Styles in Professional Wrestling
Professional wrestling is, and will always be, one the premier social, entertaining spectacles in our society. The masked-luchadore, the 500 pound hairball, even the beautiful valets at ringside. The glitz, the glamour, and the spotlight. Every man that steps in the ring knows their duty; to perform in front of capacity crowds while enveloping each fan in the stands with a passion and characteristic of self-worth. The reassurance that even in a world where entropy seems destined to live, the good shall always prevail. The actors and playwrights in the drama explode through the camera using various different techniques or styles, which present each as having a "unique" quality to them. These artistic styles can be classified into one of the following categories: Technical, Lucha Libre or High-Flying, and Ground Grappling.
Until the break of 1980, wrestling was primarily a big man's game. Sheer strength and intensity ruled the ring, forcing smaller wrestlers to take the extra leap to make a name for them. The real main-eventers were the Bruno Sammartinos, and the Bob Backlunds, and Killer Kowalskis. Men like Bret"Hitman"Hart, Tito Santana, Ricky Steamboat, and the "Macho King"Randy Savage had to add more excitement to their style due to the lack of strength. What they would devise became the most popular ring structure for over 15 years. Technical wrestling is best characterized by faster, moving confrontations with endurance to the end. A good technical wrestler, such as Bret Hart, will use a series of fast-paced moves that don't take much strength but rather his opponents' momentum. He will use the ropes to give him more speed but he isn't clumsy on the rebound. He's quick to counter just about anything and he definitely isn't afraid of taking his attack to the next level, such as ascending the turnbuckles. He will take risks but he can usually access second and third winds when endurance becomes an issue. The technical wrestler has a keen sense of his surrounding environment, and because he is always alert he usually finds himself controlling the situation.
Lucha Libre in Spanish means, "free fight." And in the wrestling world it is just that, a "free fight." The idea of high-flying was first realized in Mexico and Japan and became a very hot commodity in the mid-90's.
Vince McMahon’s WWF is a multi-million dollar corporation and has been wildly successful in capturing the sports entertainment market. “Monday Night Raw,” the weekly soap opera on TNN, is one of the three most watched cable shows each week. In addition, the WWF has weekly wrestling shows on UPN and MTV. Personally, I am caught up in the phenomenon. I set aside my Monday evenings to watch Monday Night Football and professional wrestling. I enjoy attempting to figure out the storylines before they unfold and attempt to guess the action that may happen in the next segment.
Today I am taking a break from the series of articles I usually write, to bring you a subject I have thought about for a long time. I only started paying attention to wrestling in my teen years, so the "Attitude Era" was what I considered wrestling. I won't go into what made the era special, because that would be insulting to your intelligence, everyone knows what made the era successful, and why some fans still pine for it. Needless to say, it was "cool", it suited the times, and it broke the mold formed over the previous decades.
It disclosed people’s despair, fears, cowardice, as well as other negative feelings in front of difficulties and challenges, and exposed their stupidity by illustrating their ugliness and laughter as they watched wrestlers sabotaging one another and good friends turning against each other. Chris Hedges depicted a pseudo-world where people tend to seek comfort from other people’s misfortunes and care about nothing but fame and money. Under the “enormous positivity” created by the spectacle, the reality is actually a dead end. As it is said, “The modern spectacle depicts what society can deliver, but within the depiction what is permitted is rigidly distinguished from what is possible.” In the celebrity culture, fame and money are the images, pursued by the public, forming numerous social networks among people engaged. People will get lost alongside the road, yet he/she may not notice, because as it is said, “the spectacle is both the outcome and the goal of the dominant mode of production.” Images are unlimited goals, coming with countless outcomes. The spectacle keeps developing itself, as more and more people need no realities but more detailed
"They (wrestlers) think they are indestructible. But I’ll tell you what -- those three athletes thought they were indestructible, too. And they aren’t around to talk about it."Wrestlers believe that it is mind over body; they can accomplish anything and nothing bad will ever happen to them. So, LaRosa’s behavior on that fatal day in November wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for many college wrestlers. He was wearing sweats over a rubber suit and riding a stationary bike in a steam-filled shower room. His body temperature reached 108 degrees. He was trying to make weight for his match the next day, and wrestling’s rules did little to discourage such dangerous practices. The logic in wrestling is to make the lowest weight you can in the weigh-ins, which are 24 hours before the match. Then you can replenish and rehydrate your body over the course of the 24 hours between the weigh-in and the match. This will give you an advantage in the competition because you really will be bigger and stronger then most of the wrestlers in that lower weight class.
... millions watching around the world. Hart fell from rafters 40 feet above the ring, hitting his head on a turnbuckle on the way down and snapping his neck. He died on impact, during what was a common way for him to enter the ring as his "Blue Blazer" persona. Knee and back injuries plague wrestlers from Hulk Hogan to Steve Austin and all the way down, and always have. Pro wrestling is just as dangerous as pro football. And wrestlers get paid a whole lot less, on average.
society portrays them to be. The wrestlers and their actions are widely exaggerated and people
Wrestling is more than just a sport; it is a way of life. And for those who enjoy its opportunities, it is something that takes the mind off of all of life’s troubling times, and puts one man against another to get their hand raised. Competition makes everything evolve, and there is no other sport that epitomizes what competition truly is. Wrestling spans the entire globe, and although it incorporates several different styles and many National and World events, remains overlooked by most.
I have many things that I love in this life, one of those things is wrestling. I have been wrestling for seven years and I have developed quite the passion and love for it. Wrestling has always been an interesting sport for me. Growing up in Oregon I watched my uncles wrestle in high school. I watched both of them win their state tournament in their respective weight classes, this is one of my fondest memories of my childhood. One of them went on to wrestle division one, I thought this was the coolest thing in the world. I looked up to my uncles and wanted to be just like them. I did not always wrestle though. The process of pursing my dream as of becoming a wrestler started of with basketball, then went to a rocky start, then being on Worland High School wrestling team.
The more deaths that were taken place within the industry, the more the industry kept being looked at by the media. The media began to get ahold of medical reports from doctors stating the cause of deaths and how many wrestlers have died from it. Swartz stated “ at least 65 wrestlers died in that time, 25 from heart attacks or other coronary problems -- an extraordinarily high rate for people that young, medical officials say”(Behind fun façade…). Once this all became public to the world wrestling promoters and those who were in high position of power began to take action. It took a high number of tragedies for the company to realize the difference between right from wrong and to understand that the wrestlers are human being as well and do also have a health
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, echoes through my head as I walk to the middle of the mat. "At 160lbs Aidan Conner of La Junta vs. Rodney Jones of Hotchkiss." All I can think of is every bead of sweat, every drip of blood, every mile, every push up, every tear. Why? All of this: just to be victorious. All in preparation for one match, six minutes. For some these six minutes may only be a glimpse, and then again for some it may be the biggest six minutes of their life. Many get the chance to experience it more than once. Some may work harder and want it more than others, but they may never get the chance. All they get is a moral victory. Every kid, every man comes into the tournament with a goal. For some is to win, for some is to place, others are just happy to qualify. These six minutes come on a cold frigid night in February at a place called the Pepsi Center. Once a year this gathering takes place when the small and the large, the best of the best, come to compete in front thousands of people. I am at the Colorado State Wrestling Championships.
...o go above and beyond their limits, and inspires an uproar from crowds who come to watch them compete.
In The World of Wrestling by Roland Barthes, he takes the sport of wrestling and turns it into a modern day myth. He talks of the French wrestling scene describing the spectacle, the venues, and the wrestlers themselves. It is well known that wrestling itself isn’t real, just acting but it is still fancied by many people. The wrestler personalities are typically categorized the bastards and the good guys often having good fighting evil. The role a particular wrestler plays might also change from time to time as in the case of Hulk Hogan. This man changes faces more often then someone would change their socks, having his alliances and enemies changing from week to week.
The Hotchkiss High School Wrestling room, though bland through out most of the year, transforms during the winter sports season. By itself, the room is nothing. It could be used for many things, but happens to be the perfect size and shape for a wrestling mat to be laid down with a little room on either side. What makes the room so significant is not the shape, size, color or any other dimension. It is the people; the atmosphere during a wrestling practice that makes the room so infamous.
When they see the wrestlers they are so much bigger than they thought. The wrestlers have big and powerful wrestlers. They are always in top condition. The smaller wrestlers still have muscles but they are not as powerful as the bigger ones. The smaller wrestlers rely on their speed to win their matches.