Wrestling

Wrestling, one of the world's oldest athletic competitions still in existence today, is a combat sport in which two opponents grapple on a mat while attempting to apply various holds and takedowns on one another in order to attain victory. Written records, literary works, and archaeological artifacts indicate that wrestling dates to ancient times and was practiced in some form or another by various cultures throughout the world.

Given its long history and global presence, various styles of wrestling have existed over time and continue to be practiced to this day. Each of these distinct styles of wrestling emphasize different skills, techniques, and rules. For example, sumo (a distinct Japanese style of wrestling) features heavyweight wrestlers who attain victory by either forcing their opponent outside of a circular ring or throwing them to the mat. In much of the Western world, the two major styles of wrestling competition today include Greco-Roman and freestyle. In the United States, a third style of wrestling, known as folkstyle, is utilized in wrestling matches at the middle school, high school, and Nation Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) levels.

Wrestling is one of the signature athletic competitions at the Summer Olympics, and since 1904, every Olympiad of the modern era has featured wrestling events. Nations that have won the most Olympic medals in wrestling include Russia, Iran, the United States, Japan, and North Korea. Of important note, wrestling exists as both a legitimate sport and a scripted (also known as "worked") spectacle. Legitimate athletic wrestling based on genuine competition is sometimes called "amateur" wrestling, while "professional" wrestling is considered sports entertainment (as opposed to an actual sport), given its theatrical nature and predetermined outcomes.

Origins and History

Wrestling historian Scott Beekman contends that wrestling is one of the two oldest sports known to humankind, along with running races. Paintings and sculptures, references in literature, and other archaeological artifacts point to the existence of wrestling in ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Hebrew cultures. The earliest known written accounts of wrestling as a competitive sport date to the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, written in cuneiform more than four thousand years ago.

In Ancient Greece, wrestling was promoted as both an athletic contest and a form of military training. Greek cities typically featured a school of wrestling, known as a palaestra, and matches were often held in sandpits. In 708 BCE, wrestling became one of the key events of the ancient Olympic Games. Various forms of wrestling existed in Ancient Greece. The most violent of these forms was the pankration style, in which biting and eye gouging were the only moves prohibited during competition.

Although British colonists brought wrestling to the United States during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that wrestling began to gain a strong foothold in the United States. Beekman notes that Presidents George Washington and Zachary Taylor allegedly enjoyed wrestling, and Abraham Lincoln is rumored to have competed in approximately three hundred wrestling matches as a young man. As immigration from Ireland increased dramatically during the 1840s and 1850s, Irish males brought their affinity for both wrestling and boxing with them to American shores, helping both sports reach new heights in the United States.

The years between 1890 and 1920 saw the split of wrestling into its amateur (legitimate) and professional (scripted) versions in the United States. Traveling circuses and carnivals at the time frequently staged scripted wrestling matches featuring bodybuilders and strongmen to entertain spectators, setting the stage for the rise of modern professional wrestling in the twentieth century.

Notably, in the United States freestyle wrestling enjoyed much more popularity than did Greco-Roman wrestling, whose popularity was concentrated primarily in Europe. The basic difference between these two styles is that Greco-Roman wrestling prohibits grappling below the waist, while such techniques are permitted in freestyle. Modern Olympic competition features both Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling. Since 2004, the Olympics has featured both men's and women's wrestling.

Rules and Regulations

In the United States, USA Wrestling (headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado) serves as the national governing body of US amateur wrestling competition, while also serving as the United States' wrestling representative to the International Olympic Committee. USA Wrestling sponsors amateur wrestling events in the freestyle, folkstyle, and Greco-Roman styles at the scholastic and collegiate levels and is composed of more than 225,000 members who range from wrestlers to coaches, referees, parents, and fans.

At the international level, men's and women's amateur wrestling is sanctioned and governed by United World Wrestling (headquartered in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland). Formerly known as Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées (or FILA), United World Wrestling oversees wrestling competition at the Olympic level. Specific rules of amateur wrestling vary slightly according to the style of wrestling, the age and presumed physical development of the wrestlers involved, and whether the match occurs at the scholastic, collegiate, or Olympic level. Generally speaking, however, amateur wrestling matches consist of either two or three rounds that range in duration from one to three minutes each.

A wrestler wins a match by pinning the opponent's shoulder blades to the mat for either one or two seconds, by scoring more points than the opponent over the course of a match, or through the disqualification of the opponent by the referee. US amateur wrestling awards two points to a wrestler who scores a takedown (planting the opposing wrestler's knees, hands, thighs, or buttocks on the mat) on his or her opponent, while a wrestler is awarded one or two points, respectively, for escaping or reversing the opponent's moves from a defensive position on the mat. Furthermore, a wrestler earns either two or three points for a near-fall (almost pinning the opponent), depending on how long the opponent is held in a near-fall position.

Near-falls that last for five seconds or longer are awarded three points. Wrestlers can be penalized points for stepping off the mat or grabbing the opponent's wrestling trunks or headgear or for performing an illegal move (defined as any hold or technique that poses an immediate physical danger to an opponent). Referees also have the authority to immediately disqualify a wrestler who engages in unsportsmanlike conduct, such as punching the opponent or verbally disputing the referee's calls in a match. A pin (or pinfall) immediately ends the match, with the victory awarded to the wrestler who pinned their opponent.

In early 2013, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the controversial decision that wrestling would be removed from the roster of core sports that make up the Summer Games following the 2016 Olympic Games. After international backlash against the decision, FILA revised the rules of Olympic wrestling in an effort to restore the sport to the Summer Games. The purpose of these rule changes was to inject more action into matches and provide more entertainment value for spectators, as a major complaint from the IOC was that wrestling matches were dull and antiquated. The most significant rule change transformed matches into two rounds lasting three minutes each, from the older format of three rounds lasting two minutes. Additionally, two weight classes were removed from the men's competition and two were added for women, and rules were changed to reward more aggressive wrestlers. The rule changes succeeded in the IOC restoring the sport to the Summer Games in September 2013.

Strategy and Tactics

Given the differences among various styles of wrestling, specific tactics and strategies will vary to some degree, although the ultimate goal of securing a victory via pinfall or points remains universal among Greco-Roman, freestyle, and folkstyle wrestling. Much like boxing, each wrestler develops his or her particular style toward the craft over time in accordance with their own respective strengths and limitations. Wrestlers who exhibit tremendous physical strength may choose to emphasize a few basic or advanced power moves, while wrestlers who are quicker with higher levels of agility may opt to focus on countering their opponent's moves.

Most wrestlers attempt to gain the upper hand in a match by establishing themselves in a position of control over their opponent, meaning that they are in the "top" (offensive) position where they are in an immediate position to score a pin (and automatically end the match) or a near-pin (and earn either two or three points). Research indicates that the first wrestler to score a takedown on their opponent wins approximately 85 to 90 percent of matches. However, some wrestlers who are highly skilled in defensive techniques prefer to wrestle from the "bottom" (or defensive) position, where they can score points through escapes or reversals of the opponent's maneuvers.

The 2013 changes to Olympic rules resulted in a new penalty for wrestlers who the referee of the match believes are deliberately wrestling passively in order to avoid combat and "run out the clock." Such a strategy was, at times, previously used by wrestlers who were ahead on points and attempting to "sit on" their lead. Under the 2013 rule changes, the referee of an Olympic match will now verbally reprimand a wrestler deemed being passive upon the first infraction. Upon subsequent infractions, the referee will halt the match and initiate a special thirty-second session in which the passive wrestler must score one point against his or her opponent; if the wrestler is unable to score a point, the opponent is awarded the point.

Professional Leagues and Series

Wrestling is noticeably distinct from other sports in that its professional version is markedly different from its amateur ranks. Whereas amateur wrestling at the scholastic, collegiate, and Olympic levels is a legitimate sport based on real competition, professional wrestling is more of a spectacle than an actual sport. Professional wrestling matches are choreographed, and the outcomes are predetermined by promoters. Professional wrestling matches take place in a roped quadrant that closely resembles a boxing ring, and matches are scripted in advance. Professional wrestlers typically take aliases or pseudonyms as their in-ring names (such as "Hulk Hogan," "The Rock," and "The Undertaker") and adopt a scripted persona, called a gimmick.

Given the scripted nature of professional wrestling, titles and championships at the professional level are props rather than true measures of athletic talent. Nevertheless, a few high-profile professional wrestlers have had acclaimed backgrounds in amateur wrestling, such as Kurt Angle (a 1996 American Olympic wrestling gold medalist), Alberto Del Rio (real name José Rodríguez, who won a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling for Mexico at the 1999 Pan-American games), Brock Lesnar (who posted an NCAA record of 106 wins and 5 losses), and Jack Swagger (real name Jake Hager, an All-American at the University of Oklahoma who set an NCAA record for most victories by pinfall in a season).

The premier professional wrestling promotion is World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE, formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation). Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, WWE rose to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s to become a multibillion-dollar enterprise that sells shares on the New York Stock Exchange. WWE's signature annual event is Wrestlemania, which occurs in late March or early April.

Although WWE is the largest and most profitable professional wrestling promotion today, various professional wrestling leagues exist in the United States and around the world. Another major US-based promotion is Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling, which was founded in 2002. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, TNA holds regular events and television programming each year but has not accumulated the fan base and revenue to significantly cut into WWE's market share of professional wrestling in the United States. Furthermore, given its limited profitability and revenue, TNA often loses its talented young stars to WWE. After changing its name to Impact Wrestling in 2017 in an effort to refresh its image, the promotion reverted to its original name, TNA Wrestling, in 2024. In 2019, a new professional wrestling promotion called All Elite Wrestling (AEW) was founded in Jacksonville, Florida. Its goal was to provide a fresh and energetic approach to the sport, focusing on innovative storytelling and character development, as well as diversity in its roster of wrestlers. Praised for its fresh approach, AEW has gained significant popularity in the 2020s, providing serious competition to WWE. AEW also hosts international tours, expanding its reach to a global audience.

Mexico and Japan also have strong professional wrestling traditions. Japan's two major professional promotions include New Japan Pro Wrestling and All-Japan Pro Wrestling, while Mexico's premier professional wrestling leagues include Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (World Wrestling Council) and Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (assistance, assessment, and administration). Numerous professional wrestlers have rotated between performing in the United States, Japan, and Mexico throughout their careers.

Popularity

Amateur wrestling is a prominent example of a niche sport with a smaller but significantly more devoted fan base than other, more mainstream sports (such as football and baseball). In the United States, amateur wrestling is a sport that is often popularly associated with athletes and fans from working-class, industrial, or agricultural regions. Amateur wrestling at the scholastic level enjoys tremendous popularity in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Michigan, and colleges and universities that have long demonstrated NCAA championship success in wrestling include the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, Penn State University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Minnesota.

Some recent evidence indicates that amateur wrestling is gaining popularity in the United States. Sports programming networks, such as ESPN, have devoted more airtime to broadcasting collegiate wrestling tournaments since the early 2010s, and a December 2013 competition between Penn State University and the University of Pittsburgh set an NCAA record for attendance at a wrestling meet, as well as setting a Penn State record for attendance at the Bryce Jordan Center. Moreover, grassroots programs and youth wrestling clubs have increasingly been formed to introduce amateur wrestling to new generations and build a foundation for future growth of the sport.

Some amateur wrestling advocates view the popularity of mixed martial arts (MMA) and its premier professional promotion, Ultimate Fighting Championship, as presenting an opportunity for amateur wrestling to attract new fans and participants by grounding MMA competitors in basic grappling and combat techniques essential for success in their sport.

Bibliography

Beekman, Scott. Ringside: A History of Professional Wrestling in America. Praeger, 2006.

Gable, Dan, and Scott Schulte. A Wrestling Life: The Inspiring Stories of Dan Gable. U of Iowa P, 2015.

Hanna, Jeremy. "AEW Signs New Multi-Year Rights Deal, Will Appear on New Streaming Platform." Newsweek, 2 Oct. 2024, www.newsweek.com/sports/aew-signs-new-multi-year-rights-deal-will-appear-new-streaming-platform-1962943. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

Longman, Jeré. "Wrestling, with Revamped Rules, Returns to Summer Games." New York Times, 8 Sept., 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/sports/olympics/wrestling-is-restored-to-the-olympics.html. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

Moffatt, James, and Craig Seskar. Saving Wrestling: The Inside Story of the Sport's Epic Fight to Stay in the Olympics.Exit Zero Publishing, 2013.

Rowe, Reginald. The Golden Era of Amateur Wrestling: 1980s. Archway Publishing, 2016.

"Wrestling Rules Changed to Keep Sport in Olympics." USAToday.com, May 19, 2013.