But then he figured that he’d be out of a job, so he never did it. Here, the never-at-a-loss-for-words Jim Cornett relates what happened in one instance, when a hapless jobber decided he was going off script. I’ve broken the link because it does contain foul language:
Professional wrestling had pre-determined outcomes since the turn of the 20th century.
I was never really a fan of wrestling but my teen sons loved it so I saw quite a bit of it. I became convinced that it was the ultimate entertainment vehicle imaginable. Even the “players” had fake lives designed to enhance the main product.
It was as though the on court rivalry between Lebron James and Kobe Bryant wasn’t enough, so Lebron had to be screwing Kobe’s ex-wife, while secretly being offered a contract by the Lakers. And they weren’t really named Lebron James or Kobe Bryant.
So I never cared about the wrestling but amused myself trying to work out the coming plot twists. And I loved the fact that my sons and the fans seemed to take it all at face value. It was good fun for a few years.
Thanks to all the replies. A missed some before I last posted. Very informative.
Good point above. Fake is wrong to say. Scripted is more accurate. The athletic talent is real. The injuries are real.
My Mom’s Mom(my grandmother) watched it in the 1960’s in England of all places. She swore the stuff was real, but my Mom said it was obviously as fake as it was in the 1980’s, when I watched it.
My Mom said she did not remember ridiculous costumes back in the 60’s, though. The men were all wearing actual wrestling outfits.
That is what makes it fake. Forest Gump is also fake.
The fact that they are stunts is what makes them fake. Much like how action sequences in movies are fake, often performed by stuntmen doing stunts.
“Fake” means the reality is different than what is being presented. Pro wrestling is fake by definition.
My mother said the same of my grandfather watching it in the 50s. Before my time. I knew not to take it serious in the 80s when I was watching as a teenager.
Kayfabe was kept well into the late 90’s. Vader was arrested in Kuwait in the spring of 1997 for assaulting a local television host who asked if it was real.
There was still pretty serious punishment for breaking kayfabe back in the 90’s. Check out the Curtain Call from the middle of 96 for what is considered the first breaking of kayfabe in the ring.
In the fall of 1997, Vince McMahon gave his speech where he acknowledged on camera that it was entertainment. I pretty much consider this to be the end of kayfabe.
Greco-Roman wrestling has very little to do with Professional Wrestling at all. Professional Wrestling came out of freestyle wrestling, which is what most people think of when they think of wrestling. (And which is what most high-school and college competitive wrestling, at least in the U.S., consists of. The Olympics has both freestyle and Greco-Roman competitions.)
The main difference between Greco-Roman and freestyle is that Greco-Roman does not permit holds below the waist.
Whereas in professional wrestling, everything’s legal as long as the referee doesn’t see it, and even if he does, it’s probably legal anyway as long as it gives a good show.
I recall in the 70’s that Mid South wrestling would occasionally have a clean, scientific match. At least thats what they called it. Back then a lot of pro wrestlers had strong collegiate backgrounds. They’d put on a really good clean match. Usually it was two faces wrestling. I always looked forward to those matches.
But, I suspect the winner was still predetermined.
That would be about the same time as that business in Montreal, I think it was the first time that it was so blatant.
Montreal wasn’t scripted though. Bret Hart didn’t want to do business, so they pulled a swerve and took his belt. Vince got a black eye for it backstage.
Wrestling became fixed as soon as there was substantial money in it. There were no real regulating bodies in the sport since … ever. For many years wrestling promotions relied on experienced champions who knew how to defeat, even injure, competitors who didn’t cooperate. Eventually the business became so refined in it it’s internal organization that no wrestler would fail to follow the pre-determined outcome because they would never work again. Because of the nature of the game, there is no way to determine when the fixing started, and to what extent. The entire history of wrestling is lore provided by professional showmen.
Yes I know, I distinctly remember that Montreal was the first time that it became very clear that it was scripted and the WWF (as it then was) did not go above the perfunctory to hide it.
It might have been before that when Vince McMahon publicly declared it was scripted so he was no longer subject to local athletic commissions.
Rocky III, which came out in 1982 – predating the 20/20 piece – featured a scene with a promotional match between the Heavyweight Boxing Champ (Rocky Balboa) and the Heavyweight Wrestling Champ (“Thunderlips”, played by Hulk Hogan). After some initial posturing ang grappling, Rocky gets a couple of punches in, at which point Thunderlips leans in and says to him, “It’s all fake, Meatball! All fake!”
Now, I don’t think WWF was mentioned by name, and Hogan wasn’t playing himself. But even so, he was WWF’s best-known wrestler at the time, and I’d have to guess they had some contractual control over his outside appearances. Seems to me that line was as good as an admission that the WWF itself was fake.
I think you are misremembering the scene. As he is beating the crap outta him Hogan is yelling “think it’s fake meatball?” After Rocky throws him out of the ring Thunderlips becomes friendly and takes a picture with him. And I believe Hogan was out of the WWF at the time. He came back after the movie because of the new popularity. And he turned into a good guy.
I don’t think you’re remembering that right. First off, it was explicitly an exhibition match for charity – which wouldn’t prove all his wrestling matches are fake, any more than it proves all of Rocky’s boxing matches are fake – and it’s Rocky who lands the initial punches, followed by Thunderlips getting in good shots and fairly well bellowing the “think it’s all fake?” bit.
What follows is, AFAICT, supposed to be unscripted; there’s never any indication the shenanigans were rehearsed (yes, right down to the proverbial guy rushing into the ring to hit someone across the back with a chair), sure as Rocky’s post-fight comment is “Hey, why’d you get so crazy on me out there?”
[edited: ninja’d by Loach!]
Hmmmm, I suppose I’m outvoted here. Though I don’t remember all the choreography, in my head I can distinctly hear Hulk saying “It’s all fake, Meatball! All fake!”
It’s been years, but I saw that scene multiple times (worked as a theater usher at the time). Either I never heard “Think” before “It’s all fake” or just have the memory wrong after all this time.
In any case, my take on Pro Wrestling is that, although it’s obviously scripted, they’re still doing real, physically challenging, highly athletic moves in there, and it’s pretty damned impressive.