Would You Stop Watching Wrestling If Daniel Bryan Were To Beat Lesnar After Tonight

How are the WWE matches scripted? Do the superstars practice the moves before the match or the sequence of moves that they need to do? How real are the injuries that WWE wrestlers suffer?

Before I explain the scripted nature of pro-wrestling matches I first have to explain how the larger machine works. WWE has a large team of writers who pitch matches, feuds, rivalries and storylines to Vincent McMahon who makes all the final decisions.The scripting process starts with determining the winner of said match and then the writers will work backwards writing a “script” for how the match should go (if there are specifics spots they want the wrestlers to do to further the story of the match like when Brock Lesnar busted Randy Orton’s head open at Summerslam).Each match has a booking agent or a producer who’s job is to make sure the wrestlers get the scripts and learn their lines if there are promos to be recited, the rest of the match is really in the hands of the wrestlers. Matches are like choreographed dances, you know what beats you need to hit (like how Cena will always do the two shoulder tackles, then the slam into the five knuckle shuffle) but there is always room for improvisation cause things are bound to go wrong (botched moves, accidents, injuries).Wrestlers that have worked together a lot are like good dance partners, they know each other’s move sets and ultimately can predict how the other can move which can make for really good counters. On the other hand there are wrestlers who have never worked together before and are put into big high profile matches (Roman Reigns and The Undertaker) and some rehearsals might be necessary. There was an infamous video that leaked back in 2000 of The Rock and HHH at an arena rehearsing spots for their 60 minute Iron Man Match at Judgement Day, now WWE has the Performance Center where they can do those rehearsals behind closed doors.Injuries are very real because even though the results are scripted the offensive maneuvers, although scaled back, are very much real. Because of the extreme nature of his wrestling style throughout his career, Edge injured his neck multiple times resulting in him being diagnosed with Cervical Spinal Stenosis which basically means that over time the bones in his spinal cord began compressing into each other so if he took one more bump through a table or fallen off a ladder he would’ve been paralyzed from the neck down. It’s the same injury that forced Stone Cold Steve Austin, and more recently Paige, to retire.