Professional Wrestling

The other day, my brother and I exchanged e-mails about our earliest recollections of this "sport".  We first started wrestling in Florida at a time when a wrestler named Wahoo McDaniel was popular and also played for the Miami Dolphins of the old AFL.  In those days, Wahoo wrestled in the offseason to make extra money.  Wahoo was a "good guy" and we pulled for him and his partner Jose Losario against the feared and masked "Infernos", the "bad guys" managed by JC Dyke. 

My brother and I would go out to the backyard and use the moves we saw on TV like Terry Funk's "Texas Toe Hold" or the Great Malenko's "Russian Sychle".   Fortunately, we did not attempt the "Pile Driver" or other high wire maneuvers. 

In 1978, Henry Winker (Happy Days' "the Fonze") starred in a movie that spoofed wrestling.  "The One and Only" was certainly not a blockbuster hit but provided for some comical insight into wrestling. 

While attending VCU in the early 80's, I met a young man who was training to become a professional wrestler.  He described wrestling to me as a modern morality play: good versus bad.  He would not admit that the matches were staged but would not deny it either.

Over the years, wresting has taken on more glitz, glamour, and marketing with female managers, women wrestlers, and Las Vegas-like settings.  In short, this once strange "sport" has come to mirror our society in many ways.  I will admit, though, to having attended live matches at the Richmond Coliseum which were certainly worth the price of admission.