Mid 20th Century
83-740: The Chaotic Wrestling (CW) New England Championship is a professional wrestling title in American independent promotion Chaotic Wrestling . The title was first won by "Latin Fury" Luis Ortiz in Revere, Massachusetts on February 23, 2001. There have been a total of 40 recognized individual champions, who have had a combined 60 official reigns. As of November 24, 2024 Professional wrestling 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling (often referred to as pro wrestling , or simply, wrestling )
166-435: A bona fide athletic contest or competition. Professional wrestling is not a combative sport. Wrestling constituting bona fide athletic contests and competitions, which may be professional or amateur combative sport, shall not be deemed professional wrestling under this Part. Professional wrestling as used in this Part shall not depend on whether the individual wrestlers are paid or have been paid for their performance in
249-415: A performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in the 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing. As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance
332-415: A professional wrestling exhibition. All engagements of professional wrestling shall be referred to as exhibitions, and not as matches. In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from
415-615: A French rugby player and all-round athlete, helped his friend Henri Deglane , a Greco-Roman wrestling gold medalist at the 1924 Summer Olympics , to popularize wrestling in France. In 1933 the two men co-founded the Fédération Française de Catch Professionnel (FFCP). The style of wrestling which was promoted by the FFCP was a flashy American style known as "Catch" as it was based on catch wrestling . "Catch" has since become
498-546: A French troupe of wrestlers performed in Madrid , Spain, and introduced modern American-style professional wrestling to Spanish audiences for the first time. Five months later, the FFCP held the earliest-known catch-as-catch-can professional wrestling show in Barcelona on October 25, 1933, headlined by Henri Deglane and Sailor Arnold. From the 1950s until the 1970s, live wrestling shows were commonplace in France, notably at
581-430: A TV show and held live TV tapings as far afield as Switzerland and FYR Macedonia . Privately owned, subscription-only Canal + was launched in 1984 and carried WWF programming from an early stage. The first live WWF show in France, indeed in all Europe, took place October 23, 1987 at Bercy Stadium headlined by a match with Andre as special referee between Junkyard Dog and Harley Race . The following year 1988,
664-413: A background in authentic wrestling no longer mattered. After this time, matches became more outlandish and gimmicky and any semblance professional wrestling had to catch wrestling faded. The personas of the wrestlers likewise grew more outlandish. Gorgeous George , who performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, was the first wrestler whose entrance into the arena was accompanied by a theme song played over
747-532: A carny term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. Wrestling in the United States blossomed in popularity after the Civil War , with catch wrestling eventually becoming the most popular style. At first, professional wrestlers were genuine competitive fighters, but they struggled to draw audiences because Americans did not find real wrestling to be very entertaining, so
830-519: A central authority. Nor could any of them stomach the idea of leaving the NWA themselves to compete directly with McMahon, for that would mean their territories would become fair game for the other NWA members. McMahon also had a creative flair for TV that his rivals lacked. For instance, the AWA's TV productions during the 1980s were amateurish, low-budget, and out-of-touch with contemporary culture, which lead to
913-585: A champion that Curley put forth: Dick Shikat . The National Wrestling Association shut down in 1980. In 1948, a number of promoters from across the country came together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA recognized one "world champion", voted on by its members, but allowed member promoters to crown their own local champions in their territories. If a member poached wrestlers from another member, or held matches in another member's territory, they risked being ejected from
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#1732793136745996-573: A degree. Vince Russo, the boss of WCW in 2000, completely disregarded kayfabe by routinely discussing business matters and office politics in public, which alienated fans. I watch championship wrestling from Florida with wrestling commentator Gordon Solie . Is this all "fake"? If so, they deserve an Oscar . Professional wrestling in France Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling in France dates back to
1079-404: A distinct vernacular . It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture , with many terms, tropes , and concepts being referenced in everyday language as well as in film , music , television , and video games . Likewise, numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international icons with recognition by the broader public. In the United States, wrestling
1162-410: A fee, a visitor could challenge the wrestler to a quick match. If the challenger defeated the champion in a short time frame, usually 15 minutes, he won a prize. To encourage challenges, the carnival operators staged rigged matches in which an accomplice posing as a visitor challenged the champion and won, giving the audience the impression that the champion was easy to beat. This practice taught wrestlers
1245-405: A legitimate sport. Firstly, wrestling was more entertaining when it was faked, whereas fakery did not make boxing any more entertaining. Secondly, in a rigged boxing match, the designated loser must take a real beating for his "defeat" to be convincing, but wrestling holds can be faked convincingly without inflicting injury. This meant that boxers were less willing to "take dives"; they wanted to have
1328-799: A match against Gus Sonnenberg in January 1929. Bowser then broke away from the trust to form his own cartel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), in September 1930, and he declared Sonnenberg to be the AWA champion. This AWA should not be confused with Wally Kadbo's AWA founded in 1960. Curley reacted to this move by convincing the National Boxing Association to form the National Wrestling Association , which in turn crowned
1411-424: A more literal meaning in those places. A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League . In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, New York defines professional wrestling as: Professional wrestling means an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for the purpose of providing entertainment to spectators and which does not comprise
1494-440: A new city, attendance was high because there was a waiting fanbase cultivated in advance by the cable TV shows. The NWA's traditional anti-competitive tricks were no match for this. The NWA attempted to centralize and create their own national cable television shows to counter McMahon's rogue promotion, but it failed in part because the members of the NWA, ever protective of their territories, could not stomach submitting themselves to
1577-682: A public backlash to force him to relent. When RTF Channel 2 was launched in 1964, wrestling coverage was increasingly migrated to the new channel, with matches on Channel 2 transmitted in colour once the channel's colour service began in October 1967. At least one bout from this early period, a January 1969 match pitting Roger Delaporte and regular partner Andre Bollet against Marcel Montreal and Warnia de Zarzecki survives on colour videotape at France's INA ; other late 1960s/early 1970s bouts originally screened in colour survive only on monochrome kinescope film prints. Top stars of French wrestling at
1660-596: A show on October 7 filmed at the same venue as part of a French/Italian tour and screened in the United States on WWF Wrestling Challenge on November 8 (with hosts Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan purporting to be live at the Arena) saw Rockin Robin win the WWF Women's Championship from Sensational Sherri as well as WWF champion Randy Savage and tag team champions Demolition defend their titles against Akeem and
1743-503: A typical American household only received four national channels by antenna, and ten to twelve local channels via UHF broadcasting . But cable television could carry a much larger selection of channels and therefore had room for niche interests. The WWF started with a show called All-American Wrestling airing on the USA Network in September 1983. McMahon's TV shows made his wrestlers national celebrities, so when he held matches in
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#17327931367451826-586: A victory for all the pain to which they subjected themselves. In the 1910s, promotional cartels for professional wrestling emerged in the East Coast (outside its traditional heartland in the Midwest ). These promoters sought to make long-term plans with their wrestlers, and to ensure their more charismatic and crowd-pleasing wrestlers received championships, further entrenching the desire for worked matches. The primary rationale for shoot matches at this point
1909-436: Is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama , with the premise that the performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship . The staged nature of matches is an open secret , with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions, which
1992-410: Is a true sport. Wrestlers would at all times flatly deny allegations that they fixed their matches, and they often remained in-character in public even when not performing. When in public, wrestlers would sometimes say the word kayfabe to each other as a coded signal that there were fans present and they needed to be in character. Professional wrestlers in the past strongly believed that if they admitted
2075-427: Is generally practiced in an amateur context. No professional league for competitive wrestling exists due to a lack of popularity. For example, Real Pro Wrestling , an American professional freestyle wrestling league, dissolved in 2007 after just two seasons. In other countries, such as Iran and India , wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as a genuine sport, and the phrase "professional wrestling" therefore has
2158-470: Is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction . Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain a " gimmick " consisting of a specific persona , stage name , entrance theme , and other distinguishing traits. Matches are the primary vehicle for advancing storylines, which typically center on interpersonal conflicts, or feuds , between heroic " faces " and villainous " heels ". A wrestling ring , akin to
2241-511: The Cirque d'Hiver in Paris, at fairs or on the occasion of special galas such as on Bastille Day . From 1952, French television regularly screened wrestling. Roger Couderc , Georges de Caunes , Claude Darget (who was briefly sacked for flouting kayfabe on air in 1959, resulting in industrial action by colleagues) and Thierry Roland generally provided commentary for televised matches. In
2324-783: The FR3 network of regional stations broadcast the series La Dernière Manchette ("The Last Forearn Smash") featuring vintage footage, new bouts and mock crowd scene sketches. The following year, in August 1985, the main wrestling coverage migrated from Channel 2 (by then known as Antenne 2 ) to FR3 where it would remain until late 1987. In 1988, a run of early episodes of the New Catch wrestling programme, filmed mostly in France and heavily using local stars already long established on previous television such as Gordon/Hervé, Jacky Richard (as "Travesti Man"), Prince Zéfy and Angelito were screened on TF1
2407-624: The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board that professional wrestling is not a real sport because its matches have predetermined outcomes. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey deregulated professional wrestling. The WWF then rebranded itself as a " sports entertainment " company. In the early years of the 20th century, the style of wrestling used in professional wrestling matches was catch wrestling . Promoters wanted their matches to look realistic and so preferred to recruit wrestlers with real grappling skills. In
2490-557: The independent circuit , to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential promotions are in the United States , Mexico , Japan , and northwest Europe (the United Kingdom , Germany/Austria and France ), which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has developed its own culture and community , including
2573-431: The spectacle . By at least the early 20th century, professional wrestling had diverged from the competitive sport to become an artform and genre of sports entertainment . Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various " promotions ", which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues . Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on
Chaotic Wrestling New England Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
2656-651: The 1830s and exhibitions of Greco Roman wrestling in circuses. In the 1930s French wrestling moved from Greco Roman to Catch wrestling . Between the early 1950s and late 1980s France was one of two European countries, along with the United Kingdom, to have regular national television coverage of professional wrestling . As with British Wrestling on ITV , French TV likewise made household names of wrestling stars like L'Ange Blanc , Le Bourreau de Bethune Chéri Bibi , Robert Duranton , Le Petit Prince and Flesh Gordon . Some French wrestlers, notably André
2739-507: The 1830s. According to United World Wrestling , a Napoleonic soldier named Jean Exbrayat first developed the Greco Roman style of wrestling. Exbrayat performed in fairs and called his style of wrestling "flat hand wrestling" to distinguish it from other forms of hand-to-hand combat that allowed striking. In 1848 he established the rule that no holds below the waist were to be allowed; neither were painful holds or torsions that would hurt
2822-584: The 1920s, a group of wrestlers and promoters known as the Gold Dust Trio introduced moves which have since become staples of the mock combat of professional wrestling, such as body slams, suplexes , punches, finishing moves, and out-of-ring count-outs. By the early 1930s, most wrestlers had adopted personas to generate public interest. These personas could broadly be characterized as either faces (likeable) or heels (villainous). Native Americans, cowboys, and English aristocrats were staple characters in
2905-400: The 1930s and 1940s. Before the age of television, some wrestlers played different personas depending on the region they were performing in. This eventually came to an end in the age of national television wrestling shows, which forced wrestlers to stick to one persona. Wrestlers also often used some sort of gimmick, such as a finishing move, eccentric mannerisms, or out-of-control behavior (in
2988-509: The 1990s, WCW became a credible rival to the WWF, but by end it suffered from a series of creative missteps that led to its failure and purchase by the WWF. One of its mistakes was that it diminished the glamor of its World Heavyweight Championship . Between January 2000 and March 2001, the title changed hands eighteen times, which sapped fan enthusiasm, particularly for the climactic pay-per-view matches. In professional wrestling, two factors decide
3071-653: The Atlantic Athletic Corporation (AAC). The AAC shut down in 1960. In 1958, Omaha promoter and NWA member Joe Dusek recognized Verne Gagne as the world champion without the approval of the NWA. Gagne asked for a match against the recognized NWA champion Pat O'Connor. The NWA refused to honor the request, so Gagne and Minneapolis promoter Wally Karbo established the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This AWA should not be confused with Paul Bowser's AWA, which ceased operations just two months prior. Gagne's AWA operated out of Minnesota . Unlike
3154-728: The British Bulldogs respectively. A third show at the Arena on October 13, 1989, once again as part of a European Tour following on from the WWF's debut U.K shows 2–3 days earlier, was headlined by a rematch of the Wrestlemania V main event pitting champion Hulk Hogan against former champion Savage. This would be followed by a week-long national tour with shows in Clermont , Grenoble , Lyon , Marseille and Toulouse . The WWF continued to visit France sporadically through
3237-538: The Giant and Edouard Carpentier , went on to successful American wrestling careers. By the mid-1980s, the WWF had invaded France and soon eclipsed local wrestling in popular culture. In the 21st century, wrestling companies in France are split between the surviving traditional French promotions and those more styled after American independent wrestling. Exhibitions of Greco Roman wrestling at circuses in France date back to
3320-408: The NWA, at which point his territory became fair game for everyone. The NWA would blacklist wrestlers who worked for independent promoters or who publicly criticized an NWA promoter or who did not throw a match on command. If an independent promoter tried to establish himself in a certain area, the NWA would send their star performers to perform for the local NWA promoter to draw the customers away from
3403-488: The NWA, which only allowed faces to be champions, Gagne occasionally allowed heels to win the AWA championship so that they could serve as foils for him. In August 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a promotion in the north-east , withdrew from the NWA. Vince K. McMahon then took over as its boss. No longer bound by the territorial pact of the NWA, McMahon began expanding his promotion into
Chaotic Wrestling New England Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
3486-401: The arena's loudspeakers, his being Pomp and Circumstance . He also wore a costume: a robe and hairnet, which he removed after getting in the ring. He also had a pre-match ritual where his "butler" would spray the ring with perfume. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon made entrance songs, costumes, and rituals standard for his star wrestlers. For instance, McMahon's top star Hulk Hogan would delight
3569-418: The art of staging rigged matches and fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional wrestling matches were "worked" and some journalists exposed the practice: American wrestlers are notorious for the amount of faking they do. It is because of this fact that suspicion attaches to so many bouts that
3652-561: The audience by tearing his shirt off before each match. The first major promoter cartel emerged on the East Coast, although up to that point, wrestling's heartland had been in the Midwest. Notable members of this cartel included Jack Curley , Lou Daro, Paul Bowser and Tom and Tony Packs. The promoters colluded to solve a number of problems that hurt their profits. Firstly, they could force their wrestlers to perform for less money. As
3735-424: The cartel grew, there were fewer independent promoters where independent wrestlers could find work, and many were forced to sign a contract with the cartel to receive steady work. The contracts forbade them from performing at independent venues. A wrestler who refused to play by the cartel's rules was barred from performing at its venues. A second goal of the wrestling cartels was to establish an authority to decide who
3818-418: The case of heels). The matches could also be gimmicky sometimes, with wrestlers fighting in mud and piles of tomatoes and so forth. The most successful and enduring gimmick to emerge from the 1930s were tag-team matches. Promoters noticed that matches slowed down as the wrestlers in the ring tired, so they gave them partners to relieve them. It also gave heels another way to misbehave by double-teaming. Towards
3901-423: The character in shows must be considered fictional, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers also incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Kayfabe is the practice of pretending that professional wrestling
3984-512: The commission. The Commission did on very rare occasions hand out such authorizations, such as for a championship match between Jim Londos and Jim Browning in June 1934. This decree did not apply to amateur wrestling, which the commission had no authority over. Wrestling fans widely suspected that professional wrestling was fake, but they did not care as long as it entertained. In 1933, a wrestling promoter named Jack Pfefer started talking about
4067-540: The current fashion of wrestling is the universal discussion as to the honesty of the matches. And certainly the most interesting phrase of this discussion is the unanimous agreement: "Who cares if they're fixed or not—the show is good." Newspapers tended to shun professional wrestling, as journalists saw its theatrical pretense to being a legitimate sport as untruthful. Eventually promoters resorted to publishing their own magazines in order to get press coverage and communicate with fans. The first professional wrestling magazine
4150-567: The dominant promoter in France. During the 1970s, Delaporte would reinvent himself from notorious villain to hard-nosed referee. He also owned top Parisian wrestling (and music) venue the Élysée Montmartre until he sold it in 1988. to the production company Garance Productions. retiring from promotion the following year. In the 1980s, wrestling in France moved to a more acrobatic style of action and colourful gimmick-led presentation, as exemplified by lead babyface Flesh Gordon (Gerard Hervé) who had learned his craft in 1970s Mexico. In 1984
4233-515: The dominant promotion in the country. WS's promoters both continued to wrestle with Hervé still as a stouter, shaven-headed moustachioed Flesh Gordon and Richard still as "Monsieur Jacky" in shirt and braces, respectively as lead babyface and lead heel of the company until the early 2010s, when they both retired from the ring, confining themselves to officialdom roles. Mercier retired from the FFCP presidency, aged 65, in February 2024 after 49 years in
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#17327931367454316-552: The early 1990s -an October 9, 1991 show at Palais Omnisports was headlined by a battle royal won by Davey Boy Smith a return to the Bercy Stadium on April 8, 1993, saw Yokozuna, between World title reigns, defeat Hacksaw Duggan while on August 5 that year in Toulon , he kept his by-then regained World title by losing by disqualification to Hulk Hogan , in the penultimate appearance of Hogan's 1983–1993 WWF run. This would be
4399-405: The end of the 1930s, faced with declining revenues, promoters chose to focus on grooming charismatic wrestlers with no regard for their skill because it was charisma that drew the crowds, and wrestlers who were both skilled at grappling and charismatic were hard to come by. Since most of the public by this time knew and accepted that professional wrestling was fake, realism was no longer paramount and
4482-603: The facade of kayfabe as best as they could. In 1989, Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey government that professional wrestling was not a true sport and therefore should be exempted from sports-related taxes. Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real. The demise of WCW in 2001 provided some evidence that kayfabe still mattered to
4565-470: The first place. "Double-crosses", where a wrestler agreed to lose a match but nevertheless fought to win, remained a problem in the early cartel days. At times a promoter would even award a victorious double-crosser the title of champion to preserve the facade of sport. But promoters punished such wrestlers by blacklisting them, making it quite challenging to find work. Double-crossers could also be sued for breach of contract, such as Dick Shikat in 1936. In
4648-444: The former Channel 1, in preparation for the show's full launch on Eurosport in 1989. There was a further run of New Catch episodes screened on TF1 in 1991 after the channel replaced BSkyB as co-owner of Eurosport. Later in the 1990s and into the 21st century, many French wrestlers such as Gordon, Richard (as "Monsieur Jacky"), Zéfy and Scott Rider worked for Belgian promotion Eurostars, run by wrestler Bernard Van Damme, which produced
4731-610: The game is not popular here. Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high. The wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated a lot of fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin". But rather than perform more shoot matches, professional wrestlers instead committed themselves wholesale to fakery. Several reasons explain why professional wrestling became fake whereas boxing endured as
4814-460: The government. They pledged to stop allocating exclusive territories to its promoters, to stop blacklisting wrestlers who worked for outsider promoters, and to admit any promoter into the Alliance. The NWA would flout many of these promises, but its power was nonetheless weakened by the lawsuit. Paul Bowser's AWA joined the NWA in 1949. The AWA withdrew from the Alliance in 1957 and renamed itself
4897-526: The independent. By 1956, the NWA controlled 38 promotions within the United States, with more in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The NWA's monopolistic practices became so stifling that the independents appealed to the government for help. In October 1956 the US Attorney General's office filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NWA in an Iowa federal district court. The NWA settled with
4980-480: The industry was anything but a competitive sport. The first wrestling promoter to publicly admit to routinely fixing matches was Jack Pfefer . In 1933, he started talking about the industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , resulting in a huge exposé. The exposé neither surprised nor alienated most wrestling fans, although some promoters like Jack Curley were furious and tried to restore
5063-496: The industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , maintaining no pretense that wrestling was real and passing on planned results just before the matches took place. While fans were neither surprised nor alienated, traditionalists like Jack Curley were furious, and most promoters tried to maintain the facade of kayfabe as best they could. Not the least interesting of all the minor phenomena produced by
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#17327931367455146-472: The late 1970s and through most of the 1980s, Daniel Cazal provided commentary. Although popular television, the sport's worked nature and working class appeal attracted hostility from such luminaries as sports minister Maurice Herzog who lobbied for cancellation of "vulgar" wrestling and RTF assistant director general Raymond Janot who attempted to pull wrestling from the schedules in April 1961 only for
5229-631: The latter's 1968–1976 campaign for wrestlers to be eligible for " Intermittent du spectacle " status under French law and thus payment even when not hired – of seeking to stamp out competing promoters by driving up employer costs across the industry. As elsewhere in Europe, "American-style" promotions such as the International Catch Wrestling Alliance (ICWA) have sprung up providing a product more consistent with modern American independent wrestling and aiming to supplant
5312-498: The members of wrestling cartels as the champion drew big crowds wherever he performed, and this would occasionally lead to schisms. By 1925, this cartel had divided the country up into territories which were the exclusive domains of specific promoters. This system of territories endured until Vince McMahon drove the fragmented cartels out of the market in the 1980s. This cartel fractured in 1929 after one of its members, Paul Bowser , bribed Ed "Strangler" Lewis to lose his championship in
5395-771: The old school European style in France. WWE (formerly WWF) returned to France in 2007. Backlash France was held in Lyon in May 2024. Roland Barthes 's compilation of essay Mythologies published in 1957) included Le Catch , a dissection of professional wrestling. Barthes examined wrestling as a form of proletarian morality play and examined differences between the French and American styles of professional wrestling. Several French language pop music records were produced by wrestlers and other related personnel such as Le Catch by commentator Couderc and Le Monde est Méchant ("The World
5478-601: The opponent. Professional Greco Roman developed all throughout Europe and became a popular sport, even spreading to America with champion William Muldoon (who had served in the Franco-Prussian War where he had learned the sport). Professional wrestling in Russia continued in the Greco Roman styled, circus-based format into the Soviet era and was generally advertised as "French Wrestling". In 1933, Raoul Paoli ,
5561-437: The platform used in boxing , serves as the main stage ; additional scenes may be recorded for television in backstage areas of the venue, in a format similar to reality television . Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography , stunts , improvisation , and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement. Professional wrestling as
5644-717: The promotion's closing in 1991. In the spring of 1984, the WWF purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), which had been ailing for some time due to financial mismanagement and internal squabbles. In the deal, the WWF acquired the GCW's timeslot on TBS . McMahon agreed to keep showing Georgia wrestling matches in that timeslot, but he was unable to get his staff to Atlanta every Saturday to fulfill this obligation, so he sold GCW and its TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). JCP started informally calling itself World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1988, Ted Turner bought JCP and formally renamed it World Championship Wrestling. During
5727-526: The promotion's last French show for 14 years until 2007. The FFCP remained defunct for seventeen years after Delaporte's retirement. until being revived by second generation wrestler Marc Mercier , the son of wrestler Guy Mercier, in 2006 under the supervision of the elderly Delaporte until his death in 2009. In its absence, Hervé and fellow professional wrestler, veteran heel Jacky Richard, had established their own company International Wrestling Stars Federation (IWSF), later renamed Wrestling Stars in 2012, as
5810-440: The stamina for an hours-long fight. Audiences also preferred short matches. Worked matches also carried less risk of injury, which meant shorter recovery. Altogether, worked matches proved more profitable than shoots. By the end of the 19th century, nearly all professional wrestling matches were worked. A major influence on professional wrestling was carnival culture. Wrestlers in the late 19th century worked in carnival shows. For
5893-556: The standard term for professional wrestling across most of the non-English speaking mainland of Europe. With their friends Charles Rigoulot and Julien Duvivier, both top athletes, they introduced wrestling at the Velodrome d'Hiver in Paris. They became affiliated with the Fédération Française de Lutte (FFL), effectively becoming the professional branch of wrestling within the organization at that time. That same year,
5976-426: The territories of his former NWA peers, now his rivals. By the end of the 1980s, the WWF would become the sole national wrestling promotion in the U.S. This was in part made possible by the rapid spread of cable television in the 1980s. The national broadcast networks generally regarded professional wrestling as too niche an interest, and had not broadcast any national wrestling shows since the 1950s. Before cable TV,
6059-519: The time included l'Ange Blanc, Jean Ferre (the future André the Giant), "Le Tigre de la Lutte", Le Bourreau de Béthune (Jacques Ducrez), Le Petit Prince (Daniel Dubail) , Jean Corne , the masked Zarak (British wrestler Dave Larsen), Claude Roca, André Drapp known as "the Lion of Lorraine", Abdesslam El Alami, Robert Duranton, Chéri Bibi and Delaporte, who also bought out the FFCP from Paoli in 1960, becoming
6142-519: The trial, witnesses testified that most of the "big matches" and all of the championship bouts were fixed. By the 1930s, with the exception of the occasional double-cross or business dispute, shoot matches were essentially nonexistent. In April 1930, the New York State Athletic Commission decreed that all professional wrestling matches held in the state had to be advertised as exhibitions unless certified as contests by
6225-471: The truth, their audiences would desert them. Today's performers don't "protect" the industry like we did, but that's primarily because they've already exposed it by relying on silly or downright ludicrous characters and gimmicks to gain popularity with the fans. It was different in my day, when our product was presented as an authentic, competitive sport. We protected it because we believed it would collapse if we ever so much as implied publicly that it
6308-535: The way of proceedings: the "in-show" happenings, presented through the shows; and real-life happenings outside the work that have implications, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc. Because actual life events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines of performers, the lines between real life and fictional life are often blurred and become confused. Special discern must be taken with people who perform under their own name (such as Kurt Angle and his fictional persona ). The actions of
6391-420: The wrestlers quietly began faking their matches so that they could give their audiences a satisfying spectacle. Fixing matches was also convenient for scheduling. A real ("shoot") match could sometimes last hours, whereas a fixed ("worked") match can be made short, which was convenient for wrestlers on tour who needed to keep appointments or share venues. It also suited wrestlers who were aging and therefore lacked
6474-458: The wrestling industry. Relations between the big two traditional promotions are exceptionally poor – even by standards of inter-promotional rivalries in the wrestling business globally – with each accusing the other of being fraudulent and refusing to speak to journalists who interview the other side. Mercier has accused WS of price dumping their product on venues and TV stations, while Richard has accused Mercier – and his father before him during
6557-425: Was Wrestling As You Like It , which printed its first issue in 1946. These magazines were faithful to kayfabe . Before the advent of television, professional wrestling's fanbase largely consisted of children, the elderly, blue-collar workers and minorities. When television arose in the 1940s, professional wrestling got national exposure on prime-time television and gained widespread popularity. Professional wrestling
6640-488: Was challenges from independent wrestlers. But a cartelized wrestler, if challenged, could credibly use his contractual obligations to his promoter as an excuse to refuse the challenge. Promotions would sometimes respond to challenges with "policemen": powerful wrestlers who lacked the charisma to become stars, but could defeat and often seriously injure any challenger in a shoot match. As the industry trend continued, there were fewer independent wrestlers to make such challenges in
6723-650: Was previously considered a niche interest, but the TV networks at the time were short on content and thus were willing to try some wrestling shows. In the 1960s, however, the networks moved on to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped. The core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s. In 1989, Vince McMahon was looking to exempt his promotion (the World Wrestling Federation ) from sports licensing fees. To achieve this, he testified before
6806-415: Was something other than what it appeared to be. I'm not sure now the fear was ever justified given the fact that the industry is still in existence today, but the point is no one questioned the need then. "Protecting the business" in the face of criticism and skepticism was the first and most important rule a pro wrestler learned. No matter how aggressive or informed the questioner, you never admitted
6889-417: Was the "world champion". Before the cartels, there were multiple wrestlers in the U.S. simultaneously calling themselves the "world champion", and this sapped public enthusiasm for professional wrestling. Likewise, the cartel could agree on a common set of match rules that the fans could keep track of. The issue over who got to be the champion and who controlled said champion was a major point of contention among
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