Xavier Woods Has Ultimate Answer For ‘Wrestling Is Fake’ Trolls

Xavier Woods of The New Day has come a long way since getting squashed by Rusev and under consideration for release in 2014.

Thankfully, the WWE saw potential in the young man and kept him around, and he recently served as a sports entertainment ambassador to one of those “wrestling is fake” trolls that pop up from time to time.

Living in an age of the internet, it’s virtually impossible for people to still think that WWE and other similar organizations offer real combat. They do not.

The wrestlers themselves acknowledge this while “out of character” and cutting interviews on wrestling and celebrity podcasts.

Vince McMahon is the guy, who originally broke kayfabe altogether by reminding viewers that at WWE, “We don’t want to insult your intelligence.”

The explanations from wrestling personalities and wrestling fans has droned on and on until most get sick of repeating themselves.

Xavier Woods, however, gave one of the classiest answers you’ve likely heard on how to explain the truth about wrestling to the “wrestling is fake” crowd.

Sports Illustrated picked up his comments from Twitter, and it went viral from there. Here’s what he had to say.

“No need to apologize. Simply understand that wrestling is one of the last forms of Shakespeare in the round. The crowd is watching men and women tell stories through physicality with an audience at a 360 degree setting. Artist use paint to create art on a canvas, and we use our fists and feet to create art on a canvas. It’s art. We get one take, not 40, in front of a live audience that appreciates us putting our bodies on the line for their entertainment. It’s fine if you don’t like it but there is no need to disrespect us or the people who watch it by calling it ‘fake.’ Wrestling fans are the greatest fans in the world because they understand this notion. So unless someone has figured out a way to defy gravity (besides Neville) then falling down will forever be painful and the pain we feel is very real. We suffer from real injuries doing what we love to do so please leave it to the professionals. Please don’t try this at home ? – side note, guys I would assume he understands this explanation so no need to continue tweeting him about it.”

The classy thing about Xavier Woods response is that he respectfully disagreed and took exception with the insult without taking exception to the person.

https://youtu.be/qTU5HFLASOg

And lest anyone claim that this was actually written by a WWE PR person, SI reminds us that Xavier Woods is currently working towards his Ph.D.

No one needed to choose these words for him, and they are certainly spoken with the knowledge and acumen of an actual performer — someone who understands what it’s like in between those four posts.

He also tries to protect the person he is responding to by advising Xavier Woods fans not to go on some kind of crazy Twitter crusade against the guy.

As of this post, it looks like the wrestling fans that Xavier Woods praised so proudly listened to that plea. Most simply chimed in with how beautiful they believed his response to be, while others acknowledged that “scripted doesn’t equal fake,” so to speak.

@XavierWoodsPhD @SparklePan… pic.twitter.com/il3erPa6o8

— Sougal (@BotchISLife) April 22, 2016

Since the death of the kayfabe movement, which pretended that wrestling was a “real” sport, the wrestling industry has tried to rebrand how wrestling is seen in the eyes of most, and that four-letter f-word (“fake”) has been a constant reminder of the lack of respect that still exists.

Xavier Woods is probably the perfect person to bring that campaign to a close with this tweet. But what do you think, readers? Do wrestlers deserve more respect than to hear how “fake” their profession is? Sound off in the comments section.

[Image via WWE Network]