Aw, come on. Even the intelligentsia can poke their frontal lobes out for a couple of hours per week and enjoy the spectacle.
Professional wrestling is much like the music scene -- there are a handful of big names that get 90% of the press and airtime, and there are a lot of fringe elements with more talent and less commercial viability. If the over-the-top WWF/E doesn't appeal to you, consider the indies (some of which deal in bloodshed and carnage, others in highly athletic maneuvers), Mexico (lucha libre; think gymnastics-meet-on-Halloween-gone-horribly-wrong-but-in-a-good-way) or Japan (where everything's more extreme -- the athletic-oriented promotions offer much more stiffness and physical contact, many leaning more towards scripted mixed-martial-arts (think UFC) competitions, while the gimmick feds go WAY past anything you'd see on Raw or Smackdown.)
The women in Japan are as brutal (sometimes even more so) than the men, too -- unlike McMahon's group, where most of the women are only there to show off their plastic surgeons' handiwork.
And even the WWF/E has its moments. For every aging stiff like Hogan or wacked-out storyline from hell, there are a few guys with some genuine athletic ability (most of whom have spent time training/wrestling in Japan and/or Canada, not coincidentally). Kurt Angle's a legitimate gold medalist, for instance, and is taking time off soon to RETURN to Olympic training. No word yet on whether they'll let him keep his entrance music and pyro in Olympic competition...