I dont think this is great. The article didn't mention the massive health risks wrestlers face, even risk of death or long term impairment. The WWE has tried a little to reduce those but the smaller or more hardcore promotions probably still are doing chair shots and flying headbutts or other dangerous moves.

I love wrestling as a performance, and it is a art, but the cost of it is in the wrestler's bodies, much closer to boxing than football. I can't really love small promotions where they are probably giving themselves serious conditions that will manifest twenty years down the road for less than minimum wage and the vain hope the WWE will scout them.

The upshot here is that there is ultimately way more control over the issue than both American football and boxing have.

Played right these guys can reduce the risk significantly because the rules of engagement aren’t guaranteed upon entering the ring. With boxing and football, you have a much more stringent set of rules to follow.

Yes, definite risk.

Here's a friend of mine who plays harp and ... -does- did wrestling.

He dislocates his shoulder : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXS-hixeI_4

Agree, just because something is different it's not "bizarre". But "special" doesn't feel better. I've always gone with "odd" for something that is not normal but not out of this world. Feels less negative.

How about "eccentric"?

"Niche" might be better.

Interesting. Wouldn’t you say, that “special” has a (slightly) positive connotation?

In the US "special" is often used as a shortened version of "special needs" and has a slightly negative connotation [1]

I think a more positive term might be "specialized".

1 - https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/35777/can-the-wo...

I think also is a kind of great. They do there own thing. That's cool.

Sub-cultures in the age of like-counters. It looks like some still exist, but you can't see those easy on the web because the have not so many likes and they don't even come up (except you do a special search) on Youtube or Google searches.

> I feel like we’ve lost many “sub-cultures” like the Punks etc

Punks not dead. I'm working the door for a show right now.

> Also: I don’t think “bizzare” is a good word to describe the community. “Special” would have been much better.

Maybe this is regional, but "special" can mean "special like special education", that is, mentally disabled.