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YMAA.Wrestling, Professional
During the nineteenth century, professional wrestling took place in saloons
and circuses for the amusement of gamblers, but during the twentieth cen-
tury it became a kind of muscular theater performed either live or on tele-
vision. These latter productions were often hypocritical, greedy, ruthless,
reactionary, homophobic, racist, and vulgar. However, the change simply
reflected the desires of the audience, for, as former professional wrestler
Robert “Kinji” Shibuya put it in 1999, “The meaner I acted in the ring, the
richer I walked out of it” (Niiya 2000, 136).
How this transformation came about is a complicated story. Even the
roots of the modern all-in style are complicated. For example, in nineteenth-
century Britain, professional wrestling was a gambling sport akin to boxing
and horse racing. In the north of England and Scotland, the wrestling style
most commonly used was Cumberland and Westmorland. In this style, the
wrestlers locked hands behind each other’s backs and then each tried to
throw the other to the ground or make him break his grip. The judges at
these events were known as “stycklers,” a word that, as “stickler,” became
a synonym for anyone who insisted on precise and exacting compliance with
rules.
In the south of England, other styles were more popular. Cornish
wrestlers, for example, wore short jackets, and gripped one another’s
sleeve and shoulders as in modern jûdô. A standard trick involved trap-
ping the right arm and then back-heel tripping. Devonshire wrestlers wore
straw shinguards and clogs, and were allowed to kick one another in the
shins. Otherwise their techniques were similar to Cornish wrestlers. Un-
like Cornish and Devonshire wrestlers, Lancashire wrestlers wore only un-
derwear, and the players started well apart with their knees bent and
hands outstretched. Although kicking, hair pulling, pinching, and the
twisting of arms and fingers were prohibited, almost anything else went,
even the full nelson hold to the neck. (The name full nelsondates to the
early nineteenth century, and refers to the enveloping tactics used by the
famous admiral at the Battles of the Nile and Trafalgar.) Lancashire
wrestling also was known as “catch-as-catch-can,” and is an ancestor of
international (or Olympic) freestyle.
Wrestling, Professional 735