When I was growing up, I was not allowed to watch wrestling on the big TV in our house. My mom called it “Crap TV.” Ten years later, I’m still not allowed to watch it at my parents’ house unless she is not home or goes to bed early.

People like my mother hate professional wrestling and will spend their whole life hating the sport, typically because they think everything that happens in the ring is fake. They think that all professional wrestlers plan everything they’re going to do in the ring in advance.

And yet, Wrestlemania, which happens every year, is the biggest televised wrestling show of the year, garnering more than one million viewers and over 100 different WWE related social media hashtags. On April 8, Wrestlemania took place in New Orleans and the show lasted more than seven hours.

Fans had already expected Roman Reigns to win in the main event. Reigns was predicted by almost all fans to beat Brock Lesnar and win the World Wrestling Entertainment  Universal Championship, the most prestigious title in WWE.

In the main event, Roman Reigns was punched three times in the head by Brock Lesnar. The three punches were rough enough to cut his head and make him bleed.

Bleeding in WWE is a rare occurrence, but it does happen. When it does happen, it’s usually an accident and incredibly rare when it happens on purpose. And yet, critics still say wrestling is fake, even though the moves and spots they do in the ring is far from it.

Fans of wrestling do not watch it for the scripted events, they watch it for the entertainment. WWE stands for World Wrestling Entertainment for a reason. Yes, wrestling is fake to a certain degree, but who cares?

Every time I tell one of my friends that I like to watch wrestling, the first thing I hear from them is, “You know it’s fake right?”

Yeah, I know. There are people in wrestling companies that get paid to write storylines and determine who wins and who loses. Every single aspect of a wrestling match is scripted so each wrestler can show off their skills to the fans, according to the WWE. And yet, unexpected, unscripted things can and do happen.

“It’s fake but it can get real quick,” Cal State East Bay alum Saul Alcaraz said. “Movies are fake too but people still watch them.”

Alcaraz has been training to become a professional wrestler for almost seven months now. He trains at Santino Bros. Wrestling Academy in Los Angeles, a popular school where WWE superstars have trained as well. Most recently, Ronda Rousey trained there before her big debut this last January.

Training to be a wrestler can be tough and tedious. Wrestlers take what are called “bumps” which is basically falling down on your back after getting hit by a wrestling maneuver.

“Think of it as walking on the sidewalk and then falling flat on your back, that’s how bad it feels,” Alcaraz explained when asked about taking his first bump. When I was personally messing around with different wrestling moves in my dorm room last year, I took a bump and it hurt like hell.

Wrestlers get hurt from a simple move like a knee to the face or getting suplexed on to their back. John Cena broke his nose on an episode of Monday Night Raw because he rushed the move and did not block his face. The owner of WWE, Vince McMahon, tore both of his quads just walking into the ring in 2005.

As a big wrestling fan, watching a usually $50 to $70 WWE pay-per-view event with a casual fan or not even a fan at all is always a fifty-fifty chance of having to explain the fake aspect of wrestling. They always ask how it’s fake or “was that even a real punch” and that does not annoy me as much as other kinds of people. I was watching Summerslam, one of WWE’s biggest show in August, with my mom, who hates wrestling, and every wrestler she saw was either ugly or stupid in her eyes.

Haters should stop trying to ruin the fun that is wrestling. It’s called “World Wrestling Entertainment” for a reason. They are not there to break bones and bleed every night for thousands of fans. They are paid to put on a show and entertain them.

People need to realize that they can tell the hardcore fans that it’s fake but we won’t care. We watch every Monday and Tuesday night to be entertained. We spend one Sunday a month watching the wrestlers put on the best show they can because that’s what they are there to do.

So yeah, wrestling is fake but who cares?