What are some practical, real-world things that wrestling taught you that you still find useful now?

 

I learned a lot about geography from watching wrestling. By the time I was 8, I knew 4 cities in Tennessee, and a bunch of Japanese cities that I wouldn't have heard of, otherwise. I learned subtle differences in regional American cultures and accents too. To this day, I have a much better grasp of American geography than a lot of people I know, especially considering that I don't travel very much.

Thanks to wrestling I have a better grasp of American geography, than i do my own country (The UK).

A childhood friend of mine used the word "profusely" (as in "bleeding profusely") in something he wrote in 5th grade. The teacher had never heard the word and questioned if it really existed.

I impressed my 6th grade French teacher by being the only student who knew Grenoble was in the French Alps.

I learned random words like "bizzare" (Davey Boy Smith, and McMahon using it) and "cahoots" as in "they are in...". I had a similar experience with Loss dealing with a teacher where I had to prove the definition of "bizzare".

 

Thanks, Gorilla!

 

I think I'm making that stupid thing my DVDVR sig photo.

I had a decent vocabulary for a younger thanks to listening to Jim Ross announce.

I aced an analogy question on a proficiency exam that involved the word "vignette."

Geography and vocabulary, as others have mentioned. I was 10 during Bob Backlund's heel run in the 90s and he made me want to expand my vocabulary. I also remember thinking Vince McMahon was such a powerful, intelligent speaker that I wanted to be like him. When he told Owen Hart that it only took six weeks for a broken bone to heal I for some reason thought he was a fount of knowledge.

 

Thanks to PWI and the Monday night wars I learned quite a bit of how the business of television worked.

 

God help me, I thought wrestlers knew how to dress back then, too.

This is more along the lines of "annoying things my brother can do that I can't", but he can pronounce "occipital protuberance" with relative ease (I even had to use google to get the spelling right just now), even when intoxicated.

I learned random words like "bizzare" (Davey Boy Smith, and McMahon using it) and "cahoots" as in "they are in...". I had a similar experience with Loss dealing with a teacher where I had to prove the definition of "bizzare".

 

I used "cahoots" in some English project in 10th or 11th grade. The teacher questioned me over what it meant.

 

I used "workrate" in a college Psychology paper

 

Both times I realized after the fact I had used wrestling terms without being aware of it

Well cahoots is at least applicable outside of wrestling. Is workrate used in any other context?

Is bizarre British English?

I impressed my 6th grade French teacher by being the only student who knew Grenoble was in the French Alps.

 

Ah ah ! Excellent (en français dans le texte).

 

 

Is bizarre British English?

 

It's actually a French word.

 

It seems that we all learn quite a bit of vocabulary. Well, I for one maintained and improved my English comprehension level when I was in college and not studying English anymore by watching Raw and Nitro in English.

And since French announcer Guy Hauray was very eloquent, I learned a few words thanks to him too. I can still remember hearing "intrinsèque" for the very first time during a Haku squash in 1990. Not the kind of word a 14 years old kid hears every day.

I had a decent vocabulary for a younger thanks to listening to Jim Ross announce.

Same here, except sub out Jim Ross for Vince McMahon.

Yeah, I learned a lot of vocabulary and geography. I can name a decent amount of sports arenas too. I remember learning words from Jericho during his heel run in 2008-2009 like fucking "axiomatic." There have been many times in my life where I have had regular conversations about something and realized I learned a word or a city from watching wrestling.

I had fairly decent self-taught English as a 13 year old partly due to videogames but more importantly because I'd translate (sometimes almost literally word by word screwing up the context) Eurodance music lyrics (we all have a dark past) and articles from WWF Magazine, WCW Magazine, New Wave Wrestling and any other random wrestling magazines I could get my hands on. My grammar wasn't the greatest but I knew a shitload of words.

 

I also learned how to read very basic Japanese in the late 90s/early 00s to be able to get real names, former alias, title histories and other basic information from the Nippon Sports MOOK that was released every year. Still a very valuable resource every time that I go to Japan as I can partly figure out menus on restaurants that I'd otherwise not being able to attend without a local. A great example of that would be Killer Khan's restaurant.

I also learned quite a bit of the US geography, although I never really figured out where parts unknown was.

I love US film history, and US history and politics in general. Wrestling has certainly aided my understanding of geography and cultural quirks throughout the states.

I learned a lot about geography like others have said, but I learned some bad stuff too that I didn't realize was bad at the time. I wrote a WW2 paper in school and mentioned something about dropping a bomb on the "Japs"and had it returned to me with a red arrow pointing to it saying "not very PC!"

 

All because Gorilla Monsoon called Yokozuna a Jap on TV. I just thought it was a harmless word.

I also learned quite a bit of the US geography, although I never really figured out where parts unknown was.

It's a town where everyone wears masks and no one owns a scale.

 

I also learned quite a bit of the US geography, although I never really figured out where parts unknown was.

It's a town where everyone wears masks and no one owns a scale.

 

 

According to Bobby Heenan Parts Unknown usually means downtown Newark.

I learned a lot about geography like others have said, but I learned some bad stuff too that I didn't realize was bad at the time. I wrote a WW2 paper in school and mentioned something about dropping a bomb on the "Japs"and had it returned to me with a red arrow pointing to it saying "not very PC!"

 

All because Gorilla Monsoon called Yokozuna a Jap on TV. I just thought it was a harmless word.

Tremendous! What year was that (if you don't mind me me asking)? I'm curious if the teacher's reaction would have been different depending on the time period.

 

EDIT, just realized it was probably 93-94 because of Gorilla and Yokozuna. I wonder what would have happened if someone had written that, for the same reasoning, but 20 years later.

Pandemonium.

I also learned quite a bit of the US geography, although I never really figured out where parts unknown was.

 

West of Dudleyville.