History of professional wrestling facts for kids
The history of professional wrestling is like a big, exciting show that combines athletic moves with amazing stories. It started a long time ago, in the early 1800s, with strongmen and wrestlers performing at fairs and shows. They would often challenge people to wrestle them for money!
Professional wrestling is super popular in places like Australia, North America, Latin America, Europe, and Japan. It's different from "amateur wrestling," which is a real sport with strict rules, like the kind you see in the Olympics. Professional wrestling became its own unique thing in the 1920s, where the matches are planned out, like a play, to entertain the audience. This is sometimes called "kayfabe" or "admitted fakery."
Its popularity dipped a bit during World War II, but it came back strong in the late 1940s to 1960s. This was like the "First Golden Age" in the United States, with stars like Gorgeous George. In Mexico, El Santo became a national hero, and in Japan, Rikidōzan was just as famous.
Interest went down in the 1970s, but then cable television arrived in the mid-1980s, bringing a "Second Golden Age." Wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, André the Giant, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Ric Flair, and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper became huge stars. TV helped change wrestling, making the characters and storylines even more dramatic. This made wrestlers into big celebrities and pop culture icons. The World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) grew a lot and became a global sensation.
The "Third Golden Age" was from the mid-1990s to early 2000s, during a time called the Monday Night War. This was when WWF (with its "Attitude Era") competed fiercely with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was also a big player. Viewership and money earned were at an all-time high!
After the Monday Night War ended, wrestling's popularity saw another dip. But even with lower TV ratings, WWE has become a leader in sports content online, especially on YouTube, where it has the most subscribers and video views for a sports channel.
How Wrestling Started
The idea of mixing wrestling with showmanship began in the early 1800s in Europe. Performers would call themselves names like "Herculean" or "the bone wrecker" and challenge people to wrestle them.
In 1830, a French showman named Jean Exbroyat created the first modern wrestling group for circuses. He made a rule: no holds below the waist! He called this "flat hand wrestling." This style, known as Greco-Roman wrestling or Classic wrestling, quickly spread across Europe. By the late 1800s, it was super popular, and in 1898, Paul Pons from France became the first Professional World Champion.
The style of professional wrestling popular in the United States and United Kingdom in the late 1800s was called catch-as-catch can. Unlike Greco-Roman, catch wrestling allowed holds above and below the waist, including leg grips. Both styles were competitive sports at first. But over time, a part of catch wrestling slowly changed into the choreographed entertainment we know today as "professional wrestling," famous for its exciting shows and athletic moves.
Around 1900, wrestling became part of variety shows to make strongman acts more exciting. One early star was Jack Carkeek, who would challenge audience members to last 10 minutes with him. In the UK, a legitimate Greco-Roman wrestler named Georg Hackenschmidt became very famous. His promoter, Charles B. Cochran, noticed that Hackenschmidt's real wrestling was so dominant it might make matches boring. So, Cochran convinced Hackenschmidt to learn how to put on a show for the crowd, making matches more entertaining than just pure sport. This was a big step towards "sports entertainment." Many big stars came and went, often leaving for the US, which caused wrestling in the UK to decline before World War I started in 1914.
The World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship was the first official world title in professional wrestling, created in 1905. It was also the first championship to have a physical belt! George Hackenschmidt won the first title in New York City.
Wrestling's popularity dropped between 1915 and 1920 because many people thought it wasn't a real sport anymore. Also, a big star named Frank Gotch retired in 1913, and no one new came along to excite the fans. To fix this, three wrestlers – Ed Lewis, Billy Sandow, and Toots Mondt – teamed up in the 1920s. They were called the "Gold Dust Trio" because they made a lot of money. They changed wrestling to make it more fun for fans. They introduced time limits, flashy new moves, and made tag team wrestling popular. They also kept wrestlers for longer periods, allowing for exciting, long-term rivalries and stories to develop.
In the late 1920s, the exciting, planned parts of American professional wrestling, like special characters (gimmicks) and submission holds, came to British wrestling. An amateur wrestler named Sir Atholl Oakeley started one of the first groups to use this new "All-in" wrestling style. Because there weren't enough skilled amateur wrestlers, many promoters started using more violent styles, sometimes even with weapons. Women wrestlers and mud-filled rings also became common. By the late 1930s, the London County Council banned professional wrestling, leaving the business in a tough spot just before World War II.
See also
- History of WWE
- Professional wrestling
