SO WHAT IF IT'S A "WORK"!

By Peter Vuono

   I noticed this morning that a great many of my FB friends are livid with the thought that the Tyson/Paul fight was not legitimate; that it may have been staged. First, you the reader need to know two Carny terms used by wrestlers. The first one is "work". This means the match is predetermined and the wrestlers trust each other to not  hurt each other, take home their pay and perform again a day or two later.

  The second term is a "shoot". This is a term which means that someone got hot under the collar and the match is quite real. This happens rarely as wrestlers want to be safe so that they can"work" again.

  Did anyone actually say that the Tyson/Paul match was legitimate? I don't think so and I don't fault the fighters or promoters for staging a fight if that is what happened. YOU got excited to see the fight and were entertained. Secondly, both Paul and Tyson were unharmed as far as this author knows and took home a great deal of money to feed their families.

  Do you remember Evil Knievel's Snake river Canyon jump with the Sky Cycle? He went over the canyon half way, parachuted and had no intention of risking a complete jump. You and I were "worked".  Sports that actually are legitimate run the risk of seriously hurting the athletes and fans!

  Think of the concussions involved with  pro football players and CTE. How many fans are injured a soccer games by fans trampling others. Remember after a Boston Red Sox celebration where a young girl had a misplaced pepper ball shot in her eye causing her death? There's a lot to say about an event being "worked". We wrestling fans know well of the "predetermined" match. We can usually guess the outcome and go home both entertained and delighted. So my question is," Why can't you"? There are so many more things in life so much more important.

  One final note; with the enormous amount of "scammers" out there, don't forget that YOU can be worked and taken advantage of in just about every facet of your life. Something to keep in mind if the fight was indeed a "work"  Worse things could happen to you. I hope they don't