The History of Pro Wrestling

The history of pro wrestling is actually one of the most storied and celebrated tales in all of sports entertainment. The Greeks are generally given credit with popularizing the concept of wrestling, instituting the Greco-Roman style immortalized by the Ancient Olympic Games. Basically, you grapple to win, or you're fed to the lions. The modern style of wrestling, in which combatants can attack one another below or above the waist, became popular in the United States and England at the end of the 19^th century.

The History of Pro Wrestling South of the Border
Mexico got into the act at the beginning of the 1900s, with lucha libre-a style of professional wrestling that involved aerial, acrobatic maneuvers. The format exploded in the 1930s, when promoter Salvador Lutteroth founded the country's first national promotion. A wrestler known as El Santo-or, The Saint-would soon take the nation by storm, his trademark mask and mystery generating profits for Lutteroth. Ironically, this same formula would soon repeat itself in the U.S.

Kayfabe
Although its origin is uncertain, the word "kayfabe" refers to the suspense of disbelief we've all come to know. In the 1920s, promoters in the U.S. began to capitalize on the early origins of pop culture by creating characters that could be marketed to the masses. Good guys-or, "faces," would fight bad guys-"heels." And, the winner would be picked in advance. By the 1940s, stars such as Gorgeous George and Killer Kowalski used the early advent of television to spread wrestling to the masses.

Territories
As wrestling grew more popular in the 60s and 70s, promoters across the country began to market their own stable of stars to their so-called territories. Jim Crockett promoted the Carolinas, boasting stars such as Ric Flair; Eddie Graham had Florida and Dusty Rhodes; Texas had the Von Erichs; and Southern California boasted Freddy Blassie. The northeast was in the hands of one Vincent J. McMahon.

Sports Entertainment
Near the end of his life, the elder McMahon reluctantly sold his company to son Vincent K. McMahon, who immediately set out to make the Worldwide Wrestling Federation a global sensation. McMahon slowly but surely found ways to lure talent away from smaller, territorial promotions, and eventually began working with the popular MTV to create programming marketing his stars. Like Lutteroth, he would be aided by a breakout character: Hulk Hogan. In 1985, McMahon and his wife Linda hawked all they had to stage an event at Madison Square Garden pitting the national celebrity Hogan and action star Mr. T. against Roddy Piper and Paul Ordorf, in the first Wrestlemania, a pay-per-view spectacle so successful, it remains an annual event to this day.

The History of Pro Wrestling's Monday Night Wars
By the mid-1990s, the WWF was hurting. Rocked by a steroid scandal, and total awareness of kayfabe, profits declined, and McMahon began to lose his stars to rival World Championship Wrestling, owned by cable tycoon Ted Turner. And in no time, the promotion's landmark show, Monday Night Raw, was losing in the ratings to WCW's Monday Nitro. So, McMahon took a novel approach: since the other guys had the stars, why not create a new style? Building around the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, the WWF came back and defeated WCW for over two straight years-eventually forcing its nemesis to sell out. Rebranded World Wrestling Entertainment, the WWE has remained on top ever since, only lately challenged by the relatively new Total Nonstop Action (TNA).