Yeah I hear the "it's a movie guys" rebuttal alot but movies aren't being advertised as an actual sport and actors aren't getting CTE. I don't understand going through all that work to not only fake it, but going out there knowing you're about to lose to "Scrawny Sam" because the script said so and the crowd might like it. I'm sure many people like it, but I'll always respect and like the lowest rated MMA fighter or Boxer over The Undertaker or who ever the top wrestlers are nowadays.
Yeah they are but to me its like how wrestling isn't a real sport, mobile gambling is the lazy pussyfied way to gamble all your money away. If you're going to blow all that money why not go out to a casino or a gambling table with other people, women, drinks, and at least have a good time going broke? No, you'd rather sit your fatass on a musty couch or chair and swipe your money away on a phone..
Don't pay me no mind I'm just rambling.
Don't want to veer too far away from the Phil discussion, but figured I'd throw my 2 cents in. I think some of the confusion over the appeal of WWE and stuff comes from labeling. Wresting can be a legit sporting thing, but the WWE, while referred to as wrestling, is not a sport. WWE is basically a mix of real life anime and a soap opera. Some characters straight up have magical powers. It's basically a show where instead of hiring talented actors to carry the story, you just let the stunt people do everything. But, to compensate, the writers come up with goofy schlock that's impossible to take seriously, so nothing is lost by the lack of acting talent. Well, there's some more "traditional" story stuff too, but as I understand it that stuff is becoming less popular and only the direhards really enjoy that. I think the shift to goofier schlock is also somewhat new, while in the 90's and early 00's it was more of a serious "sport."
If I had to guess, it appeals to Phil because, at the end of the day, the "plots" are pretty straightforward. Either the good guy beats the bad guy, or, bad guy beats good guy by doing something underhanded. Aka, the good guy is the victim because the mean detractors cheated/lied/whatever, but the good guy (typically) comes back and beats the big mean detractors while everyone cheers for them and says they were right all along. I'm sure you can see the appeal for Phil. Add onto that, Phil has such a basic maturity that seeing some big muscly guy automatically equals badass in his mind, as shown by his general character choice preferences in video games, and he's tried to insist that he himself used to be some super strong body builder in his youth.
To tie it back to Phil's addiction, I think he likes mobile games for that same simplistic reason. Phil loves to win. Actual games require some modicum of skill to beat. With his limited hand eye coordination and understanding, actually beating games is pretty hard for Phil. He doesn't care about overcoming challenges, he just wants easy wins. If someone were to make Phil's perfect game, it'd be a wrestling game where you pay a fee before the match, see a quick cutscene of your sweaty man hugging another sweaty man and mounting him on the ground, then it'd cut to a big "you win" screen, complete with some gibberish numbers and rankings to make you feel even better about yourself and your serious gaming skills.