it's fake, correct?? how are there wrestlers that were considered legends when really it was just acting...with some weird twist of gymnastics??? wouldnt they just be great actors?
By "legends" I assume you mean people like Hulk Hogan? Nobody in their right mind would consider Hulk Hogan a great actor. Did you see Mr. Nanny? He's considered a legend because of the way he changed the business. Lots of people get put in the position Hogan was in, but most never manage to connect with the fans.
But someone like Bret Hart is considered a legend because of his in-ring skills. It might not make sense to talk about someone being a good wrestler when it's all predetermined, but it takes a lot of skill to do what he did. Yes, the moves are choreographed, but they have to be choreographed well. A good wrestler, like Bret Hart, has to know what's going to look real, what's going to look good, and what's going to excite the fans. He also has to be able to physically perform the moves, both the moves he's doing and the moves his opponent is doing. Wrestling moves are dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, and it's tough to get the right balance between something looking painful and actually being painful. It's a lot easier to punch a guy and break his nose than to punch a guy and not. The fact that Bret Hart never once injured an opponent is a testament to how good he was technically. You also have to consider something that wrestling fans call 'psychology'. Every match, but particularly big matches, have to tell a story. Without a story, it's hard to keep people entertained. It's the same with other sports, there's usually some kind of 'story' to every match. It might be something simple like an underdog trying to overcome the odds, or it could be a boxer coming back from injury who's worried about his opponent exploiting that, or a football team trying to stop the opposition's star player from getting the ball. Wrestling matches have that psychology too, and it's something that can make a good match great, or it can make a good match awful.
It's a complex business, and most casual fans probably don't even think about those kind of things. But it takes a lot of skill, and that's why most "legends" are probably considered legends because of their popularity and charisma rather than their in-ring skills.
But wrestling is like a TV show, just not like any other TV show on TV. The storyline stuff, that you watch every week, is basically a soap opera for men. But then the stuff that goes on inside the ring is a mixture of "real" sports like boxing or MMA, and performance stuff like action films or kung-fu movies. You don't watch it to see who the better wrestler is, like you might with a boxing match, you watch it to see a) who's going to win, and b) how exciting the stuff they do is going to be.
