What Wrestling can Teach us about Life, According to Rick Rubin
“Anything goes in wrestling and that’s what the world is really like.”
Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin is one of the most legendary record producers of our time. In the 1980s he worked with the emerging hip-hop scene, producing records by the likes of LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy & Run DMC.
In the 1990s, he worked alongside Slayer, Danzig, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, AC/DC, Nine Inch Nails and even Johnny Cash.
Since then he’s worked with Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, U2, System of a Down, The Smashing Pumpkins, Eminem, Kanye West, Wu-Tang Clan, Neil Young and many, many more.
It’s just simply immense the amount of great talent he’s worked with to help them unleash some of their greatest music.
In early January of 2023, he released his book The Creative Act: A Way of Being, on which he has stated: “I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be.”
Rick Rubin interview
Recently I came across this very long interview he did with Andrew Huberman, you’re probably heard of him, since he has millions of YouTube subscribers and there are a ridiculous amount of videos on YouTube about his ‘morning schedule’. Which sounds like utter hell to me, I’m very much not a morning person, but hey, if it works for you then that’s only a good thing.
There was one particular section I got a lot of fun out of, it started at the 1:35:38 mark where they talk about Rubin’s love for professional wrestling. Yes, that’s right, Rick Rubin loves WWE wrestling.
What he loves about it most is how it can teach us so much about life.
Rick Rubin on wrestling
Why does he watch it?
“It maintains that kind of playfulness where anything is possible.” He says in the interview.
He explains that in professional wrestling people who watch it learn to expect the unexpected. Good guys turn into bag guys, teammates turn on each other, managers turn on their wrestlers.
He relates it a bit to working with bands then when he says that the wrestlers are all in it together to put on the best show that they can for the viewers both in the arena and on TV.
It doesn’t really matter who wins in a contest, sure, fans will prefer one wrestler over another but to the wrestler it’s not all that important, what’s important is to give the viewers some entertainment.
Now, I love that. I spent much of my 20s and 30s playing in bands and for me that’s what it was all about. It wasn’t about being the best or having some kind of message, it was about writing good songs that made the audience want to listen and be entertained.
He says too: “It’s the one of the few things I can watch and really feel relaxed, I don’t feel like I have to think about it, I can just relax and enjoy it.”
To me that’s quite Zen.
There’s no desire from him in there, there’s no attachment, he’s just doing something for the sake of doing it. Look, I’m not a wrestling fan anymore, I did watch a lot of it in the 1990s when Bret Hart, the Undertaken etc. were kings but I moved on to other interests but I can certainly understand his point.
Life lesson
But what he says about it in terms of a life lesson that’s quite interesting:
“It’s honest in what it is. In a world where seemingly nothing is honest at what it is, it’s not that people aren’t honest but it’s that we misunderstand things.
“We have a little data, we make up a story to explain it to ourselves and we say that’s what happened. Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not.
“With wrestling we know that maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not. We lean towards it not being true but what’s really interesting about wrestling, and maybe one of the most fun things about it is that, sometimes, real life works its way into the stories.
“Like, two wrestlers get married. But we don’t know if they’re married in ‘real’ life. In the storyline they’re getting married or divorced or best friends turn on each other. It could just be part of the story but it could also be really happening.
“There’s always this element of, like, I wonder what’s true? We know that it’s scripted and predetermined. But we don’t know where reality is and isn’t, and in some ways that’s our real experience of the world.
“We don’t really know what reality is and isn’t. We have an idea and I think wrestling is more honest than life because we start with the idea that it’s fixed.
“When we go to a boxing match we don’t go to one thinking it’s fixed, although it has happened.
“Anything goes in wrestling and that’s what the world is really like. In some ways it’s comforting and there’s still this mystery regarding if it’s true or not because we never really know.”
I never thought I’d be writing an article about who Rick Rubin pulls such an insightful observation for life thanks to him being a fan of professional wrestling. It’s a pretty cool take though and I might even turn into some squared circle action over the weekend. Is the Undertaker still wrestling?
Hi, I’m Paddy. Thanks for reading my article. I’m a counselor, coach and meditation teacher.
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