Why Wrestling Isn't Fake

If you're an open wrestling fan with fans who don't follow the sport, I can almost guarantee that you've heard the following phrase:
"Wrestling? You know that's fake, right?"
Ignoring the obvious sense of superiority and narrow-mindedness it contains, this statement is not only an ignorant dismissal made by people who don't understand the sport of pro wrestling, it's just plain wrong.
Firstly, yes, if we're talking about wrestling, there is a very, very high likelihood that we understand it's "fake." You're not delivering any earth-shattering news or shattering the unbreakable walls of kayfabe. Nope. In fact, these walls have already been battered so much by shows such as Total Divas, as well as the recent explosion of social media and other forms of online communication that you'd be hard-pressed to find a single fan over the age of 10 who doesn't understand that the sport is staged. Just because it is staged, however, doesn't mean it's fake.
By that logic, Breaking Bad is fake too. So is Game of Thrones. So is Grey's Anatomy, and so is almost every single major television show of the past 20 years. Just because something is scripted doesn't mean that it's "fake". All it means is that the outcomes are predetermined in order to (ideally) maximize entertainment. In fact, I'd venture to say that WWE is a great deal more real than all those shows I just listed. While these shows have an insane production value, stuntmen, and take breaks that are often months long in between filming, WWE wrestlers perform live almost daily, often calling a larg majority of their matches while they're in the ring. They do their own stunts, and although they do attempt to perform without actually hurting one another, there's only so much you can do to prevent that, simply given the nature of the business. You watch Mick Foley fall 20+ feet off HIAC and tell me that's fake. There's no way to make that not hurt. The same goes for pretty much any suplex or slam you see, as well as a large variety of strikes and kicks from performers who work "stiff". Sure, it probably doesn't hurt as much as WWE wants you to think it hurts, but it's certainly far more than any non-trained civilian could take. As the saying goes, wrestling sure ain't ballet.
In addition to this, not only are the stunts much realer than many people seem to think, but so are the emotions. Even if, by the strictest definition of the word, WWE is "fake", its fake-ness only serves to help create some of the greatest feel-good moments in all of sports. For example, Daniel Bryan's title win at Wrestlemania 30. For a fake sport, it sure created a huge, huge moment when D-Bry tapped out Batista to finally become the man in WWE. After all, at the end of the day, WWE is entertainment. Isn't any form of entertainment supposed to create emotion? When it comes down to it, that's what WWE does. It creates emotion.
So, non-wrestling fans, this is my plea to you: give wrestling a chance. For the small price of the brief suspension of your disbelief, wrestling can give you back so much more than you ever expected. That moment when the wrestler who's been your favorite ever since you were a kid finally reaches out and grabs that brass ring...wow. There's just no feeling in the world like it.