The Main Event: The Moves and Muscle of Pro Wrestling
INTRODUCTION IT'S TIME FOR THE MAIN EVENT In 1911 more than 30 000 fans jammed Comiskey Park in Chicago Illinois to watch a wrestling card The night's main event featured Frank Gotch and George Hackenschmidt The audience cheered wildly as Gotch and Hackenschmidt walked to the ring There was no music or fireworks They wore no elaborate costumes Each man dressed simply in black wrestling trunks and black wrestling shoes Almost one hundred years later 72 000 fans filled the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona for WWE s formerly World Wrestling Entertainment annual WrestleMania event After 10 matches it was time for the main event Shawn Michaels entered to his theme music while a video played on the big screen called the Titan Tron He posed in the ring as fireworks exploded A loud chimerang to announce his opponent the Undertaker Inside the ring the Undertaker stared at the camera that broadcast the match to millions of fans across the globe It was the match fans had been waiting for The Undertaker had never lost at WrestleMania but Michaels vowed to end the streak Michaels was so confident that he put his career on the line promising to leave WWEif he lost the match The hard hitting action lasted for 20 minutes before the Undertaker finished off Michaels to win the biggest match of 2010 For more than 100 years pro wrestling has entertained countless millions of fans They are drawn to wrestling characters action and dramatic stories Many people argue that wrestling is staged and not a real sport But to true wrestling fans that doesn't matter Even the WWE admits it the company refers to its product as sports entertainment not as a sport Fans understand They know what wrestling is all about Two men one ring The main event
Wrestling has existed for centuries This British watercolor sketch from the early 1800s shows two men at a wrestling
One THE HISTORY OF WRESTLING FROM ANCIENT GREECE TO PAY PER VIEW any believe that wrestling is the world s oldest sport It is simple It takes only two neonle and requires no equipment Early wrestling didn't even have any rules Almost every ancient culture created artwork showing wrestlers Wrestling was especially popular in ancient Greece and Rome Greek mythology is filled with wrestling stories It was said that Theseus the king of Athens Greece first introduced rules in wrestling The first professional wrestlers performed at carnivals in Europe They used a style called catch wrestling The name is believed to have come from the phrase catch as catch can which was a way of saying that a wrestler was allowed to hold any part of his opponent s body Europeans brought the sport to the United States where it quickly caught on Abraham Lincoln was a catch wrestler before he was president of the United States The popular style in the United States soon changed to collar and elbow wrestling Matches began with wrestlers holding each other's collars and elbows
