Candace
Wrestling is a "spectacle" with writers, composers, and costume designers. However, there is real blood, pain, and consequences. Therefore, is wrestling real or fake?

Briana
Does the wrestlers' relationship with reality differ from the spectator's relationship with reality?

Will
After watching the film "Beyond the Mat" (1999) who, if anyone, do you think is living a fantasy? The audience or the wrestlers themselves?

Chelsea
"How can a man be so tender outside the ring and be so brutal in the ring?" There appears to be no significant difference between a famous actor/actress and a professional wrestler, but is it safe to say that wrestlers take more of their character with them when they leave the ring?

Charnelle
How is watching wresting considered fantasy? How is participating in wresting considered fantasy?

Samantha
The film directly addresses that wrestling matches are "scripted" and created to appeal to audiences for entertainment purposes.  In what sense is the spectacle of a wrestling match formulaic as well as a fantastical construction with the capacity to engage a spectator?

Sean
Given what kinds of injuries wrestlers like Mick Foley and Terry Funk receive from a supposedly fake sport, how fake can fantasy really be when the consequences are real?

Connor
With the former WWF and current WWE, is the fantasy the fan's, the wrestler's, or is is Vince McMahon's?

Hilary
Just as porn is the viewing of unrestricted sexual behaviors, professional wrestling seems to do the same with aggression and violence. Is their "uncensored", "obscene" and "socially taboo" aura worthy of blame for people's addictions/obsessions to these entertainment forms?

Amanda
Although wrestling may start out as more theatrical than other sports, by the end of the match the actions of the wrestlers still have to deal with very real consequences. Are real-world consequences the only link between wrestling and reality?

Margaret
Is athletic competition a fantasy? What is a "game day face" that so many athletes say they put on?  Many athletes talk about getting in the zone, or becoming focused to preform to their best.  Would having an "out of body/mind" experience that makes an athlete more talented in their sport a fantasy?  

Zach
Is wrestling a sport?

Danielle
What makes a sport real? Is it the risk and the pain that makes it real?

Emily
Does Pro-wrestling make the wrestlers feel empowered? Is pro wrestling still a fantasy when the injures and issues sustained force it into reality?

Michelle
Do you think film-making decisions (such as transitioning to clips of Foley playing with his kids while they're watching him get beat up) influence how we, as viewers perceive the actual situation.  Obviously it's horrible, but does it seem like in some parts the movie is telling us how we're supposed to feel about it?

Luke
Mick Foley managed to distinguish between his characters and himself, Jake Roberts seems unable to complete that distinction.  Is there a way to ensure that the distinction is made?  Wrestling interactions are not everyday interactions. If someone is unable to make that distinction how can they be helped to function at a more realistic level?

Tom
How does fake-ness differ from fantasy?

Kelly
Those involved in the corporate side of professional wrestling stress the performance aspect of wrestling however, to what extent is the horrified wife of Mick Foley also part of the performance?

Lauren
What makes these wrestlers continue to live in the constructed fantasies of wrestling matches even though they have the potential to further harm their reality, with regard to their family relationships? At what point might these wrestlers' realities become more important to them than their fantasies?

Martin
 "I give them what they want"; several times during the documentary different wrestlers mentioned they did what they did to please the audience. How conscious is the audience of what they want? "Entertainment" is so loosely defined that anything marketable, even someone's ability to resist pain, seems to be what "the audience wants". If that is the case, does wrestling exist because wrestlers fantasize with fulfilling the audience fantasy of "entertainment"

Will
Is professional wrestling a fantasy of wrestling, but a reality of society? At least in terms of how masculinity and femininity are viewed.

Charnelle
Why is the effects of wrestling on children not taken as serious as schooling or housing, when it is often the first time children view excessive violence (that is seen as accepted by society)?  

Chelsea
Is capitalism's large role in the wrestling industry what makes it so hard to determine whether or not it is real or fake?

Danielle
Can something be real and fake at the same time? Is entertainment fake?

Candace
How are female wrestlers similar to porn stars?

Casey
How is the argument made in the introduction similar to MacKinnon's argument about pornography?

Samantha
Sammond's article focuses on body politics and how the perception of the image of the wrestler is understood by fans.  The lack of control that wrestler's have on how they are perceived appears to reflect similar conflicts that arise when society thinks about female bodies.  How does this understanding this connection help us better cultivate the fantasy of identity through body image?

Sean
The fact that the gay tag-team duo Billy and Chuck getting married in the ring reflects a different aspect of reality that few would expect it to do. Yet given what we know about science fiction novels using reality as a base on which to create their fantastical worlds, does this reaffirm the fantasy that is professional wrestling?

Luke
Wrestling, comic books, and soap operas share a major theme, backstories.  Is understanding the why of fictional characters what draws us to them?  Does having a reason for their actions make it seem more realistic?
Casey
Page 76 claims that "what is important and empowering to wrestling fans, then, what they repeatedly seek to display and prove is their hard-won knowledge of the game..." Does knowledge feel empowering because it offers a sense of reality? Does something need to feel empowering in order to be enjoyed?

Ryan
Mazer talks about how, for fans, "knowing that wrestling is fixed is liberating rather than constraining, [and] a form of imaginative empowerment." How is this fact liberating? Not constraining? Imaginative?

Dixon
Why is reality such an important part of wrestling for its fans and viewers? Would the WWE mean less to its audience if it was more obviously rooted in fantasy? Why or why not?

Zach
Why is there always so much arguing over the "realness" or "fakeness" of wrestling?  What does it matter?

Will
Can wrestling be likened to magic in that everyone knows there's a trick, but enjoys the performance anyway?

Tom
What does professional or "fake" wrestling do to/ for real wrestling? What does any fantastical version of real thing do to the real thing? What does the movie Wall Street do to/for Wall street? What does the show Friends do to/ for friends and friendship? What does The Real World do to/ for the real world?

Yen Joe
Does it matter if the winner for a particular wrestling match is already determined before the battle when the audience do not know who is going to win? How is the thrill of guessing different from rooting for a soccer team in the World Cup? Either way, the audience do not know what will the result be.

Connor
Are the fans viewing the wrestling matches like the theater of ancient Greece or more like events at the Colosseum in Rome?

Jenny
Wrestling that focuses on the wrestlers as actors, and their skills rather than the sport is inherently American.  What does that say about American culture? What does it say about American culture that news reporters keep reporting on the fakeness of wrestling?  Why hasn't there been the same fascination with the fakeness of "reality" TV?

Benjamin
Does wrestling serve as an exaggeration to help us learn what we don't actually need in society, similar to the way the jokes on vaudeville, illuminate and expose societal phenomena and issues that don't make sense. Is that why it is an art? Because it displays a performance to teach us a lesson? 

Briana
Does the perception of a wrestler being an "worker" or "employee" effect the authenticity of the fantasy they are creating as a professional wrestler?