Professional wrestling used to be considered a legitimate sport in 1920 but has navigated away from actual fights and now evolved as purely for entertainment purposes. It employed modern theatrics not to compete with the fighters but for the enjoyment of the audience. Let us go back to the roots of how this entertainment came to be.
It was 1830 in France, when showmen in traveling carnival presented wrestlers under weird titles that are attached to their fake names. They challenged people in the public to beat them out for 500 francs. These wrestlers employed fake names and played up any animosity of the public to encourage betting.
Later somewhere in 1848, a French showman named Jean Exbroyat established the first ever modern associations of wrestlers that he named circus troupe. He then created a rule not to execute any holds that are below the waist, a style he called flat hand wrestling. This new style started spread to the rest of Europe which they call the Greco Roman wrestling.
Furthermore, it has became the most in fashionable sport in Europe because of the flashy costumes that the wrestlers wore during match to provide amusement. In 1898, Paul Pons became the first ever Professional World Champion. He is renowned for his title as the Colossus.
It was later popularized by the United Kingdom and United States, called it the catch as catch can style. It was originally thought as a more lax in style, it differentiated itself from Greco Roman in its rule to allow grapples. It allows hold above and also below the waist, which includes leg grip. Both were completely legitimate sports then but a sub faction of it slowly changed to the modern theatrics we have known today.
After World War 2, in America this new breed of recreation is divided into different regional leagues. Each league has an agreement never to steal the talent of another and never expand their show outside their region. Later on, the Northeast federation broke the rule by orchestrating competitions to other regional leagues and stealing talents in the process, they are later known as World Wrestling Federation.
That is when the modern type of prowrestling has been born where it became widely popular in the television scene. It became an international phenomenon in 1980s and has evolved different ways to entertain the people with famous wrestlers breaking into Hollywood. Some argues that the Mixed Martial Art is the new cycle of its evolution.
There is no denying that the history of professional wrestling is an interesting one. It has shifted from an influential sport to become a powerful means of entertainment. The entertainment it offers still allure us even to this day.
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