Why Does Pro Wrestling Mean So Much to Us? | SDSUMO Live

Why does professional wrestling hit us differently than almost any other form of entertainment? This week on *Sit Down Shut Up Mark Out* Blade Daily and Books and Bodyslams are having a different kind of wrestling conversation. In the wake of the sudden passing of Benjamin “PAC” Satterley, we’ve been thinking about the strange, powerful relationship wrestling fans develop with the people we watch every week. We know it’s a performance. We know PAC is a character. We understand that Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson, Will Ospreay and the rest of the people on our screens are performers telling stories. And yet we cheer them. We boo them. We worry about them. We grow older alongside them. We invite them into our homes 52 weeks a year — sometimes for decades. And when we lose one of them, the grief can be very real. So why is wrestling different? Blade and Books talk about the line between performer and character, the intimacy created by weekly wrestling television, the strange beauty of kayfabe, and why our emotional connection to wrestling can survive even when we completely understand how the magic trick works. Then we’ll talk about Wednesday’s extraordinary *AEW Dynamite: A Tribute to PAC* — an episode where those lines between fiction and reality became almost impossible to see. AEW opened the night with a 10-bell salute and PAC’s empty chair. Jon Moxley carried his grief into the Continental Championship match with Orange Cassidy. Will Ospreay and Ricochet revisited their legendary rivalry and honored PAC with the Black Arrow. Marina Shafir used PAC’s Brutalizer. Hangman Page stood alongside The Elite again. And Bryan Danielson made a stunning return to the ring, reuniting with the Death Riders before the show ended with one final tribute to PAC. It was brilliant. It was beautiful. It was devastating. And maybe it told us something about why this ridiculous, wonderful form of entertainment can mean so much to the people who love it. *Sit Down Shut Up Mark Out* Hosted by Blade Daily & Books and Bodyslams Come hang out with us live. Bring your memories, your thoughts, and your own answer to the question: *Why does wrestling mean so much to us?*