Where Has Wrestling Gone?

How wrestling in the UK has changed in the past 25 years. Since the golden era, which featured the likes of Mighty John Quinn, Tony St Clair, Steve Grey, Big Daddy & Giant Haystacks when there were usually something like 8 - 12 large events being staged nightly around the country, to the present time, where now there might be 8 - 12 events a week in small venues dotted around the country....What went wrong? The answer is almost impossible to come up with as there are, we believe many factors involved. Looking back to when wrestling was at it's peak in the UK, from the mid 1960's to the mid 1980's there were far fewer alternative entertainments available. Professional wrestling generally appealed more to the working classes than the middle or upper classes, so it was always seen as a cheap form of live entertainment. That's not to say that middle and upper class people did not enjoy wrestling, as we know full well that HM The Queen Mother was a fan, and HRH The Duke of Kent once attended a show at The Royal Albert Hall. But in general it was those on a lower income who attended the live events and followed wrestling on Saturday afternoons as part of World of Sport. remember too that for a time wrestling was also shown late night midweek on ITV 1....In the 60's and 70's far fewer other forms of live entertainment were available. It also has to be said that in that era wrestling looked far more realistic. That's because it WAS! Back in those days you really had to be able to wrestle. if you could not actually "look after" yourself, then your career was very short. Wrestling was like a secret society and there was no way in unless you either knew someone already in the "business" who would get you in, or you were able to attend one of the wrestling gym's and fight your way in! Yes, it was that hard.....Now it seems you don't even need a pair of wrestling books to get into a ring. Just ask a promoter and if you'll work for free you're in! What a change. I remember personally approaching the then main promoter Max Crabtree and asking his for a chance to show what I could do. That was after spending around 6 months being torn limb from limb by an old time wrestler who "showed me the ropes". Max did give me a chance and yes, I was then torn limb from limb my Little Prince in front of my home town crowd, and went straight from the ring to the local A&E department. And I'd been brought into the job by an old timer....You can imagine what happened to those who simply tried their luck? Undaunted I called Max and asked for another try out. The rest as they say is history. I, like all new guys, was put through the ringer to make sure you had the "balls" to fight back. To see that you could actually wrestle. Even though I got a pasting that night I showed enough to the guys at the top for them to appreciate that I could do the job. I had enough about me to fight and come back for more....That was the way it was in those days. Wrestling was still semi real! Even though I will always remember that night, and indeed many more when I was given a bit of a pasting by some of the old timers, i learnt from it. I wonder how many guys who get into wrestling these days would have ever survived their first night a generation or so ago? Yes, many of them can do double summersaults from the top of the corner posts. Do impressive cartwheels in the ring. But how many of them can actually wrestle? Very few I think. So in the old days wrestling was definitely more realistic, and I believe the crowds wanted it to look more realistic than it does now. No one can ever believe that wrestling as portrayed in this era is real. So what are wrestlers now? Low paid stunt men, doing things that could actually land them in hospital? Yes, they probably are. I actually shudder when I see some of the things the guys do in the ring these days. What they are doing means very little, and they are doing it in front of just a few dozen people, but they are risking their lives! What nonsense. Yes, we got hurt in the old days, but most of what wrestlers did then was actually quite safe. The crowds loved what they saw, and they attended in their hundreds if not their thousands. As time went on there were more choices for the public to make as to what entertainment they wanted to see, and wrestling became far less believable, until it's now something of a minority entertainment with just a few people inside the ring and a few outside. In fact on many occasions there are more wrestlers at a venue than there are in the crowd! When I started there were probably something like 300 full time wrestlers in this country with many other part time wrestlers to make up the required numbers. Now I don't know of any full time wrestlers. There are many part timers, many may say they have been wrestling for a few years, and that may be so. But as a friend of mine suggested a few days ago, saying you've been wrestling for 5 or even 10 years means very little these days as you've still probably only been on 10 or 20 shows a year. We did 25+ shows a MONTH......I suppose a real full time wrestler back in the day did something like 300+ shows a year........How wrestling has changed.......I'll continue this theme over the next few days as I do believe there are many people out there who hanker for "real" wrestling to return. What I mean is, the old fashioned style of wrestling, when wrestlers actually but wrestling holds on....not ballet danced there way around the ring!!!!!!