Professional wrestling in the United States
Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling in the United States, through the advent of television in the 1950s, and cable in the 1980s, began appearing in powerful media outlets, reaching never before seen numbers of viewers.
In the United States, in the First Golden Age of professional wrestling in the 1940s–1960s, Gorgeous George gained mainstream popularity, followed in the Second Golden Age in the 1980s–early 1990s by Hulk Hogan, André the Giant, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Ric Flair, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Ultimate Warrior, Sting, Dusty Rhodes, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, Shawn Michaels, and The Undertaker, and in the Third Golden Age of the mid-1990s–early 2000s by the likes of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, and Triple H. Professional wrestling, in the sense of traveling performers paid for mass entertainment in staged matches, began in the post-Civil War period in the late 1860s and 1870s.
Grand circuses included wrestling exhibitions, quickly enhancing them through colorful costumes and fictional biographies for entertainment, disregarding their competitive nature.
[5] Gotch, regarded as "peerless" at his peak, was the first to actually claim the world's undisputed heavyweight championship by beating all contenders in North America and Europe.
[5] The popularity of wrestling during the early 20th century was highest in the Midwest, where ethnic European communities, many of them German, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Greek, and Scandinavian in ancestry, continued to carry on fighting styles practiced in their home nations.
[1] Following the retirement of Frank Gotch, professional wrestling—except in the Midwest where legitimate wrestlers such as Michigan's "Poison Ivy" took on all comers at State Fairs—was losing popularity fast.
[7] In response, three professional wrestlers, Ed Lewis, Billy Sandow, and Toots Mondt, joined to form their own promotion in the 1920s, modifying their in-ring product to attract fans.
[8] The Trio gained great popularity nationwide during their best years, roughly 1920 to 1925, when they performed in the Eastern territory, acquiring fans from the highly exposed big cities.
[8] The Trio was dealt a severe blow by Stanislaus Zbyszko, when he beat the rookie Wayne Munn for their world heavyweight championship, against the original booking.
This was a time of enormous growth for professional wrestling, as rising demand and national expansion made it a much more popular and lucrative form of entertainment than in decades previous.
[14] Already popular among wrestling fans, he became renowned after comedian Bob Hope noticed his performance in the Hollywood Legion Stadium in 1945 and 1946, and began to use him for jokes on his radio station.
[14] The publicity brought many people into wrestling events, bringing his stardom to a high point where promoters and television stations alike were paying generously for his performances.
[15] The remaining televised wrestling promoters had small, local syndicated shows, which network producers placed as late-night and Saturday and/or Sunday morning/afternoon fillers rather than signature programming.
The AWA reached new heights, however, after powerhouse wrestler Hulk Hogan gained nationwide attention from starring in Rocky III, and became a solid fan favorite.
[25] The 1980s represented professional wrestling's greatest period of televised entertainment, reaching widespread popularity among American youth, as well as producing some of its most spectacular characters.
Meanwhile, McMahon took advantage of this phenomenon by purchasing promotions all over the continent, in order to produce a widely popular nationwide television program and make the WWF the only viewing choice.
[38] This left him with no viable option other than selling out to media mogul Ted Turner, who renamed the promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and continued to challenge McMahon's monopoly of the industry.
Turner promised a more athletic approach to the product, making Ric Flair the promotion's marquee wrestler and giving young stars big storylines and championship opportunities.
Its intense fanbase, albeit a small constituency, reached near-cultism in the late 1990s and inspired the "hardcore style" in other wrestling promotions, namely WWF and WCW.
Austin was the top superstar in the company, portraying a foul mouthed beer swilling anti-hero who regularly defied his boss; The Rock became a star for his cocky persona, his many catchphrases and attractive charisma; Mankind gained popularity for enduring extreme pain, performing dangerous stunts renowned among the industry today; the stable D-Generation X was famous for its adult themes and established star, The Undertaker, added to his fame because of his hardcore matches most notably with Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley, his gimmick which many consider to be the greatest in the history of professional wrestling and because of his overall dominance in the period in which he helped to put over new talent like Kane and win three world championships in this era.
[53] On May 26, 2006, WWE officially announced the relaunch of ECW with its own show on NBC Universal's Sci Fi Channel, later to be known as Syfy, starting June 13, 2006.
Wrestling critics and fans came to view NXT as its own distinct entity during this period, with the brand's shows being praised for their high-quality matches and offering a unique product to the main roster.
[60] In 2017, the National Wrestling Alliance was acquired by Billy Corgan, lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins, including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts.
[64][65][66] On September 1, 2018, All In, an independent event promoted by Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks (then members of the NJPW stable Bullet Club), and featuring talent from Ring of Honor, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Impact Wrestling, Lucha Libre AAA, Major League Wrestling (MLW; a formally-defunct promotion that resumed holding events during the previous year), and the NWA was held.
[67] The show was promoted through storylines produced on webseries, such as The Young Bucks' Being The Elite, Ten Pounds of Gold,[68] and Cody's Nightmare Family series ALL US - The All In Story.
[85][86][87] Gresham, Rok-C, and several talent and staff signed with ROH at the time the promotion went on hiatus would make prominent appearances at Impact's Hard to Kill in January 2022.
[88] On the March 2 episode of All Elite Wrestling's live weekly series Dynamite, president and co-founder Tony Khan announced that he had purchased Ring of Honor from Sinclair Broadcast Group, including its brand assets, intellectual property, and video library.
[105][106][107] Three days later on January 26, Vince McMahon resigned due to sexual misconduct allegations, with Ari Emanuel obtaining greater control as the new Chairman of TKO.
WWE gained national media coverage in 2007 for the Chris Benoit murder-suicide, hypothesized to be related to brain damage resulting from multiple concussions.
The wrestling industry and the nature of the business were widely criticized for this and WWE was affected on the business-side, with the company's stock losing approximately $15 million in market value in the first week.
