The debate about whether professional wrestling is "real" or not is one that fans have been having with non-fans for decades. After all, while the results of matches--and the storylines that lead up to them--are pre-determined, wrestling is still a very aggressive and painful activity. How painful? Even on Starz' new series Heels, about a small professional wrestling company in rural Georgia, the cast got beat up training to act like pro wrestlers.

While series star Stephen Amell has some history with wrestling, appearing in both WWE and Ring of Honor, as well as having a match at 2018's All In, the same cannot be said for his fellow cast members. They all came to wrestling with no prior experience and learned the hard way just how "real" sports entertainment can be and by the end of filming Season 1 has sustained some serious injuries, even with stunt doubles standing in for the most dangerous spots. And that's after training in Los Angeles with wrestling legend Chavo Guerrero and in Georgia with a number of independent wrestlers.

"For me, the thing that hurt the most is I flipped out [of] the ring. And when I landed, I didn't bend my knee," recalled former NFL player James Harrison, who plays a wrestler named Apocalypse. "So I actually got a tear in my knee and ended up having to get some stem cells and stuff shot in there to heal that."