Futureraven: Beelzebruv
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
The Ultimate Arbiter of Right And Wrong
Spent half my life here, God help me
Posts: 15,050
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Post by Futureraven: Beelzebruv on Mar 23, 2022 3:01:51 GMT -5
A few days ago, one of my favourite youtubers, Simon Whistler.. who does an INSANE amount of content, posted an early history of wrestling on one of his channels, thought I'd post it here. Always fascinated to find out bits like this. youtu.be/x67cmBGjQEw |
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Post by CeilingFan on Mar 23, 2022 5:56:38 GMT -5
That means that for about 100 years, Pro Wrestling has been a great form of entertainment!
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4TheGlory
Vegeta
The Fun One At Parties
Posts: 9,749
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Post by 4TheGlory on Mar 23, 2022 8:21:05 GMT -5
It's hard to imagine a pro wrestling not being a work at any time period
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Push R Truth
Patti Mayonnaise
Unique and Special Snowflake, and a pants-less heathen.
Perpetually Constipated
Posts: 39,288
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Post by Push R Truth on Mar 23, 2022 8:28:12 GMT -5
Probably decided to make it a work after Rome fell and the Colosseum fights to the death were no longer pulling in a good gate.
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J. Hova
Don Corleone
Emotionally exhausted and morally bankrupt
Posts: 1,990 
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Post by J. Hova on Mar 23, 2022 21:39:33 GMT -5
I love Simon Whistler's content across his approximately 484 channels and now I found out I'm apparently not subscribed to this one. I smashed that like button, subscribed, and hit that notification bell so I don't miss any updates. I swear to god, some youtubers repeat that in their sleep.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2022 21:44:16 GMT -5
I love Simon Whistler's content across his approximately 484 channels and now I found out I'm apparently not subscribed to this one. I smashed that like button, subscribed, and hit that notification bell so I don't miss any updates. I swear to god, some youtubers repeat that in their sleep. I lost it about all his channels but you are so right... |
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Post by genericusername on Mar 24, 2022 7:59:50 GMT -5
Probably decided to make it a work after Rome fell and the Colosseum fights to the death were no longer pulling in a good gate. I see I'm not the only one who makes comparisons between Pro wrestling and Gladiators. |
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Futureraven: Beelzebruv
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
The Ultimate Arbiter of Right And Wrong
Spent half my life here, God help me
Posts: 15,050
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Post by Futureraven: Beelzebruv on Mar 24, 2022 8:43:55 GMT -5
Probably decided to make it a work after Rome fell and the Colosseum fights to the death were no longer pulling in a good gate. I see I'm not the only one who makes comparisons between Pro wrestling and Gladiators. I mean look at them!  |
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salz4life
Grimlock
Prichard is a guy who gets that his job is to service his boss.
Posts: 13,960
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Post by salz4life on Mar 24, 2022 10:23:19 GMT -5
I see I'm not the only one who makes comparisons between Pro wrestling and Gladiators. I mean look at them! Ain't they a sight to see.... |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2022 10:31:14 GMT -5
Pro Wrestling has to be a work.
It would be impossible to pull off 90% of the moves without the opponent co-opperating.
It amazes me that anybody could ever think it WASN'T a work.
I mean... The Irish Whip alone should give it away. But what about the punches? One punch in a normal fight could kill someone. But these guys don't even get phased lol.
Overall I actually think I became more fascinated with it when I found it was all a work. Cause then it became like a Theatre... A dance. An art form almost.
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Post by oxbaker on Mar 24, 2022 11:30:36 GMT -5
Probably decided to make it a work after Rome fell and the Colosseum fights to the death were no longer pulling in a good gate. Spartacus was a workratez guy who couldn’t cut a promo and never drew a dime! |
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tafkaga
Samurai Cop
the Dogfather
Posts: 2,109
Member is Online
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Post by tafkaga on Mar 24, 2022 11:37:28 GMT -5
Pro wrestling prior to being a work:
Dudes tied up in rest holds for like 6 hours.
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Post by oxbaker on Mar 24, 2022 11:43:30 GMT -5
Pro wrestling prior to being a work: Dudes tied up in rest holds for like 6 hours. There’s a really (I mean REALLY) dry book on the history of the NWA that’s fascinating in that the author had access to notes from NWA convention meetings and the like from the earliest days to its peak and fall. It reads like an academic tome, sleep-inducing until you get into some of the interesting info. It talks about how in the early days the champ had to be someone who could shoot because you could go into a town and some local would try to steal the title by shooting and your champ had better be able to make sure that didn’t happen. That’s how Thesz ended up holding it for so long. IIRC there’s an example or two of Lou going into some out-of-the-way town and they had some local amateur grappler ringer try to take it from him and Thesz would just lock in his leg scissors and constrict their breathing by attrition for maybe 45 minutes or an hour til the guy realized there was no hope of him ever getting out of it. Must have been real exciting for the crowds, haha. |
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dav
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 6,030
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Post by dav on Mar 24, 2022 11:50:34 GMT -5
I see I'm not the only one who makes comparisons between Pro wrestling and Gladiators. I mean look at them! Wolf was basically every British child of a certain generation's introduction to a Heel, come to think of it. |
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Post by sungod2020 on Mar 24, 2022 19:12:40 GMT -5
Pro Wrestling has to be a work. It would be impossible to pull off 90% of the moves without the opponent co-opperating. It amazes me that anybody could ever think it WASN'T a work. I mean... The Irish Whip alone should give it away. But what about the punches? One punch in a normal fight could kill someone. But these guys don't even get phased lol.Overall I actually think I became more fascinated with it when I found it was all a work. Cause then it became like a Theatre... A dance. An art form almost. Has anybody ever died from being punched in the face? I think what's really jarring is you almost never see them get any bruises, getting punched in the face multiple times can do that. |
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Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Mar 24, 2022 19:18:35 GMT -5
Pro Wrestling has to be a work. It would be impossible to pull off 90% of the moves without the opponent co-opperating. It amazes me that anybody could ever think it WASN'T a work. I mean... The Irish Whip alone should give it away. But what about the punches? One punch in a normal fight could kill someone. But these guys don't even get phased lol.Overall I actually think I became more fascinated with it when I found it was all a work. Cause then it became like a Theatre... A dance. An art form almost. Has anybody ever died from being punched in the face? I think what's really jarring is you almost never see them get any bruises, getting punched in the face multiple times can do that. That douchebag harassing Poe’s wife in beginning of Con Air? |
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J. Hova
Don Corleone
Emotionally exhausted and morally bankrupt
Posts: 1,990
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Post by J. Hova on Mar 24, 2022 21:31:28 GMT -5
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Post by flowercity on Mar 25, 2022 7:02:04 GMT -5
Pro Wrestling has to be a work. It would be impossible to pull off 90% of the moves without the opponent co-opperating. It amazes me that anybody could ever think it WASN'T a work. I mean... The Irish Whip alone should give it away. But what about the punches? One punch in a normal fight could kill someone. But these guys don't even get phased lol. Overall I actually think I became more fascinated with it when I found it was all a work. Cause then it became like a Theatre... A dance. An art form almost. I had the exact same sentiment as you until I started dating my girlfriend. When we first started dating my love (obsession, truthfully) for wrestling came up. During that convo she was really confused about it being “fake.” She had no clue that it wasn’t really. It threw her for a major loop. Parsing it out, it’s because she never even took the time to think about pro wrestling. She had no tie to wrestling. She never had seen a second of it on TV. Her awareness was that it was what The Rock did before he became famous. I think there are a lot of people like her. They might think it’s real, but that’s because they really could care less about wrestling in the first place. Why waste any time thinking about it in any way? |
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Post by sungod2020 on Mar 25, 2022 7:57:23 GMT -5
Pro Wrestling has to be a work. It would be impossible to pull off 90% of the moves without the opponent co-opperating. It amazes me that anybody could ever think it WASN'T a work. I mean... The Irish Whip alone should give it away. But what about the punches? One punch in a normal fight could kill someone. But these guys don't even get phased lol. Overall I actually think I became more fascinated with it when I found it was all a work. Cause then it became like a Theatre... A dance. An art form almost. I had the exact same sentiment as you until I started dating my girlfriend. When we first started dating my love (obsession, truthfully) for wrestling came up. During that convo she was really confused about it being “fake.” She had no clue that it wasn’t really. It threw her for a major loop. Parsing it out, it’s because she never even took the time to think about pro wrestling. She had no tie to wrestling. She never had seen a second of it on TV. Her awareness was that it was what The Rock did before he became famous. I think there are a lot of people like her. They might think it’s real, but that’s because they really could care less about wrestling in the first place. Why waste any time thinking about it in any way? Since the 1930s, pro wrestling being fixed was the worst kept secret. If anybody thought it was real, it were uneducated inbred yokels. I don't know how the staged aspect on it could've been lost on her, non-fans rip on us all the time for it. |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2022 11:41:39 GMT -5
I had the exact same sentiment as you until I started dating my girlfriend. When we first started dating my love (obsession, truthfully) for wrestling came up. During that convo she was really confused about it being “fake.” She had no clue that it wasn’t really. It threw her for a major loop. Parsing it out, it’s because she never even took the time to think about pro wrestling. She had no tie to wrestling. She never had seen a second of it on TV. Her awareness was that it was what The Rock did before he became famous. I think there are a lot of people like her. They might think it’s real, but that’s because they really could care less about wrestling in the first place. Why waste any time thinking about it in any way? Since the 1930s, pro wrestling being fixed was the worst kept secret. If anybody thought it was real, it were uneducated inbred yokels. I don't know how the staged aspect on it could've been lost on her, non-fans rip on us all the time for it. I wouldn't be quite THAT crass about it, but old-timers (like the racket-wielding Louisvillian) tend to really overestimate Kayfabe from back in the day. Once you're old enough to know what a real fight looks like, wrestling has a light shone on it, and you either take it for what it is or you move on. As for when it became a work? Probably sometime in the 20's or 30's. I don't think it happened for all of wrestling everywhere overnight, or anything, but Toots Mondt and Strangler Lewis were the first to do it, to my knowledge, because otherwise pro wrestling was more or less like watching paint dry until someone got tired or tapped from a joint lock, hence the need to "work" it in the first place. |
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