While I agree with almost everything
SoberSephiroth says, I have to correct one point. Wrestlers aren't ending up in hospitals because of any
social stigma relating to being overweight. They're ending up in hospitals because they're dropping weight to remain within in their weight class, and they're dropping it too quickly. Because which is better: competing at maximum weight in one division, or at minimal weight in another?
Exactly.
Cutting weight is not something that's new. It's been going on for a long, long time, but there's been an excellent job done of covering it up. When an athlete passes out, it can simply be explained as 'overexertion', 'dehydration', or college football's favorite: 'flu-like symptoms'. Deaths in the sport are very rare. But when two kids die in the span of a month, and weekly television news magazines run a story on them, cutting weight got pushed to the forefront. But it still happens, and it's going to continue to happen (even if being fat becomes all the rage) as long as there's competition wrestling.