'Wrestling is fake.'

Three words likely to cause severe offence to any member of the WWE Universe, and odds on to land you in a Boston Crab if uttered to an actual professional wrestler.

Well, in last night's epic No Holds Barred encounter between Sheamus and Drew McIntyre on WWE RAW, these two stalwarts of the wrestling circuit laid it all on the line to the contrary - wrestling is not fake.

The blows are very real, and a quick peep at Drew McIntyre's back on Twitter this morning should be all you need to convince yourself of this.

The match itself was one for the ages; before it had officially even gotten underway, McIntyre attacked the Celtic Warrior as he made his way to the ring, setting the tone for what turned out to be a quite extraordinary (and brutal) match on RAW.

In a No Holds Barred contest, anything goes, so viewers were treated to an array of weaponry on show. McIntyre and Sheamus made full use of steel chairs, kendo sticks and even steel steps when putting the beating on one another.

It may have been the kendo sticks that did most of the damage to the athletes' backs, but the highlight of the contest had to be when McIntyre connected with an earth-shattering Future Shock DDT on a chair, which the Irishman somehow managed to recover from, kicking out before the referee could bring his hand down for the three-count.

Towards the end of the contest, with both men beaten and bloody across the back, Sheamus and McIntyre crashed into each other at full pelt carrying steel steps. Sheamus seemed to take the brunt of the impact, but the referee deemed that neither man was able to continue, so fans will have to wait a while before getting a conclusion to this epic encounter.

With WrestleMania right around the corner, I'd expect to see it there.

A Mockery of Soulja Boy's Comments

This epic encounter between Sheamus and Drew McIntyre almost felt like a WWE retort to American-rapper Soulja Boy, who last week drew the ire of many of the WWE's top talents when he tarnished the sport's reputation on Twitter, posting: "Rap game faker than WWE."

This flippant remark prompted such WWE veterans as Randy Orton to come out swinging in support of their craft.

Orton posted this to Twitter in response to the rapper: "Fake? Dare this prick to step up. He dont like movies? Consider us actors that do stunts, without pads 200 days a year and don’t b**** when we get surgically repaired and come right back. Consider us 100 times tougher then anyone you’ve come across. Aint nuthin but a b**** a**..."

That original tweet was then followed up by an onslaught between the two men, and Orton even tweeted Soulja Boy again today after the images of Sheamus and McIntyre were posted.

Nobody is saying that wrestling isn't scripted. We all know that the combatants know the result before they step into the ring. However, if Soulja Boy wants to know if it's real or fake, we suggest he take a look at Drew McIntyre's back, or, even better, step into the squared circle to face off with Randy Orton at WrestleMania next month.

Wrestling is very real indeed, the lacerations don’t lie.