Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The Major Changes In The History Of Professional Wrestling

By Vicki Diaz


Wrestling was already a sport as early as 3000BC. Major empires like the Babylonians, the Greeks and even the Romans also promoted it. Among these empires though, the Greeks are said to have taken the sport a notch higher. On the other hand, the history of professional wrestling is traced to the early twentieth century.

Wrestling is mainly categorized into two. There is the Greco-Roman type, which is considered the oldest and was the most practiced and the catch style (where some things which were initially prohibited in the rules of the game were allowed). For instance, catch style allowed the wrestler to grapple below the waist, a thing that was not permitted in the Greco-Roman style. Nonetheless, both of the styles were legit games where victory was earned.

As mentioned before, the sport was birthed in early 1900s, 1920s to be precise. It is during this time that another segment of catch fighting was developed. Through professional fighting, promoters could hire wrestlers and train them on how they should behave during the game. They even promoted the idea of tag teams to maximize entertainment. In a tag team match, the referee can be distracted to give the wrestlers the opportunity to weigh down on their opponent illegally.

The game is a staged or scripted fighting with predetermined results. Interestingly, the winners or losers are trained to react to the results as near genuine as possible to ensure that the audience is well entertained. In some cases tag team fights do follow some form a storyline. There are times too when wrestlers stage feuds for long just to ensure that the crowd is charged enough.

The advent of Cable and television are seen as another turning point in the history of the sport. It was obvious in the 1950s and 1980s when the televisions and cable were introduced that there was a great boost in its popularity and acceptance. It is therefore referred to as the golden age of the game. Main promoters like the National Wrestling Alliance ((NWA) also got popular during this time.

Though NWA was the most known promoter of pro fighting, other regional outfits who felt they could not fit under their banner, formed their own promotional umbrellas. For instance, there was the American Wrestling Associating and the World Wide wrestling federation based in Minnesota and New York respectively. They however failed to capture the moment due to what was considered inferior storyline and scripting. They also could not build a star to compete with the likes of Lou Thesz from NWA.

Since the sport was being introduced to the national audience, the promoters needed better scripting and storyline to survive. Both the AWA and the WWF also went down due to investigation into some of their performers who were thought to abuse steroids. All these matters contributed to the failure of the opposing promoters. Eventually, the NWA remained as the lead promoter of the sport on TV.

Whereas the history of professional wrestling is long, the game has since developed into one of the most watched sports nationally and arguably among the top revenue earner. The sport is also practiced in other major countries. There is Japan, Mexico, Australia and the United Kingdom just to name a few.




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