Everything About Pro Wrestling Isn't Fake.

As a kid, I loved professional wrestling. I knew it wasn't real, but it was the perfect combination of comedy, drama, and violence.

My friend--we called him Yolk--built a ring using wooden sticks for posts and baler twine for ropes. Teenagers have had better ideas than aping the pile-driver in a farmer's field, but probably not many. 

An ersatz sport sold as tension-filled competition with cartoonish combatants is fertile ground for storytelling. "The Wrestler" with Mickey Rourke is getting raves all around. It's the story of a guy who's looking to take his last shot, and--of course--the odds are firmly stacked against him.  

It sounds great.

This song sounds pretty good, too:      

Pro wrestling may be fake, but this is a reminder that real life isn't...

From the AP:

Mike "Mad Dog" Bell, a former professional wrestler whose struggle with substance abuse was featured in the documentary "Bigger, Stronger, Faster," has died. He was 37.

Bell was found Sunday at a Costa Mesa live-in rehabilitation facility, his family said.

Chris Bell, whose 2008 documentary examines the steroid use of his two brothers, said Mike Bell had long battled with his addictions to prescription painkillers and alcohol.

"He was always wrestling, he was a personal trainer, he was always pushing his body to the max," Chris Bell told the Orange County Register.

"You can't really blame wrestling, but it's kind of the lifestyle," he said. "You have a couple of painkillers to get to the next match, have a couple drinks night to night and it gets out of hand."

Bell wrestled on World Wrestling Entertainment's "Monday Night Raw" as a "jobber," a fighter who takes falls to promote others.