Pro Wrestling "Fake"

Professional wrestling has grown since its early inceptions, but has changed more than probably any other sports has since its creation, and no event was more important to the change than on February tenth, nineteen eighty nine, when they admitted pro wrestling is not a sport. Here's the story behind this iconic event on today's Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. It's never really been a secret that pro wrestling isn't on the level, with there being more drama behind the scenes and in the ring than even in a high school locker room. Not many other sports do we know or hear the athletes talk as much as they do in wrestling. In nineteen eighty eight, we finally got confirmation. So on February tenth, nineteen eighty nine, Generation, which is now known as the WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, was testifying before the New Jersey State Senate. The reason why you testifying is to stay that pro wrestling was strictly entertainment in a performance, not a competition. Now, why would they do this, Why would they unveil the curtain the illusion that this isn't a real sport. The reason was to deregulate the sport, and the closest sport that resembles the regulation that wrestling was going into was boxing. Boxing is heavily regulated. You can only use certain gloves, you can only wear certain things, you can only participate at these times. And wrestling was under the same scrutiny as boxing. So a lot of the things that we love today about wrestling, the cage match, to being thrown from a ladder or into a table, you cannot use is that any of these things when you wrestled in certain states, as the regulations were not allowed, and unfortunately most of these states were the highest paying locations, and the WWF really wanted to be in these locations such as Pennsylvania, California, Delaware, and Connecticut. They compared themselves to the Harlem Globetrotters, which if you've ever seen that the Harlem Globetrotters play rules are not exactly important on the new court. That's exactly how professional wrestling is. It is more of a circus, is more just for fun. There are no points, and the winner is often determined by the wrestling organization rather than what's actually gonna happen in the ring. They even had pro wrestlers advocating that, such as Roddy Piper, that it's all phony, nothing is real, it's all decided, and it's all entertainment. It's all set up. And even after emitting all of this, having backing from multiple wrestlers, it still did not pass in nineteen eighty nine that wrestling was just an entertainment. It still had its regulations until years later and Governor Christy Todd Whitman pushed a bill through saying that wrestling was an entertainment in New Jersey. Was a great win for them. After this bill got pushed through, it helped many other states follow the same suits and allowing for more entertainment in wrestling that we love today. Sure, it might just be entertainment. It may not be a real sport, but they are professionals and they are still competing. To do the things that the wrestlers do day in and day out is impressive and many of us could not do the same. Even though it might be scripted, even though it might be choreographed, it's still a sport and it still takes a lot of effort to do what they do so. Just because it's just an entertainment doesn't mean you can't enjoy it because we're in entertained by all the sports we enjoy. Thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you like this, you can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok YouTube at Daily Sports History to get even more content every day, and come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History