>>19848902wrestling mimics adult/offspring play in animals. The adult will let the kid win/stalemate every once in a while, otherwise the kid will give up and stop trying. As they get older, the playtime actually becomes a competition but more along the lines of sparring in your home boxing gym. Going for knockouts while sparring in MMA, Boxing, Karate will usually lead to you getting fucking kicked out and your membership cancelled. Save the headhunting for scheduled competitions.
Wrestling, in this way, is arguably for children, as it's an offshoot of that same developmental branch, allowed to continue into adulthood for entertainment purposes. True shoot fights/sport is reserved for intertribal/Interspecies conflict. A pack of wolves aren't going to playfight a bear, 2 groups of drunken guys at 3am likely aren't in agreement to only pretend fight.
professional wrestling is a hilarious misnomer when ya really think about it