A History of Wrestling
Chapter One: In The Beginning
#PWHS #Article #AHistoryOfWrestling #AHOW #InTheBeginning
A few years back I began to write a book on professional wrestling's history in North America. I decided I wanted to include a fairly brief history of wrestling as a whole though leading up to the 19th century when the pro-stuff (as we know it) really kicked off. It's been done before in various antiquated books, but with so much new information on the history of man in general now available I felt it was worth rehashing the subject.
For various reasons I put the whole project on the shelf. Over time I realized the original idea was just not something I felt passionate about doing anymore. Again, various reasons made my decision for me. Some were out of my control, others were personal, and I just put the whole thing to rest. One day I'll hopefully have the time to totally revamp the original idea.
Since then, I've had parts of the book just chilling on my PC. For a while I've toyed with the idea of posting some of it. Maybe excerpts or even full passages, but I'd been hesitant on the best way to do so. Well, I've come to the conclusion of, "screw it, I'll just post the entire first chapter." The first chapter was the history of wrestling before it got all professional.
The rest of the book was to be made up of stories, biographies, and other bits and pieces covering 1860-1911 (approx) and I'll eventually integrate all of that into with the information currently up on the website. For now, here is the first part of "A History of Wrestling." In total there will be six parts:
For various reasons I put the whole project on the shelf. Over time I realized the original idea was just not something I felt passionate about doing anymore. Again, various reasons made my decision for me. Some were out of my control, others were personal, and I just put the whole thing to rest. One day I'll hopefully have the time to totally revamp the original idea.
Since then, I've had parts of the book just chilling on my PC. For a while I've toyed with the idea of posting some of it. Maybe excerpts or even full passages, but I'd been hesitant on the best way to do so. Well, I've come to the conclusion of, "screw it, I'll just post the entire first chapter." The first chapter was the history of wrestling before it got all professional.
The rest of the book was to be made up of stories, biographies, and other bits and pieces covering 1860-1911 (approx) and I'll eventually integrate all of that into with the information currently up on the website. For now, here is the first part of "A History of Wrestling." In total there will be six parts:
01 - In the Beginning.
02 - Dawn of a New Era.
03 - Arrival of a New Era.
04 - Sport For War.
05 - Beyond Europe.
06 - The Explorer Hath Cometh.
02 - Dawn of a New Era.
03 - Arrival of a New Era.
04 - Sport For War.
05 - Beyond Europe.
06 - The Explorer Hath Cometh.
I'm making minor amendments to them as I go along so they now read properly as individual articles. I hope you enjoy them and please bare in mind they were written two-plus years ago.
They say the oldest profession known to mankind is prostitution. That may very well be true. However, if we as a species were there, the chances are so was some kind of warfare or fighting for dominance and more importantly, survival. Before there was the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons and guns or even craft swords and axes, mankind had to rely on their hands a lot more. There were a limited amount of tactics a hunter could utilise with only wooden weapons which needed to be painstakingly hand-crafted. Whether their initial instinct was to use closed fists, open hands or the ability to grab we may never know. What we do know though, is it would not have taken even the most primitive of man long to work using his fist against any object inanimate or otherwise pained him greatly.
Estimations have Homo sapiens-sapiens as first roaming the planet 200,000-300,000 years ago. The world of science is almost unanimous in the view; our species first appeared in Africa during that period. There they stayed for a couple of millennia until around 80,000 years ago. At that point man began travelling across the globe. Eventually reaching all corners. Modern man is just the last survivor in the line of the Homo genus though. Before humans settled into permanent dwellings they were hunter-gatherers. Mingling with the other members of the genus who had been around for a long time. A little under 2,000,000 years prior to sapiens, Homo erectus were starting their time on Earth. It is generally accepted that they were always hunter-gatherers, although it must be acknowledged that a minority declares the earliest members were scavengers.
Based upon skeletons found of Homo erectus (Asian or African) a good amount is known about how they looked and what they were capable of. They were extremely powerful. A lot more so than any recorded Homo sapien-sapien. They were also a lot quicker, probably in shorter bursts similar to a cheetah. This has led to the theory that H. erectus could actually chase down it's prey, leap on it and, yes, wrestle it to the ground. Which could explain why wrestling with animals has been such a long standing fascination in our own culture. Wrestling with a wild beast in this day and age is seemingly senseless, yet people still do it. Admittedly not as much as only a hundred years ago, but they still do it. In the 2015 WWE Tough Enough show there was actually a man named "Z.Z." who wrestled alligators in his day-to-day job.
Taking that theory and running with it alongside the fact H. sapiens coexisted with Homo erectus for over 100,000 years certain possibilities can be brought up. Beyond the obvious reason that we are related. If H. sapiens did not already do it instinctively they would have observed and/or interacted with H. erectus and most likely learned how to wrestle a man or an animal to the ground. Another possibility is; they could have learned how to do it by enslaving the H. erectus, just like our ancestors are thought to have done with Homo Neanderthalis.
There are some ancient tribes that still just about exist in the region of Africa containing the Nuba mountains. They offer their own version of how man learned to wrestle. The claim is made that in the beginning it was the monkeys who taught them wrestling. Well, not exactly. There were no classrooms with monkeys puffing on a pipe, using chalk to demonstrate different holds on a board. Monkeys did and do wrestle though. Through watching the monkeys grapple with one another in an attempt to become the alpha male and also for fun; man learned and then imitated the actions. Most likely for friendly competition as it is believed hunter-gatherers did not have a permanent leader.
When it comes to wrestling, religion is both a blessing and a curse, as Adrian Monk would say. Incredibly, holy doctrine provides some of the earliest examples of the sport. Unfortunately, when religion - Islam in this case - was thrust upon large parts of the African continent old cultural preferences, activities and etc. were cast away. This means that other than a few remaining tribes with their oral tales, there is no concrete evidence for any (mortal) wrestling matches prior to the Egyptians. Cave drawings are fantastic and certainly indicate wrestling, but in reality anything unlabelled is very open to interpretation. It also leaves it very open to how much of Africa actually participated in wrestling. One can only speculate on that matter.
For that reason the Nuba peoples are fallen back on for information. During the 1970's a lady by the name of Helene "Leni" Riefenstahl spent considerable time in the mountains. Her work has been both criticised and praised. For that reason it is necessary to explain that she was born in Germany and had at the very least had a friendship with Adolf Hitler, as well as directing several movies containing pro-Nazi propaganda to boost the morale of troops. There is no disputing the pictures she captured and doubt may very well be placed on the veracity of her words when describing the tribe. Her accounts of the wrestling itself, if anything, are actually flattering. Riefenstahl speaks of their "bulging muscles" and states the passion which filled the men was tremendous. Then she goes into the psychology behind the passion and kind-of wanders off of the charts. It must be noted she claimed they wrestled for nothing more than the "vitality of the village."
As mentioned the earliest known "prize" for a wrestler would have been dinner for the night. Having a leader who is strong, determined, skillful and intelligent, all of which are attributes a truly great wrestler needs, is nothing less than logical. Even to this day to some extent, but certainly within the last two hundred years wrestling has been associated with men of great power. Presidents, Kings and the like have often had backgrounds in wrestling; no matter how fabricated they may or may not have been.
What Riefenstahl described included the Nuba peoples bending so they could rub their hands on the ground, something that greatly resembles monkey wrestlers and the much later Sumo wrestlers. It could have been copied and thus realized it helped with grip during wrestling or it could have been copied because they knew it would help with their grip. The wrestlers also cover themselves with bright colors, a war paint of kinds for their bouts. She went on to say that the only other celebration as important to the village she stayed in was the one held for a funeral. If monkeys were not the reason mankind started wrestling, it certainly makes a jolly good story.
Once the Africans left Africa it took them a minimum of 40,000 years and possibly as late as only 18,000 years ago to reach the Americas. The importance of this is that wrestling was almost definitely taken with them, meaning straight away the idea that immigrants/slaves from the United Kingdom and Ireland introduced wrestling to the Americas is thrown to the wayside.
Chances of any wrestling involving chicanery for this period are extremely slim at best. With no known monetary system and mainly traveling from area to area in tune with the best places to hunt at the right time of the year it meant possessions were all essential items, not something to be thrown away by betting on a contest. What is more possible though is wrestling for the "prize" portion of supper, nothing too serious. After all the tribes which moved around together would have been a tight-knit group.
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
A History Of Wrestling: Chapter One.
Author: Jimmy Wheeler.
Published: September 28, 2017.
Article: #174.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
A History Of Wrestling: Chapter One.
Author: Jimmy Wheeler.
Published: September 28, 2017.
Article: #174.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Picture Information
From the Smithsonian.
The full caption is: "Homo erectus, female. Reconstruction based on ER 3733 by John Gurche."
From the Smithsonian.
The full caption is: "Homo erectus, female. Reconstruction based on ER 3733 by John Gurche."
A History Of Wrestling: Chapter Two - Read Here.
Other articles by Jimmy can be Read Here.