I knew a guy who wrestled professionally years ago--he'd been a college wrestler, times were hard, and it was the only job offer that came his way.   The first thing that they did was to create a personality for him--he was a good wrestler, but never went over very well with the audiences because he wasn't a very convincing bad guy.



Here's a story he liked to tell that will give you some perspective on how "fake" it is--in order to bleed, the wrestlers would hide a piece of razor in the waist of their trunks, palm it, and, at the right moment, draw the blade across a part of the forehead where a small cuts generate a lot of blood--"And so the fans thought I was bleeding because he hit me.."

The money was good enough that he put himself through law school, and later became a respected judge--