When I was younger I was a member of a wrestling club for a while. I had no particular love for the sport but the club used to get free, unsupervised access to a local school swimming pool on Monday evenings and that was the attraction for me.
We used to turn the heating up full until the pool was so warm it steamed and had water fights with the firehoses.
Back then American wrestling was unheard of in England and we had our own wrestling stars.
Arguably the most famous was Big Daddy who came from my home town of Halifax in Yorkshire. He used to wear a top hat and his battle cry was 'Easy, Easy' and his signature move was the Big Daddy Splash' which entailed a very fat man belly flopping on your head.
In fact most British wrestlers back then tended to be on the chubby side, Giant Haystacks was six foot eleven inches tall and looked like a huge cannonball with a beard.
The audience seemed to consist mainly of old ladies, some of whom would become so crazed with blood lust they would hit the wrestlers with their handbags if they were thrown from the ring.
The big, fat lads are pretty much gone now, replaced by the pumped-up, shouty, mulleted egomaniacs of American wrestling with their over-the-top threats and fireworks.
I've never really got wrestling, it seems to be a violent sport for people who don't like violence. Everything is choreographed and staged and everyone knows that no-one will really be hurt, unlike boxing or cage fighting where the violence is very much real.
It is pure entertainment and spectacle and seems a long way from what I learned at wrestling school which was grapples, holds and throws. We never learned how to hit someone over the head with a folding chair or clatter someone with a step ladder.
So wrestling is a fairly harmless pantomime with no real injuries. Unless you count all the wrestlers who have died from heart failure due to steroid abuse, that is.
21 comments:
I never really got into wrestling.
You never wrestled IN the pool, did you? While that may have been somewhat entertaining ("Two men enter, one man leaves"), it would tend to winnow down the competitors.
Unless it was a contest between wrestling mermaids.
I'd pay to see that.
I used to be into it as a kid/teen. It was an over the top testosterone soap opera lol. I knew it was fake, although I would like to add that it is by no means safe.
They get injured, a lot and often. Yes they pull their punches, but it is still more contact then a Hollywood fight for example. What's fake is the outcome of the matches.
Sorry didn't mean to make it sound like a rant... Still I think wrestling in general would be more fun if old ladies would hit the wrestlers with their handbags.
I never got into it. But I'm old enough to remember seeing Ric Flair while channel surfing. hehe
OT: Then this post is not for you.
Al: It was a swimming pool, not Thunderdome.
Bobo: Point taken. My opinion on American Wrestling is unqualified.
Duffboi: Ric what?
as a kid i loved that crap! and i even saw the g.l.o.w. girls.
it's exactly as one may imagine...
well, maybe not in every way.
I was never allowed to watch American wrestling growing up because of it's "violent nature." Ironic, no? I'm thankful though, my young eyes didn't need to see sweaty, bloated, hairless men in speedos 10 sizes to small. Surely there would have been some emotional scarring.
Violet: I'm trying to imagine the g.l.o.w girls and frankly it's rude.
Hannah: Did your parents let you watch Rollerball?
Ahh, amazing!
I remember I used to watch the wrestling, when I was younger, with my brothers. It must of had a huge impact on my life, because I also remember play-wrestling on my couch. A pretty sad life to lead, but who could resist watching sweaty men beating each other up. TRIPLE H!
My Nan loved Big Daddy - used to get right on the edge of her seat and shout at the telly. And she was a rather large lady so it wasn't easy for her to so that.
Every time I see a pic or hear of him it makes me think of her :)
I love it when someone gets my movie allusions! Thank you for playing our game.
And thank goodness it WASN'T Thunderdome.
Can you list these wrestlers that died of heart failure from steroid use? I know Randy Savage died from a heart attack, but he was old, and it might have been from his diet. I am not a fan of wrestling.
Well there is wrestling the olympics sport wich nobody knows about, and the wrestling show where more than fight, they grab the mic and say dumb stuff and ppl think its real. I think its pretty funny.
It baffles me too, although I think I would have liked it back in the day, if only to watch the little old ladies in action
Never liked wrestling, and feel like there is a bit of a "nerd" stigmata attached to those who do. Plus, I'm not quite sure if being a wrestling star makes one qualified for government positions, but it seems to help them get the vote. That makes sense, right?
Hey, that MR. Pumped-up-shouty-mulletheaded-egomanical-American to you.
I never really understood the whole wrestling thing and it has always been rather puzzling why men would want to roll around on the floor with their faces in other men's crotches...
Go Wrestling! I can now wrestle with no fear of dying from injuries! But I took massive amounts of roids... so maybe...
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