Postby Matty_the_Emo_Slayer » Sun Mar 30, 2014 9:16 am
There's been a staged element to wrestling ever since 1912 when Gotch and Hackenshmidt had their re-match 2 out of 3 series for the original world title. By the mid-20's literally all pro wrestling match finishes were being decided by a territory's booking committee, leading to a bit of a balls-up when the New York Times accidentally posted the results a day early. As for what actually happens in the ring the 2 wrestlers normally have pretty free license to work out spots in advance and then the rest is all just communication during the match and familiarity with each other so you know what to do next.
Take tag team matches, they've all followed the same format since the 60's! The faces start off strong, the heels take the control, distract the ref to get a few illegal maneuvers in and stop one member of the other team making a comeback, desperation move, hot tag, good guys clean house, bad guys win by cheating. There's nothing that makes that more fake today than 50 years ago.
Also actual catch-as-catch-can wrestling is just as alive now as it ever was. In fact, the quality of technical wrestling is probably higher than ever, few people can get by in the business without it. The age of talentless big guys like Big Daddy is long gone.
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