Maybe; but, the presentation was more legitimate, though US pro wrestling used to be more that way, in the 60s and before. TV really jazzed it up, though there was always the flamboyant element. Some US promotions made a more realistic presentation than others. Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association was built mostly around legitimate former top-level athletes: top NCAA and Olympic wrestlers, international amateur wrestlers, ex-football players, etc. Verne kept the really flamboyant gimmicks to a minimum, until later years. Bill Watts, with his Mid-South promotion (which became the Universal Wrestling federation, before he sold it) was built around logical storylines, with attention to the psychology and tough, hard-hitting action. Florida was another that liked wrestlers with legit athletic credentials. others, like Memphis, used more outlandish gimmicks and matches. Vince McMahon Sr kept things fairly realistic, with an ethnic hero battling monster challengers. His son turned it into a cartoon circus, though it was a gradual change. GLOW was a comedy production with some ring action, by amateurs. They only had one experienced female wrestler, Princess Jasmine, who took over the training after the pilot was shot and worked as "Pepper," briefly. Everyone after her was a model, actress, dancer, or gymnast who was trained by one of the established ladies. It was amateur training amateur, which kind of mirrors many modern indie promotions and schools. As entertaining as the Glow women could be, they couldn't work a match like a Wendy Richter or Lelani Kai, let alone the Japanese women, like the Crush Girls.

I never bought into pro wrestling being real, as it was obvious. The stomping when they punched, the obvious signals, like patting your opponent before executing a move, the running into the ropes for "momentum." Even a kid knows that doesn't happen in a fight. However, the really good performers could get you to question what you "know," if only for 5 minutes. I never bought the idea that Roger Moore was a deadly government assassin. Sean Connery was a different story. Same thing.

You can place me down as a person that never got into it but it was such awesome showmanship , that you had to respect the product. Also, despite it being fake, you still didn't know how each match would end so the drama was real in a sense.

You left out one of the last and greatest: the ROCK! His rants were legendary and his promo's at times were more entertaining than his actual matches. And now he has parlayed those vocal and wrestling skills into being THE HOLLYWOOD Action star.  

And Jesse the Body's line in Predator: I ain't got time to bleed is sheer wrestling gold...

I like Dusty "The American Dream" Rhodes Promo





This is my favorite ...

I missed out on Ernie Roth, as he had health problems when I first started seeing the Madison Square Garden matches, on US Network, and was mostly off tv and died soon after. Lou Albano and Freddie Blassie were the chief managers, when I started catching it.

Central Illinois was mostly off the beaten path for the surrounding territories, so wrestling didn't consistently hit my area until the early 80s. We had the Indianapolis WWA, briefly, around 1975/76, though they stuck mostly with Chicago, with occasional shows in Champaign and Springfield. I think part of the problem was Decatur didn't really have much of a venue until they built the Civic Center, which opened in the early 80s. The only major wrestler I knew of, in the 70s, was Andre the Giant, thanks to the Six Million Dollar Man.

Saw a little footage of him, from the Comiskey Park card, where Nature Boy Buddy Rogers won the NWA World Title, from Pat O'Connor.  He managed the Fabulous Kangaroos that night and provided a bit of commentary, for the broadcast version.

Most of the managers I saw were the guys who dominated in the early and later 80s and beyond:  Jimmy Hart, Jim Cornette, Bobby Heenan, JJ Dillon, Sir Oliver Humperdink, Percy Pringle/Paul Bearer, Skandor Akbar, Sheik Adnan al Kaissie, Gary Hart and the lesser WWF guys (Slick, Downtown Bruno/Harvey Whippleman, Johnny Valiant).

I first saw Cornette when Jerry Jarrett and Ole Anderson made a deal to run a joint venture that would handle Eastern Tennessee (mostly Chattanooga) and some of the smaller Georgia towns, when he managed guys like King Carl Fergie and Norman Frederick Charles against guys like Superstar Bill Dundee and The Fantastic Ones (Terry Taylor and Bobby Fulton).  About a year or so later, Mid-South was being carried on WTBS, with Cornette managing the Midnight Express (Booby Eaton and Dennis Condrey) against the Rock 'n' Roll Express and Mr Wrestling II & Magnum TA.  Those matches were off the charts.  I had seen the original incarnation of the Midnights on a Memphis tv show (when visiting family in Southern Illinois), when it was Condrey, Randy Rose and Norvell Austin, doing a sort of Freebird gimmick ( face any of the three guys, without advanced notice).  Then, saw Fulton start teaming with Tommy Rogers as the Fantastics, also feuding with The Midnights (in World Class) and the Sheepherders (the future Bushwackers, when they worked in Mid-South),  Then got to see them all together when they worked for Jim Crockett and the NWA, on TBS.  That was some great wrestling, with the Midnights vs Rock N' Roll or Fantastics, the Four Horseman, Dusty and Magnum, the Russians, the Road Warriors, Barry Windham, Lex Luger, Sting, the Steiners, Mike Rotunda, Kevin Sullivan, etc...  Great roster of talent.

That would have been the 80s.  The Road Warriors hit the scene around 1983 and the Steiners about 3 or 4 years later, after leaving college.  I can recall when Rick was a rookie, in Mid-South, under his real name, Rob Rechsteiner, teamed with Sting (after Bill Watts told Sting and Ultimate Warrior to learn to work or leave and Warrior went to World Class), managed by Eddie Gilbert.  He started using Rick Steiner at Crockett.  Scott started up 3 years later, in the dying days of the WWA, with a short stint in Memphis, before he came into the Crockett area.


I saw Scott on the Memphis tv show when I was in Athens, GA, going through 6 months of training for the Navy, in 1988.  An Atlanta station had 6 hours of pro wrestling on Saturdays, with both national tv shows (WCW and WWF) and some of the remaining territory shows.  During that time frame they had Continental (Alabama), Memphis, Puerto Rico, and Ron Fuller's USA promotion, in Knoxville, headlined by Doug Furnas (who was a noted Knoxville-based athlete turned wrestler) and the Mongolian Stomper (Archie Gouldie, who worked in Calgary, for the Harts, for years).  The programming was hosted from the tv studio by Joe Pedicino and Bonnie Blackstone, who would also syndicate a recap program, with WCW Announcer Gordon Solie hosting, which featured clips from promotions across the country and a few international ones.  Pedicino was later involved in the Global Wrestling Federation, when it debuted on ESPN, back around 1991.  They used to do fundraisers, with a wrestling show and I remember catching that during their fundraising weekend, for a local police department, to purchase ballistic vests.

Back then, Scott wasn't completely jacked to the gills on steroids.  You could tell he was using them, though it wasn't as bad as it became later.

There is a real connection to wrestling with the Robinsdale, MN highschool.  It produced Curt Hennig, Tom Zenk, Nikita Koloff, Barry Darsow (Demolition Smash/Repo Man/Krusher Kruschev), and Rick Rude, who all (except Hennig) trained with Ed Sharkey, who also trained the Road Warriors (and ran smaller shows in Minneapolis).