You’ve hit on a great idea. Pro wrestling could be run just as it is today, but be judged by gymnastic-style judging. The ‘winner’ wouldn’t matter, but they’d get points based on how well they ‘won’ or ‘lost.’ It’s clear that wrestling has its own integrity, and judges could evaluate based on who best exemplified the activity. Then it would become a competition in the true sense of the word.
except i see it as more of a figure skating type activity. you know, “well john, she wobbled a little while landing that triple axle, and that’s going to hurt her.” “well john, his form going into the suplex was excellent, but his left elbow flared out just a little too far during the actual slam. i think the judges are going to deduct for that.”
-ellis
In gymnastics, the equivalent to figure skating is “floor exercises”. You know, when the athlete runs across the floor and then does somersaults, flips and such to music.
>< DARWIN >
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jab1 said;
Actually, rhythmic gymnastics is a different thing than regular gymnasics, with the floor exercises you mention. Rhythmic gymnastics is an art form type demo using one of four tools (a ball, a hoop, a ribbon on a stick, um, maybe it’s just three?). It’s more about fluid movements and flexibility than acrobatics and tumbling. (Ever seen it? Those girls can bend!) I think an analogy might be like ice dancing vs. figure skating. Maybe.
The distinction ellis appears to be making is between technical merit vs. artistic expression. Loosly this would be akin to measuring the technical merit on the quality of the body slam and artistic content on the choice of a body slam vs. a head drop. (Don’t know technical name, don’t care.) Obviously if you hurt your opponent, you get a low score for technical merit. 
As for turning pro-wrestling into a competition in this manner, it just seems like a dumb idea. If you wanted wrestling to be a real competition, I think there’s an easier and better way to go about that. Of course that might ruin some of the “entertainment”.
Besides, there already IS a form of competitive wrestling: Greco-Roman. But it’s all amateur. (I’m sure you already knew this. I’m just trying to cover all bases here.) I think I’d like to watch a league of professional Greco-Roman wrestlers. It would have to be without the badly-acted theater of the WWF and its ilk, which means it probably wouldn’t be very popular. But maybe it would work with proper promotion.
>< DARWIN >
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Hey, there’s LOTS of forms of competitive wrestling… let’s not forget the babes in mudpits, frinstance.
jab1 -
funny you mention greco-roman. i caught my weekly small dose of WWF monday night (great study break!), and saw a character with a couple of medals around his neck. my local source on all information WWF told me that this guy had won a couple of olympic medals in greco-roman (IIRC, at the atlanta games), and is now wrestling “professionally.” wonder what his take on this all would be.
-ellis
Don’t forget swiss wrestling.
http://www.schwingfest.ch/perspectives/index_f.html