Over the next few weeks I will be posting my five part series on the history of the world title. I have tried to put an individual slant on each one so that they can be appreciated both us stand alone pieces and as a collective. This first part is, ironically, almost an appendix. It deals with the evolution of various wrestling styles and provides a context for the emergence of the world title in the late nineteenth century.
Whether it is adopted children trying to find their biological parents or immigrants attempting to trace their roots back, the desire to know where you came from is an extremely strong one. It is for this reason, that we, as professional wrestling fans, should care about where sports-entertainment, the most dominant brand of wrestling came from and how it separated from its cousin, amateur wrestling. The connection between the two wrestling cousins is as long and complicated as any genealogical story. However, it is possible to trace them both back to shared roots.
The shared roots of amateur and professional date back to 3400BC, almost five and a half thousand years ago, to the Egyptians. When you consider that amateur and professional wrestling only started splitting apart from each other a hundred years ago it becomes easier to see how close a relationship they have with each other. Images, such as the one below, left inscribed on the tomb walls of Beni-Hasan and Vizier Ptahhotpe in Saqqara, allows us to view the methods used by the Egyptians over four thousand years ago.
However, unlike both today’s amateur and professional wrestling, the wrestling practised by the Egyptians was not a form of entertainment – it was training for war. The placement of wrestling images alongside military ones is proof of this. Whilst knowledge of hand to hand unarmed combat is still passed on to soldiers today the last great use of wrestling as a military exercise was by the Russians. When civil war broke out after the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917, Lenin created the Vseobuch (General Military Training) to train the Red Army. Spiridonov was one of the primary wrestling instructors employed. Spiridonov would, after ten long years of research and with the aid of an army grant, finally help to create a comprehensive fighting style that was intended to integrate all others and be able to deal with any threat. This style eventually became known as Sombo. Spiridonov’s improvements in Russian wrestling were developed alongside the military’s hand-to-hand-combat system. Sombo, along with Greco-Roman, freestyle and judo wrestling, is one of the four types of wrestling that is practised competitively on the international stage.
When wrestling entered the Olympics in 704BC it was the militaristic Spartans that dominated the event. Most things were permitted, such as breaking your opponents fingers, but biting and genital grabbing were forbidden. The bouts, which were not split into weight divisions, ended when one competitor had been thrown on his back three times. This style of wrestling leant itself to lengthy bouts contested mainly on the ground. Therefore by the time that the Romans conquered Greece in 2BC it was felt that Greek wrestling was too boring. The idea of a sport being too boring and not lending itself to spectators, perhaps more than anything else, is what has led to the separation of amateur and professional wrestling. In this case though, the Greek style simply merged with the more exciting wrestling that the Romans bought with them. The Roman’s introduced throws from an upright position as well as some armour. However, over time this merged Greek and Roman style - Greco-Roman – evolved and rid itself of the armour and banned the use of the legs to help score throws.
When the Romans invaded Britain, they, like any group of immigrants, brought their culture with them, including their wrestling. The Romans and Britons had numerous wrestling bouts during the three hundred-year occupation. Before the invasion different regions of Britain had their own wrestling styles with the most prominent being: Lancashire catch; Cornish-Devonshire and Cumberland-Westmoreland. Therefore by the time that the Romans left, Britain had four distinctive styles swirling around in its wrestling melting pot.
Lancashire wrestling went on to have the greatest influence out of the British styles. Lancashire Catch was extremely rough; there are records of the Romans complaining that the men of Albion (Lancashire) were too brutal and had little regard for the rules. Conversely, the men of Albion felt that the Greco-Roman style was far too tame. Lancashire Catch traditionally included both pin-falls and submissions. However, as it developed, pin-falls were lost. The reason for this change was that pin-falls could be disputed and fluked; however, submissions were more decisive in finding out who the better man was. This development meant that Lancashire wrestling leant itself to people being able to fight on their backs; they did not have to worry about being pinned. The need to make your opponent submit meant that you had to be able to keep holds for a significant period of time. Due to this, the submissions became known as hooks, as if you attached the right hold then you had your opponent as vulnerable as the proverbial fish at the end of a hook. Prior to industrialisation, Britain’s main export was wool, and it was at wool fairs that people would gather to compete in wrestling competitions in order to take home the prize. The industrial revolution meant that many Lancastrians became miners. Miners, being physical people, enjoyed the opportunity to partake in a brutal pastime such as wrestling. In order to prevent the miners injuring themselves to the extent that they could not work striking an opponent was, at one time, outlawed. Lancashire Catch, which usually consisted of a single round to the finish, would prove to be extremely influential in developing the freestyle method of wrestling that is used today at the Olympics.
Cornish wrestling was, quite literally, the sport of kings. In 1520 the Cornish wrestlers of Henry VIII of England and the wrestlers of Francis I King of France held a tournament in Calais. The Cornish wrestlers are said to have won, despite Henry being thrown with a flying mare during his match with his French counterpart. Wrestling has a long history in Cornwall and it is said that in 1000 BC Corinaeus, the first chief of Cornwall, defeated the giant Gog Magog by throwing him into the sea from Plymouth Hoe. The Cornish style of wrestling has competitors wearing a loose canvas jacket that reaches to the hips and is tied at the front with string. The sleeves are made very loose for the convenience of both parties in taking hold at the elbow or wrist.
Using the jacket to grip opponents, in a similar way that Sumo wrestlers use the belt, the idea was to throw your opponent. A bout was won when three points were scored or a back was achieved. Each corner of the back, two shoulders and two hips, was worth a point if you could force your opponent to land on it. If you threw your opponent so that you scored at least three points at once it was called a “back” and you automatically won. The Devonshire style was almost identical, except that you were able to kick your opponent’s shins. This meant that a great deal of time and money went into designing the best pair of shoes to inflict the most pain. The honour and courage that was symbolised by the wrestling is clear in the wrestlers’ oath that had to be sworn at the start of each match:
war ow enor ha war enor ow bro, my a de omewlel hep traytury na garowder, hag avel ol ow lelder my a ystyn ow luf dhe’m contrary. gans geryow ow hendasow. “gwary whek yu gwary tek”.
Or for those who cannot read Cornish:
On my honour and the honour of my country, I swear to wrestle without treachery or brutality and in token of my sincerity I offer my hand to my opponent. In the words of my forefathers “good play is fair play”.
The Cumberland-Westmoreland style is far more similar to the Cornish-Devonshire style than Lancashire Catch. Just like the Cornish-Devonshire style the grip is a focal point. For this it is far easier to show the grip taken rather than explain it:
When the bout starts the idea is to manipulate yourself in such a way as to improve your grip. This means ensuring your chest is below your opponents to give you leverage and tightening the grip with your arms to cause your opponent the most pain. However, whilst doing this you must always retain the same grip. A fall is scored when you manage to put your opponent in such a position that you fall on him, or he falls himself. By falling on top of him you are showing that it is he who has fallen and brought you down with him. The Cornish-Devonshire style, whilst similar in many ways to this, was the most widely practised of the two.
By the time that immigrants from Britain and Ireland came to America they were able to bring with them a mixture of four different styles of wrestling. When this was added to the styles that immigrants from other countries brought, American Catch as Catch Can gradually materialised. Catch as Catch Can took the fundamentals of Lancashire Catch and mixed it in with elements of the other styles in order too make it more exciting. Due to the ground and submission based nature of Lancashire Catch it was often considered dull and boring as a spectator sport and therefore, in order to be profitable, it had to change. Added to the submission holds were pins and throws. This meant that wrestlers could no longer afford to wrestle conservatively on their backs. With this more exciting form of wrestling, America now had a sport it could market.
“America now had a sport it could market” – I was only half telling the truth there. America actually had two sports; one of which it could market and one of which would become an Olympic event. Catch as Catch Can slowly evolved into freestyle wrestling, similar to folkstyle wrestling taught in American schools, but also transformed into professional wrestling. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there was a slow and steady split between those who were performing wrestling for its athletic elements and those who were practising it for its material elements. Those who were interested in the athletics joined Greco-Roman wrestling in the Olympics and those who focused on its marketing found themselves in the professional wrestling industry.
Freestyle wrestling entered the Olympics in 1912, eight years after Greco-Roman wrestling. The French made slight changes to the Greco-Roman style during the Napoleonic period, but otherwise the Olympic sport is unchanged from the wrestling practised two thousand years ago. Apart from the restrictions placed on the use of the legs in Greco-Roman wrestling, the rules for the two Olympic styles are virtually the same. Since 1989 they have comprised of one five minute round where a wrestler has to try and score a pin on his opponent. To score a pin he has to force his opponent’s shoulders down to the mat for around half a second. Wrestling either takes place from a standing position or on the ground - “par terre.” Whilst also attempting a pin wrestlers are awarded points for applying technical moves on their opponent and thus showing their domination of him. If at any one time there is a difference of more than ten points then the match is ended via a technical fall.
Professional wrestling started off quite similar to its amateur counterpart in that those practising it such as Frank Gotch and George Hackenshmidt could legitimately wrestle and hold their own against amateurs. In fact, Martin “Farmer” Burns, the father of American Catch as Catch Can and therefore freestyle, won one of the titles that went on to make up the unified wrestling title. However, just as Catch as Catch Can came about as a result of its predecessor, Lancashire Catch, being perceived as too boring, it too died as a result of being perceived in the same fashion.
Once, at the start of the twentieth century, the results of wrestling matches frequently started to become worked – pre-determined – promoters came to realise that wrestling’s draw was no longer the fact that it was finding out who the better wrestler was but rather that it was entertaining to watch. Therefore in order to maximise their profits they had to maximise the entertainment. In doing this they decided to not only make the result pre-determined but the match also, thereby making it as interesting as possible to watch. Catch as Catch Can may have been a great style at finding out who the best wrestler was, but it did not lend itself, when fixed, to great entertainment. Therefore it gradually changed and adapted to a style that was better suited to excitement. These changes and adaptations happened slowly and in an irregular manner; however, they were ultimately seen in a wrestling promotion in the northeast of America run by Toots Mondt and the McMahons. Toots Mondt liked to call this new, more entertaining style of wrestling “Slam Bang Western Style Wrestling.” It was on the back of this style that the Capitol Wrestling Corporation was able to grow so strong that in 1963 it could break away from the NWA and form the WWWF. The WWWF eventually turned into the WWF and then WWE. Although the company was not the only one driving forward wrestling into a more professional and entertaining style it was often the primary one.
Both professional and Olympic wrestling have been tied together for almost five and a half thousand years, and it is only relatively recently that they have parted. One, admirably, stopped developing in order to focus on its athletic nature and one kept developing and striving for popularity. Today the two wrestling cousins may seem poles apart, but they are not. They have shared roots and are connected together through the ancient Olympics, traditional styles, immigration and time. Over the years that have passed they have evolved in order to modernise and stay relevant, and they shall no doubt do the same in the years that follow. It is unnecessary for amateur fans to look down their noses at professional wrestling and accuse it of being “fake” and a fundamentally different sport; however, likewise, it is not productive for professional wrestling fans to immediately dismiss amateur wrestling as dull. Both of the wrestling cousins have benefited from each other and their shared roots.
Main Sources
Donald Walker
Fighting Arts
Guy Chase
SFUK
Martial Arts Panet
Stratford Sombo
As always feedback is appreciated and can be sent to ianweinstein@hotmail.com
Part 2 will deal with the creation of a unified wretling title and will be up shortly.
