Ringside: A History of Professional Wrestling in America

by Scott M. Beekman

Despite its status as one of the oldest and most enduringly popular sports in history, wrestling has been pushed to the background of the current American sports scene. Most people today would have a hard time even considering wrestling (with some of its modern theatrics) in the same terms as track and field or boxing. But until the 1920s, wrestling stood as a legitimate professional sport in this country, and a widely practiced amateur one as well. Its past respectability may not have endured, but the advent of cable television in the 1980s offered the sport a renewed opportunity to play a determining role in American popular culture. This opportunity was not wasted, and wrestlers now assume places in politics and film at the highest levels. Ringside , the first work to fully examine the history of professional wrestling in this country, provides an illuminating and colorful account of all of the various athletes, entertainers, businessmen, and national outlooks that have determined wrestling's erratic route through American history.

This chronological work begins with a brief account of wrestling's global history, and then proceeds to investigate the sport's growth as a specifically American institution. Wrestling has continued to survive in the face of technological developments, scandals, public ridicule, and a lack of centralized control, and today this supremely adaptable entertainment form represents, in sum, an international industry capable of attracting enormous television and pay-per-view audiences, along with massive amounts of advertising and merchandizing revenue. Ringside focuses on the business of wrestling as well as on the performers and their in-ring antics, and offers readers a fully nuanced examination of the development of professional wrestling in America.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports, History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 2006

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Chad Dundas' "Champion of the World" this year and wanted to know more about the history of wrestling in America. (By the way, "Champion of the World" is a wonderful historical fiction published this year and has an overall rating of 4.13 which is higher than the winner of goodreads historical fiction for 2016: "Underground Railroad" with a rating of 4.05. Just sayin'.)
"Ringside" introduces us to "real" wrestling as "real" sport in the 1800s in America, with Northeastern Irishmen at the forefront. Even the "Muscular Christianity" movement in America in the late 1800s served to further its popularity. The 'barnstorming' story, so beautifully told in "Champion" was just that: the best wrestlers in the nation toured, taking on local challengers. But "Ringside" tells us that it didn't take long for gimmicked performances to enter the picture, as by the 1920s there were fixed matches and gimmicks involving wrestling in blueberries, etc. The gimmicks increased, handsome football heroes introduced a sexual aspect which lured women (and no doubt some men) to matches (in the 1950s, women accounted for as much as 50% of the attendees), huge storylines were introduced, and we finally arrive at McMahon's massively popular WWE. There is no denying that these events can be sensational entertainments for millions of Americans who are indeed in on the "gimmicks" but are willing to follow their heroes and their epic soap opera stories. And therein lies the problem with this book, "Ringside": it doesn't come close, or even attempt, to entertain. While current wrestling events are often absolutely over-the-top and often truly entertaining (with many attractive male and female wrestlers wearing very little clothing while the camera work does lead to some rather intentional and revealing shots) Beekman leaves us with a sense that it's all rather boring. But it's not to millions of fans. Granted, this history is solid and obviously well-researched by Beekman, but it comes across as dry. I recommend this book only for die-hard fans of wrestling as entertainment. But if you want a really good story, just watch a few 'professional' matches on TV: you just might be hooked into a story, onto some truly spectacular-looking entertainers, or onto some outrageous announcers, or you might just enjoy watching the fans go wild in the bleachers. But there is a terrible downside: Beekman notes that a large number of wrestlers, due to the brutality often exhibited, pass before they make it to age 40. These "entertainments" are often not for family enjoyment.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent overview of the history of pro wrestling in the U.S. (as the subtitle clearly states!) that starts out great and gets decisively less interesting as it goes on. It reads like a thesis (perhaps a dissertation, but I don't think it's long enough.) Everything up to the 1950s and the rise of wrestling on TV is fascinating, as Beekman traces the histories of various "schools" of wrestling (for example, did you know that what's called "Greco-Roman" wrestling is actually French in origin, and isn't ancient at all?), wrestling's relationship with boxing, and thereigns of early champions (back when being a champion involved actual skill at the physical art of grappling.) After the 50s, though, the histories of the AWA, NWA, WWWF, and myriad other regional promotions get a little hard to follow and, ultimately, inconsequential, as every wrestling fan knows that Vince McMahon will eventually swoop in, stomp all over the system of regional "markets" through the magic of cable TV, and, after a brief tussle with the Ted Turner-backed WCW, become the only existing "superpower" in the business. Still, a lively and informative read, and recommended to those who want to know more about origins of the business in the U.S.

[Anthony Payne · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a hard task to give the complete history to an industry that built itself on lies, half-truths, and hyperbole. Beekman looks to have nailed down the facts (a lot of NWA title changes are detailed champion-by-champion) but he doesn't capture any of the fun or grandiosity that makes pro-wrestling a unique institution. Perhaps a little more cultural criticism and some insight into the promoters and the people behind the characters would have made for a more lively read.

[Raving Redcoat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating look at how professional wrestling was transformed from a legitimate contest to a scripted spectacle. Interesting not only to wrestling fans, but to those interested in pop culture.

[Tamara Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a must read for diehard fans of professional wrestling in America. The author begins by presenting history context of how wrestling started in other parts of the world then eventually arrived in America.

Secondary chapters focus on the early titans of wrestling, finding ways to increase attendance by women as well as the invention of personas for wrestlers. The final
portion of the book focuses on how the invention of
television changed the way that wrestling was presented, ways for wrestling to appeal to a young audience as well as ends with the introduction of Vince McMahon and role in flooding television and other environments with images of WWF (World Wrestling Federation.)

As someone who grew up watching wrestling on TV and rooting for “Nature Boy” Rick Flair and Hulk Hogan, this book was an enjoyable history lesson of how professional wrestling became what it is today, I felt like it took forever to get to this portion of the book and that the author focused more on the first part of the book rather the the last portion of the book.

[Michael Munshaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eric Weinstein mentioned this on Joe Rogan and has referenced it a number of times on his podcast. It was interesting to learn how wrestling evolved from a sport with legit "shoots" to "worked matches" to become downright entertainment where all matches are worked in away that would maximize draw and financial ends. Many parallels can be drawn between wrestling and the way democracy functions - this is interesting.

However, Beekman is clearly not a professional writer and Ringside desperately needed a more thorough editing job. There a numerous transcriptional error, the timeline is confusing at times, and there is a fair bit or repetition and redundancy that gives the impression that chapters were written separately without careful consideration as to how they fit together as a whole.

I got to about page 100 and gave it up - too painful to read. I think I got the most valuable points, however.

[Steven Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts out interesting enough and fizzled out toward the end. Good pacing, however.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

The biggest reason why the topic of this book is interesting to me is something not even mentioned in the book. In the early UFC fights in the 1990s, Royce Gracie took everyone by surprise. He practiced a style of Jiu Jitsu that placed great emphasis on submission grappling, a component of fighting that the other fighters were largely ignorant of. As a result, he won handily, and American martial artists gradually became aware of the importance of submission grappling.

An obvious question is: why in the heck did American fighters not already know about submission grappling? I believe the story in this book is the answer to this question. Catch wrestling was the style of submission grappling practiced by American fighters in the 19th century. But catch wrestling, as told in this book, gradually devolved from a mostly legitimate sport to a "sport" with fixed matches to a ridiculous spectacle. As a result all the real skill disappeared. It's all just kind of a sad historical accident, really. I could have grown up seeing serious ground fighting on TV; instead it was all a bunch of goofy guys running around bouncing off ropes and whatnot.

Anyway, the book itself is really great.

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first passable academic history of professional wrestling in America. Most of what's in here is just a summary of other sources--S. W. Pope's Patriotic Games, Jim Wilson's Chokehold, etc.--but it offers a narrative that takes the "sport" up to the present, with especially fine coverage of wrestling from the 19th century (rough-and-tumble to collar-and-elbow to Greco-Roman to catch) to the 1930s and the development of the cartel known as the National Wrestling Alliance. Wilson's Chokehold picks up the story from there, as does Tim Hornbaker's painstakingly researched book on the NWA. Even so, I still believe that there's a lot of work still to be done on this subject...and I'm going to be responsible for doing some of it.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a much longer history of professional wrestling than most. It begins in the late 1800s, and progresses through the 2000s. As such, there is A LOT of material covered in a short book (~140pgs), making it difficult to sort through all the information. When discussing the nineties, Beekman also mentions promotions outside WWF/E, WCW and ECW, which is really refreshing. The main issue I have witht his book is that Beekman idealizes profession wrestling before all the gimmicks emerged, back when wrestling was "authentic." I'm not a wrestling historian, but I'm not sure professional wrestling was ever "authentic"(or if anything ever is authentic), and if he likes honest competition, he should maybe stick to amateur wrestling.

[Carrie Laben · Rating 2 out of 5]

The lack of depth is one thing - it is, admittedly, a short book on a long subject - but this book is also ploddingly written and barely copy-edited, to the point that in a few places absent or misused words mangle the meanings of sentences. Don't refer to an individual as "ill-fated" and then never refer again to what happened to him. Don't use your limited page space to repeat yourself. And really, really, don't say "protagonist" when you mean "antagonist".

That said, if you need a quick-sketch overview of the economic factors and territorial disputes that turned wrestling from a sport into an entertainment, this book will serve that purpose.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Impressive research.

reading notes:
--thorough intro
39-40--carnivals, catch as catch can style, inside/outside man
42--washed up boxers ... Joe Louis
---Strangler Lewis
51--"worked" matches...pre-determined winners
67--1934 al haft
69--Columbus trial
71--Londos pictures
75--Tillet...French Angel
71--Londos photo
86--Gorgeous George--steady work in 30's & early 40's
---began his persona after the mid-40's
90--Steve Stanlee

[Andrew Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellently researched and written. THE must-read book for anyone interested in the origins of what we call "professional wrestling." Beekman shows the evolution of the sport/performance art through the decades, from soldiers wrestling each other in the Civil War, to rigged fights set up by travelling circus managers, to Vince McMahon's current "sports entertainment." Highly recommended!

[Jeremiah Graves · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book gave a solid, albeit truncated history of professional wrestling in the states. It was very much a "spark notes" style rundown with lots of quick mentions of rather large moments and seemed to very quickly gloss over much of the history. It's a good, quick read, but suffers from its own brevity.

[Cj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad outline on the history of pro wrestling. The author seemed to compile a lot of research into a fairly short overview. I did feel that the end was abrupt and seemed after if to written in a rush. I can only hope that the proof reading, grammatical, and outright mistakes were from the transfer to ebook format and not just overlooked.

[Lance · Rating 2 out of 5]

Offers some good sociological perspectives on the development of sporting culture in the 1800’s, the book is ultimately insufficient and misleading as it characterizes wrestling history in America.