How Professional Wrestling Started Wendy Mayhue Axia College of University of Phoenix How Professional Wrestling Started How did Pro wrestling get it start? Wrestling goes way back to the ancient Greek and Roman Empire have given us one of the most entertaining and often-controversial sports we enjoy today. Professional wrestling is has evolved greatly since the days of the ancient Greek and Romans. The Greek used a form of wrestling called freestyle while the Romans were called Greco-Roman (Grabianowski 2008).
Pro Wrestling started as side shows at carnivals as strongmen, who would challenge anyone to beat him in the ring or even to last 10 or more minutes with him. Challenges almost never won the money, since the strong man had helpers that would cheat to ensure that he would win. Then in the 1800s, promoters moved wrestling in arenas. In 1901 the National Wresting Association (NWA) formed. Then after World War II, the NWA divided into regional leagues. The Northeast federation was known as the Worldwide Wrestling Federation, what we know today as the World Wrestling Entertainment (Grabianowski 2008).
Professional wrestling is it real or is it fake? One needs to decide for there selves. Unlike Amateurs, professional wrestlers are paid Professional wrestlers’ tend to be more skilled and pro wrestlers are paid to do what they do. Moreover, paid well by some of the top Wrestling Federations. Amateur wrestlers on the other had are not. Many amateur wrestlers have made there way into pro wrestling, like Kurt Angle and Shelton Benjamin. Kurt has won an Olympic gold medal in freestyle wrestling in 1996. Shelton is a two-time All-American heavyweight wrestler.
Both men have been at the top of the ladder in the pro wrestling business. A sporting commission regulates amateur wrestling. The job of the sporting commission is to ensure that the amateur wrestlers are following the rules and regulations. In pro wrestling is unregulated. In the old days, the league owners realized they could avoid hassle by naming their shows entertainment and not a competitive sport. So one may ask, is pro wrestling real or fake? Well, the plot or storylines are predetermined and the moves are choreographed. The wrestlers are not truly trying to injure each other, the wrestlers are just following a script.
Although, some may have hard feelings toward there opponent they are just like one big family out there doing a job to make the fans cheer them or even boo them. Many wrestlers are exceptional athletes; they work out for hours in the gym with to maintain there physical condition. Pro wrestlers are like movie stunt men. They perform a skit in the ring to entertain the fans. This is called a work. A work is pro wrestling lingo for a storyline. Professional Wrestling Lingo Pro wrestling has its own language. A few terms that one may have heard wrestlers use are, Kafabe, heel, work, face, house show, sell, and angle.
A Kafabe is an old carnival term. Which in wrestling refers to the illusion of the characters and storylines are real. Which until a few years ago many wrestlers did not break Kafabe outside of the ring while in public. A heel is a villain, who is designed to make fans hate and boo them. A face it the good person, the one fans love to cheer and emulate. Some of the heels that are known today are Snitsky, Mike Knox, The Undertaker, and The Big Show. Some faces would be Batista, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, and HHH. These wrestlers perform in a house show.
A house show is an event not televised whereas a televised event is a live event. Sell is when a wrestler makes a painful move look real. An angle is part of and ongoing plot or part of the script. A wrestler may be involved in several angles at one time. An example: the current World Heavy Weight Champion John Cena is defending his belt against Chris Jericho, and he has Batista and Randy Orton threatening to challenge him for the title also. Cena is then involved in three storylines or angles here. One with Jericho, one with Batista, and one with Orton. Cena will have several works with each of these three wrestlers.
He will defend his title continuously, until he looses it. Rules of Pro Wrestling An important thing about the rule to professional wrestling is that they can be changed, disregarded, made up on the spot, and broken at anytime, and by anyone. This can and does cause controversy for many of the pro wrestlers in there matches. Another important thing is to win the match. There are several ways to do this. A wrestler can win a match by pin-fall, which is the standard way to win a match. Another way is one-fall, which is where one wrestler’s shoulders are pinned to the mat for a count of three.
The there is the three-fall, where a wrestler has to win two out of three matches to win. There is also the submission win. The submission is when one wrestler is put into a submission hold, a maneuver that locks a wrestler into a painful position, which makes the wrestler give up or tap out. There is also the disqualification. This type of match is when a wrestler stands outside the ring to long and is counted out, or when a wrestler gets caught using a foreign object like a chair or steel step on their opponent or another wrestler interferes on in the match.
The wrestlers work with each other to ensure that they will not hurt each other. When the wrestlers are talking in the ring, they are really talking to each other about what moves to do next. The referrers are also involved in this process, checking to see if the each wrestler is ok and telling them how much time is left in the match. One wrestler may the opponent that he is going to go up to the top ropes for a frog splash. Then the other wrestler will know that he needs to be in the right position so that the other wrestler will not get hurt.
Professional Wrestling Moves Professional wrestlers use many moves while they are in the ring to convey they storylines when they are in the ring. Many wrestlers have signature moves. Like Batista’s is the Batista Bomb. This is a power bomb. The Under Taker uses a Pile driver, which he calls a Tombstone Pile diver, this is a move in which the wrestler grabs his opponent, turns him upside-down and drops into a sitting or kneeling position, driving the opponent’s head into the mat.
This move can be very dangerous if not performed properly Shawn Michaels finishing move is called Sweet Chin Music, this is where he super kicks his opponent in the mouth. Many wrestlers use a drop kick; this is an attack where a wrestler jumps up and kicks the opponent with the sole of both feet. [pic] P-1 Illustrated in photo P-1, is wrestler Edge performing a drop kick on Randy Orton. Edge has jumped off the top rope in this move to kick Randy Orton in the chest. This move can be painful if both wrestlers are not in the correct positions. Please do not try these moves at home.
They can be very dangerous if on does not know what they are doing, one can severely hurt someone or even kill him or her. This part of wrestling is very real. Wrestlers are injured by botching moves. This is not good for the wrestlers and not good for business. [pic] P-2 Another move is the Suplex. This is where one wrestler picks the opponent up off the ground (or Mat) and using a large portion of their own body weight to drive the opponent down on to the mat. As shown in P-2. [pic] P-3 In photo P-3 the Undertaker performing his Tombstone Pile driver on Mankind.
A pile drive is a controversial maneuver that was banned by promotions at various times in sports-entertainment history. The kneeling Tombstone was developed it out less stress on the user. [pic] Here is a sleeper hold. This move is as old as sports entertainment is itself. This is when a wrestler maneuvers behind his prey and wraps his right arm around his adversary’s neck, pressing his biceps against one side and the inner bone of his forearm against the other. Some injuries wresters have had are broken bones, torn muscles, and concussions.
Pro wrestlers like movie stuntmen perform there own stunts. An example would be in the Owen Hart vs. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin match in 1997. Austin suffered a broken neck after Hart messed up in an attempted pile driver, a move which one wrestler drives the other’s head into the ground (Lopez 2008). A stuntman does the hard moves that celebrities do not want to do or feel that they cannot do. A wrestler performs all there own bumps. Pro wrestlers perform night after night taking bumps, the way a stuntman takes bumps for celebrities.
Weather one likes pro wrestling or not one has to admit that it is entertaining. There are wrestlers one loves to cheer for and, there are wrestlers one loves to boo. In wrestling, there is never a boring moment. Weather its is the chairman blowing himself up for ratings, The Undertaker sitting straight up after being knocked down, or John Cena making his comeback after having neck surgery and wining the World Heavy Weight Championship belt. One never knows what to expect. Every storyline every plot has twists and turns that even an avid fan does not expect.
Just when one thinks, one knows who tried to kill Vince McMahon, the person one thought gets attacked, and one is back to thinking about who would do something like that. Is it a heel or a face that has done the deed? One is always trying to figure out where the storyline is going and who is involved in the plot. The storylines are always entertaining and sometimes even funny. Like when HHH and Ric Flair where talking about Batista, and did not realize he was listening. HHH paid for it in the ring, by getting Batista bombed through a table.
Professional wrestling grew from traveling strongmen in carnivals, who would challenge anyone to beat them. Now as it was then they had helpers to help them win. Weather it is a script they use or other wrestlers or even non-wrestlers to arrive at the end of the storyline; wrestling is today what it has been all throughout time. Entertainment! Wrestling is to be enjoyed by the masses. What once was just for show, now has become a multi-million dollar business in which one can cheer or jeer the wrestles why choose.
There is nothing like seeing a live event. The electricity of the arena is out of this world. One just has to experience for ones self. One may still think that pro wrestling is fake. For those people I would like to see those people take a steel chair to the head and see how fake that is. There are so many types of entertainment out there, for me it is professional wrestling. For many it may be football or baseball or even NASCAR, no matter what it is, it is still entertainment. Wrestling is it real or is it fake.
One will just have to make that decision there selves. Wrestling has been around for thousands of years and has evolved in many ways. So whoever your favorite wrestler is, or whoever they where, one has to admit, wrestling is a very entertaining sport. Just as the ancient Greek and Romans did, people worldwide enjoy watching professional wrestling. Like it or not wrestling is here to stay. References Cohen, E. (2008). History of the WWE: The Beginning. Webpage http://prowrestling. about. com/od/thepromotions/a/historywwe. tm Grabianowski, E. (2008). How Pro Wrestling Works. Webpage http://entertainment. howstguffworks. com/pro-wrestling. htm Lopez, E. (Sept 15, 2008). Professional wrestlers are more than just hyped stuntmen. It’s True, It’s True, Spartan Daily. Webpage http://media. www. thespartandaily. com/media/storage/paper852/news/2005/09/15/Opinioncolumnists/Professional. Wrestlers. Are. More. Than. Just. Hyped. Stuntmen-1497336. shtml WWE (May 2008). Encyclopedia of Ultimate Finishers. 65. WWE (2008). WWE. com. Webpage. http://www. WWE. com
