Friday, January 30, 2015

Wrestling Night


Professional wrestling has been on television since television became popular in the 50's. It was not like it is now.

For one thing wrestling was regional. There were a small few wrestlers who were nationally known. Gorgeous George comes top mind. He strutted down to the wrestling ring in gold lame and beautiful capes. His golden locks were held in place by Georgie pins. No common bobby pins for him. He was in large demand and visited all the regions.

Most wrestlers wrestled in one region only. There were the good guys and the bad guys. They hated each other and battled it out every week for all of us to watch.

I was a little girl.in the early 50's. I did not care much for wrestling. All those old fat men grappling with each other held no interest for me. The moves consisted of full Nelsons, half Nelsons, headlocks, and the like.

One wrestler would put another in a sleeper hold and they would remain in that hold for what seemed like hours. It was so boring.

My grandparents lived on a farm that had no electricity yet. We had a television and we got wrestling. Each week when they came to town to do their shopping my grandparents would stop at our house when they were finished and watch wrestling.

If the weather was decent the kids went outside to play. Wrestling just was not something we wanted to see.

It was dark when we went out. There were still things to do. We could catch lightning bugs and keep them in a jar. We often played hide-and-seek-in-the-dark. It was easier to hide when there were all those nice shadows to cover you. It was harder to find them if you were it. That was one of our favorite games.

Often we would just go to the garden. We would lie between the rows of vegetables and watch the stars. As we looked for the various constellations and pointed them out to each other we learned a lot about the stars. Sometimes we even spotted a shooting star.

If you spy a shooting star and make your wish before it shoots out of sight It is supposed to come true. I wish I could remember what I wished for. I would like to know if it worked.

Even though we lived in town it was quiet at night. As we were lying there in the fresh smelling dirt between vegetable rows we sometimes told stories. We took turns making them up. It was great fun.

I doubt that there were any scary stories. I do not recall knowing about ghosts or goblins at that age. In that time children were to be protected from ugly things in life. The only mean characters I knew about were the eveil witches in fairy tales. We all know what happened to them.

So we liked wrestling night but not for the wrestling. It was slow moving and really boring.

Now wrestling is a faster moving thing. The wrestlers jump off ropes, have high kick moves, and fancy submission moves. It is seldom that you see a half Nelson in hold for minutes. The wrestlers are far more athletic in their moves.

They no longer try to pretend that the outcomes of the matches were not predetermined. It is called sports entertainment instead of a sport like Olympic wrestling is. They rely on personalities and story lines to keep viewers tunig in next week.

Even so most wrestlers have small fan bases. A few are well known and their names will be remembered in the future.

I have fond memories of wrestling night when I was little. None of them include watching a wrestling match.

12 comments:

  1. I remember Gorgeous Geo.! And yes, the televised matches got to be great and frightening fun as epic struggles between good and evil played out in the ring --Atomic Drops! Body Slams! "Pat Patterson ripping the EYES of Pepper Gomez!!!" Of course wrestlers had the remarkable ability to grow new eyeballs every week. They were indeed skilled performers. Some of their moves really were dangerous and yet they managed to keep each other from getting hurt. What fun!

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    1. The wrestling matches seem to move a little faster than way back then. Seldom do you see a hold last very long. Of course wrestling has become more of a gymnastic exhibition for some wrestlers too.

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  2. Hello greetings and good wishes.

    It was very interesting to read this post. It reminded me of my younger days when my father took me to watch wrestling matches. I enjoyed those matches. I used to admire the wrestlers for their strength and skill and I wanted to be strong like them.

    Are glow worms and lightning bugs the same?

    I remember watching scary movies like Dracula and House of Wax and getting frightened in the night.

    Even now I would like to make three wishes when I enter a church for the first time.

    Best wishes

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    1. I now watch wrestling every week. I enjoy it sometimes more than others. It depends on the writers I think. I think the terms glow worms and lightning bugs have been interchangeable but I also think they are different creatures. Lightning bugs fly while glow worms are the larva of some insect. Once I was allowed to watch scary movies I sort of overdosed on them. I find that most "scary" movies now are an excuse to splatter blood everywhere. That is not scary; it's icky. I never heard about making a wish when entering a church. Interesting.

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  3. My nephew is a wrestling guru. He knows everything about any wrestler that has ever breathed :)

    I'm not sure why, but I never got into wrestling.
    R

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    1. I never cared much for wrestling either until my boys started watching it. I discovered it is much like a soap opera and I became addicted not wanting to miss the stories.

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  4. Dear Emma, I like the story of "wrestling nights" without wrestling! I still think that children have to be protected against ugly pictures and news when they are small -- by and by they will learn, but no need to "feed" them with TV or DVDs. Even I still try to get my informations more by reading than seeing news - these are so often hyped, as the wrestling matches from todays you describe.

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    1. It is a shame that children are not allowed the joy of rambling outdoors and left to make up their own fun. There is too much scheduling and too much homework to give them time to be.

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  5. I used to think when I was a child that wrestling was so cruel. Every stop of the wrestlers foot startled me. Until later I realized they were much scripted.

    I didn't wrestle with my siblings but we had pillow fights and we got punished for destroying pillows :)

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    1. We wrestled but it was usually in the context of a fight. Of course my parents did not approve.

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  6. My grandma was into wrestling before but she was so emotional watching that doctor asked to help calm her or better stay away if she couldn't help not getting very involved emotionally as it wasn't healthy for her heart

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    1. I do not get emotionally involved in the matches. But I do get aggravated when the script writers are not consistent or when a character suddenly changes from bad to good or good to bad with absolutely no reason at all. It is confusing.

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