletter or having met me in person, it might seem a little weird for me to go to the wrestling. And yes, you’d be right - this was definitely not my idea of a fun evening. But lately I’ve been on the lookout for cheap local events that I can take my kids to that allow them to experience something new, and I’m also the kind of person that likes to experience new things at least once. Except for methamphetamine (or P as it’s often called here in NZ) - I’m a firm believer in the adage “meth - not even once”.
Now, obviously wrestling is fake. The whole facade is fake, both the wrestling itself and all the drama that comes with it. The punches, kicks and slams are fake - rehearsed to ensure maximum showmanship and minimal damage or pain. Referees becoming part of the action in the ring are also all scripted. Who wins and who loses is planned in advance, in an attempt to increase the drama. Storylines of rivalries outside of the ring, involving the wrestlers, their managers, families and others are all carefully created to paint a story. Wrestlers are sorted into the good ones (the face) that the crowd cheers for, and the bad ones (the heel) who everyone boos. Occasionally a face turns bad, which is known as a heel turn. And all of this is meticulously planned. The entire charade even has a name - kayfabe. It’s worth checking out Wikipedia’s glossary of wrestling terms to see just how formulaic wrestling has become.
This is not to say that what wrestlers do is talentless. Like stunt men, these men and women wrestlers need to be athletically fit and coordinated, and also need to be able to act - at least a little. They’ll also need to be able to handle pain and injury - the seriousness of the fighting may be hammed up for the audience, but being slapped on the chest or dropped onto the canvas from 2 metres in the air is still going to hurt, even if you and your “opponent” are both just following a set of choreographed moves.
However, the level of talent at a local wrestling event in Porirua is always going to be a lot different to what you get with professional WWE wrestling. While I was channeling my inner redneck, but also watching both the spectacle in front of me and the audience who were there to enjoy it, my thoughts turned to Santa Claus.
As a skeptic who gets to talk to the media occasionally, I sometimes get asked about what skeptics think about Santa. Would skeptics want to ruin Christmas for kids by telling them all that Santa’s not real? Are we just fuddy-duddies, wanting to ruin everyone’s fun? What did I do with my kids when it came to Santa Claus? My answer has always been that I saw Santa as not just a bit of harmless fun, but also potentially a valuable lesson in skepticism.
At some point, every kid finds out that Santa’s not real, and this is going to start the ball rolling with asking questions about other similar tales we tell our kids. For my kids, the Easter Bunny was quick to go once Santa had been dealt a death blow. But why stop there? For many kids, their religion may also be something they start to question. Like Santa, many adults will tell you that Jesus is real, is the son of God, and loves you. But no evidence has been given that this is the case - it’s just grown ups asking kids to trust them.
And so, while I was watching Chalky Murdoch (dressed as a rugby player) body slamming Rusty Bridges (wearing an eye patch), Anth Cava (from Australia) attempting to lift local Wellingtonian Big Frank (he’s 7’ tall!) into the air, and British-born Robbie Thorpe repeatedly having his face shoved into Kyuss’ groin, I wondered if something similar to the Santa lesson would be happening with the kids in the audience.
This wrestling was a lot more amateur than what the kids in the crowd would have been used to seeing on TV, where they get to see the best wrestlers in the world, polished and stage managed by huge numbers of staff, with heavy video editing from multiple camera feeds to ensure the story looks the best it possibly can. In Porirua there was half-baked acting (both the drama of rivalries, and the faking of pain and exhaustion), poorly executed wrestling, the same few simple moves used over and over again, and a lot of obviously faked punches, kicks and head slams. I don’t mean to be too hard on these guys, as they’re all doing something I’d never be able to do, but it was obvious there was a large gap between what everyone was watching on the night, and what they’re used to watching on YouTube.
And so I wondered if maybe some of the kids in the audience, who may have believed up until this point that wrestling is a real competitive sport, would come away from the event having figured out that it’s all fake. Maybe All Star Wrestling Porirua was the watershed moment for these kids, teaching them that not everything they see is real. But, as my wife pointed out, maybe the kids were just having fun wearing wrestling masks, waving around their inflatable swords, and watching four Māori wrestlers simultaneously punching four “English” wrestlers in the head, and didn’t even notice that the punches weren’t landing. I have to admit I might have been over-thinking things!
Will I ever go to see wrestling again? It’s not likely, even at just $10 a ticket. But I think I may have enjoyed the event more than I was expecting to, even if it was just ironically.
Tags: kids, newsletter, wrestlers, event, import, images, santa