Asklemmy

WWE and the like are a theatre performance designed to entertain. The fights are choreographed and intended to tell a story. The fighters are essentially actors/stuntmen whose job is to throw eachother around in ways that look exciting but are safe.

Boxing and sport wrestling are a genuine athletic sport where both fighters are trying to win.

Pro wrestling is fake (or, is all just fiction, like a TV show or a theater performance). Wrestling and boxing are not fake.

Everyone knows pro wrestling is all staged performances but I've never heard that said of boxing. As far as I know those are real.

Few wrestling matches will be pre-scripted stunt-by-stunt, but the actors will generally have agreed upon what they in-general want to pull off, and roughly in what order.

The actual physical work is (usually) real, of course. Lifting a huge guy over your head or climbing onto a post and jumping down require a lot of physical training, in particular to not hurt yourself or the other person.

(edit)
I guess a better way to think about it is that the competition is fake. Always. It's not a competitive match, it's a cooperative effort to create a physical drama play.

Professional wrestling is scripted, but moves are still done for real and it will damage to the wrestlers' bodies. Officially, boxing is still unscripted and fights can cause damage. However, the format is strange compared to other sports.

First, the boxing federations are much weaker and depend a lot more on individual boxers setting up matches than wrestling or MMA. So, other than boxing federations forcing fights every so often, you don't get the same calendar. You'll also have champions being more choosey regarding opponents, both in terms of being an audience draw and an actual risk to the champion.

Before, when boxing was more active, it was deeply infiltrated by organized crime trying to manipulate the match to favor their bookies. So, some matches were pre decided, but it wasn't done for entertainment purposes.

Asked and answered but to chime in also: Boxing is not fixed (outside of incidents involving crooked people of course).

Pro Wrestling is choreographed performances. The results of matches are predetermined by the booker. The wrestlers come together before hand, decide between them some 'spots' they wanna do during the match but otherwise go out there and 'call a match' live (giving each other verbal cues to do certain things/do certain things to them which the audience doesn't/can't hear [hopefully, looking at you Cena lol]).

The moves are done in specific ways to minimize actual damage, and wrestlers are trained to land, and take moves in specific ways to minimize actual damage.

A good source is the Santino Bros Wrestling Academy out in Cali. They have a playlist on their YouTube channel showing the basics of almost any wrestling move you'd wanna know and learn. Watch some of em and you can see the tricks.

I think the line between scripted wrestling (WWE, WCW, etc) and actual sports (boxing, UFC) is very very clear. In the latter some matches may be rigged, but those are exceptions and instances of corruption. In the former, no adult truly expects them to be genuine sports competitions.

Check out the Unreality of Pro Wrestling, its a video by some guy online who'se really fascinated by the fine line between the fiction of wrestling and the reality of it. Like, yeah, they're selling, but there's also real stakes for the wrestlers too. When the storylines and the wrestler's motives align just right, it's basically real for just a little while, even if its fake.

https://youtu.be/UaDAzXVycR4?si=l8DdKpacug48zB17

It's like live action stunts the stories and theatre is scripted the broad strokes of the match are choreographed with the finer details worked out between the wrestlers and the ref. But you can't fake some of the bumps esp if you were someone like Mick Foeley

Edit: This randomly popped up might be a fun insight

Pro wrestling is staged, pro boxing is not.

That said, while harm reduction is practiced in pro wrestling, people can and do get injured. Chris Benoit's numerous concussions leading to him killing his family and himself, Bret Hart having his career ended by Goldberg, Darren Drozdov being crippled from the neck down, etc. etc.

Fake? It's still real to me, dammit!