History of professional wrestling
Aspect of history
プロレスの歴史
- Type
- professional wrestling, aspect of history
The modern history of professional wrestling can be traced to the late 19th century, evolving from 19th-century catch wrestling and from exhibition bouts featured in funfairs and variety strongman acts, many of which were known to have predetermined outcomes.
Professional wrestling is a popular form of entertainment in the Americas, Europe, Australia, Japan and India. Wrestling as a modern sport developed in the 19th century out of traditions of folk wrestling, emerging in the form of two styles of regulated competitive sport, "freestyle" and "Greco-Roman" wrestling (based on British and continental tradition, respectively), summarized under the term "amateur wrestling" by the beginning of the modern Olympics in 1896. The separation of "worked", i.e. purely performative, choreographed wrestling ("admitted fakery" or "kayfabe") from the competitive sport was completed in the 1920s.
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q17112061 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.