Mid 20th Century
100-565: Stephen Paul Keirn (born September 10, 1951) is an American retired professional wrestler . He is best known for his appearances in multiple National Wrestling Alliance territories as Steve Keirn as one-half of the tag team The Fabulous Ones , as well as his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation under the ring name Skinner . Keirn graduated from Robinson High School in Port Tampa . His father, Richard Keirn ,
200-435: A bona fide athletic contest or competition. Professional wrestling is not a combative sport. Wrestling constituting bona fide athletic contests and competitions, which may be professional or amateur combative sport, shall not be deemed professional wrestling under this Part. Professional wrestling as used in this Part shall not depend on whether the individual wrestlers are paid or have been paid for their performance in
300-415: A performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in the 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing. As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance
400-415: A professional wrestling exhibition. All engagements of professional wrestling shall be referred to as exhibitions, and not as matches. In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from
500-416: A baby's brain develops before birth. When the rules of baseball were first written in 1845, the carcinogenic potential of chewing tobacco was unknown. At that time, it was commonly used by players and coaches alike. Smokeless tobacco use became rampant by players by the early 1900s. The use of chewing tobacco in baseball steadily increased until the mid-20th century, when cigarettes became popular and took
600-413: A background in authentic wrestling no longer mattered. After this time, matches became more outlandish and gimmicky and any semblance professional wrestling had to catch wrestling faded. The personas of the wrestlers likewise grew more outlandish. Gorgeous George , who performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, was the first wrestler whose entrance into the arena was accompanied by a theme song played over
700-520: A carny term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. Wrestling in the United States blossomed in popularity after the Civil War , with catch wrestling eventually becoming the most popular style. At first, professional wrestlers were genuine competitive fighters, but they struggled to draw audiences because Americans did not find real wrestling to be very entertaining, so
800-513: A central authority. Nor could any of them stomach the idea of leaving the NWA themselves to compete directly with McMahon, for that would mean their territories would become fair game for the other NWA members. McMahon also had a creative flair for TV that his rivals lacked. For instance, the AWA's TV productions during the 1980s were amateurish, low-budget, and out-of-touch with contemporary culture, which lead to
900-574: A champion that Curley put forth: Dick Shikat . The National Wrestling Association shut down in 1980. In 1948, a number of promoters from across the country came together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA recognized one "world champion", voted on by its members, but allowed member promoters to crown their own local champions in their territories. If a member poached wrestlers from another member, or held matches in another member's territory, they risked being ejected from
1000-410: A degree. Vince Russo, the boss of WCW in 2000, completely disregarded kayfabe by routinely discussing business matters and office politics in public, which alienated fans. I watch championship wrestling from Florida with wrestling commentator Gordon Solie . Is this all "fake"? If so, they deserve an Oscar . Chewing tobacco Chewing tobacco is a type of smokeless tobacco product that
1100-404: A distinct vernacular . It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture , with many terms, tropes , and concepts being referenced in everyday language as well as in film , music , television , and video games . Likewise, numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international icons with recognition by the broader public. In the United States, wrestling
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#17328878946981200-410: A fee, a visitor could challenge the wrestler to a quick match. If the challenger defeated the champion in a short time frame, usually 15 minutes, he won a prize. To encourage challenges, the carnival operators staged rigged matches in which an accomplice posing as a visitor challenged the champion and won, giving the audience the impression that the champion was easy to beat. This practice taught wrestlers
1300-405: A legitimate sport. Firstly, wrestling was more entertaining when it was faked, whereas fakery did not make boxing any more entertaining. Secondly, in a rigged boxing match, the designated loser must take a real beating for his "defeat" to be convincing, but wrestling holds can be faked convincingly without inflicting injury. This meant that boxers were less willing to "take dives"; they wanted to have
1400-614: A lower health risk than traditional combusted products. However it is not a healthy alternative to cigarette smoking. The level of risk varies between different types of products and producing regions. There is no safe level of chewing tobacco use. Globally it contributes to 650,000 deaths each year. Chewing tobacco may be left as loose leaves or compressed into a small rectangular "plug". Nearly all modern chewing tobaccos are produced by leaf curing, cutting, fermentation, and processing, which may include sweetening and flavoring. Historically, many American chewing tobacco brands popular during
1500-499: A major health risk, has no safe level of use, and is not a safe substitute for smoking. Globally it contributes to 650,000 deaths each year, with a significant proportion of these in Southeast Asia . Using chewing tobacco can cause many adverse health effects such as dental disease, oral cancer, oesophagus cancer, pancreatic cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and deformities in the female reproductive system. It also raises
1600-754: A match against Gus Sonnenberg in January 1929. Bowser then broke away from the trust to form his own cartel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), in September 1930, and he declared Sonnenberg to be the AWA champion. This AWA should not be confused with Wally Kadbo's AWA founded in 1960. Curley reacted to this move by convincing the National Boxing Association to form the National Wrestling Association , which in turn crowned
1700-424: A more literal meaning in those places. A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League . In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, New York defines professional wrestling as: Professional wrestling means an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for the purpose of providing entertainment to spectators and which does not comprise
1800-440: A new city, attendance was high because there was a waiting fanbase cultivated in advance by the cable TV shows. The NWA's traditional anti-competitive tricks were no match for this. The NWA attempted to centralize and create their own national cable television shows to counter McMahon's rogue promotion, but it failed in part because the members of the NWA, ever protective of their territories, could not stomach submitting themselves to
1900-419: A powerful role-model effect on youth, particularly among young males in sport, some of whom remain addicted in future careers as professional athletes." According to Connolly, one-quarter of Minor League players do not support allowing the use of chewing tobacco during games, and one-third of Major League players support abolishing it. Due to health concerns, MLB was asked to ban the use of chewing tobacco during
2000-475: A rope-like mass. Unlike most loose-leaf tobaccos, twist chewing tobacco is usually not sweetened. Pieces of twist are either bitten off or cut and then chewed. Twist chewing tobacco is not widely available and is mostly found in Appalachia . Historically, twists could also be smoked in a pipe, or ground up into nasal snuff . Even though it is less dangerous than smoking, chewing tobacco is addictive, represents
2100-596: A singles wrestler. He won many titles in Florida and Georgia, including the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title by defeating Chavo Guerrero Sr. This title reign was recognized by New Japan Pro-Wrestling , as well as the Los Angeles and Florida NWA territories, but not by the NWA as a whole, which considered the title vacant and held a tournament to crown a new champion. The title Keirn held was later renamed
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#17328878946982200-497: A typical American household only received four national channels by antenna, and ten to twelve local channels via UHF broadcasting . But cable television could carry a much larger selection of channels and therefore had room for niche interests. The WWF started with a show called All-American Wrestling airing on the USA Network in September 1983. McMahon's TV shows made his wrestlers national celebrities, so when he held matches in
2300-575: A victory for all the pain to which they subjected themselves. In the 1910s, promotional cartels for professional wrestling emerged in the East Coast (outside its traditional heartland in the Midwest ). These promoters sought to make long-term plans with their wrestlers, and to ensure their more charismatic and crowd-pleasing wrestlers received championships, further entrenching the desire for worked matches. The primary rationale for shoot matches at this point
2400-436: Is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama , with the premise that the performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship . The staged nature of matches is an open secret , with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions, which
2500-410: Is a true sport. Wrestlers would at all times flatly deny allegations that they fixed their matches, and they often remained in-character in public even when not performing. When in public, wrestlers would sometimes say the word kayfabe to each other as a coded signal that there were fans present and they needed to be in character. Professional wrestlers in the past strongly believed that if they admitted
2600-427: Is generally practiced in an amateur context. No professional league for competitive wrestling exists due to a lack of popularity. For example, Real Pro Wrestling , an American professional freestyle wrestling league, dissolved in 2007 after just two seasons. In other countries, such as Iran and India , wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as a genuine sport, and the phrase "professional wrestling" therefore has
2700-470: Is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction . Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain a " gimmick " consisting of a specific persona , stage name , entrance theme , and other distinguishing traits. Matches are the primary vehicle for advancing storylines, which typically center on interpersonal conflicts, or feuds , between heroic " faces " and villainous " heels ". A wrestling ring , akin to
2800-689: Is placed between the cheek and lower gum to draw out its flavor. It consists of coarsely chopped aged tobacco that is flavored and often sweetened; it is not ground fine like dipping tobacco . Unwanted juices are spat while chewing. Chewing tobacco is a source of nicotine and therefore highly addictive . Quitting chewing tobacco use is as challenging as smoking cessation . Using chewing tobacco can cause various harmful effects such as dental disease, oral cancer , oesophagus cancer , and pancreas cancer , coronary heart disease , as well as negative reproductive effects including stillbirth , premature birth and low birth weight . Chewing tobacco poses
2900-539: Is present in countries such as the United States but particularly prevalent in Southeast Asian countries where the use of smokeless tobacco is common. All tobacco products, including chewing, contain cancer-causing chemicals. These carcinogenic compounds occurring in chewing tobacco vary widely, and depend upon the kind of product and how it was manufactured. There are 28 known cancer-causing substances in chewing tobacco products. Using chewing tobacco increases
3000-434: Is tobacco leaves pressed into a square, brick-like mass called a plug. From this, pieces are bitten off or cut from the plug and then chewed. Plug tobacco is declining in popularity, and is thus less readily available than loose-leaf chewing tobacco. Historically, plug tobacco could be either smoked in a pipe or chewed, but today, these are two distinct products. Twist chewing tobacco consists of leaves twisted together into
3100-566: Is true, especially among white and Hispanic males. In 1970, five times as many 65-and-older males used smokeless tobacco as 18- to 24-year-olds did (12.7% of the population were 65+ male users, 2.2% of the population were 18–24 male users). More specifically, moist snuff use increased for males ages 18–24 from 1% of the population to 6.2% of the population, while 65+ male users decreased from 4% to 2.2%. A 2009 survey by The U.S. Centers for Disease Control revealed that 8.9% of U.S. high-school students had used smokeless tobacco on at least 1 day during
Steve Keirn - Misplaced Pages Continue
3200-448: The 2011 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers . Many believe that the widespread use of chewing tobacco by baseball players has led to a rampant increase in youth, and particularly teen, use. Additionally, teen use of smokeless tobacco has increased and it is more harmful and dangerous to tobacco user, while the use of all tobacco products by teens has decreased. This
3300-585: The American Civil War era were made with cigar clippings. Loose-leaf chewing tobacco is the most widely available and most frequently used type of chewing tobacco. It consists of shredded tobacco leaf, usually sweetened and sometimes flavored, and often sold in a sealed pouch typically weighing 3 oz. Loose-leaf chewing tobacco has a sticky texture due to the sweeteners added. Common loose-leaf chewing tobacco brands include America's Best Chew , Levi Garrett , Beech-Nut, and Stoker's. Plug chewing tobacco
3400-609: The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board that professional wrestling is not a real sport because its matches have predetermined outcomes. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey deregulated professional wrestling. The WWF then rebranded itself as a " sports entertainment " company. In the early years of the 20th century, the style of wrestling used in professional wrestling matches was catch wrestling . Promoters wanted their matches to look realistic and so preferred to recruit wrestlers with real grappling skills. In
3500-769: The WWE Hall of Fame . Much of Keirn's early career was spent wrestling as part of a tag team . While wrestling in Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF), he held the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship twelve times; once each with Bob Backlund , Jimmy Garvin , and Brian Blair , and nine times with Mike Graham . In addition, the team of Keirn and Graham won the NWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship three times. In 1980 and 1981, Keirn focused on his career as
3600-543: The independent circuit , to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential promotions are in the United States , Mexico , Japan , and northwest Europe (the United Kingdom , Germany/Austria and France ), which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has developed its own culture and community , including
3700-431: The spectacle . By at least the early 20th century, professional wrestling had diverged from the competitive sport to become an artform and genre of sports entertainment . Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various " promotions ", which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues . Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on
3800-577: The 1920s, a group of wrestlers and promoters known as the Gold Dust Trio introduced moves which have since become staples of the mock combat of professional wrestling, such as body slams, suplexes , punches, finishing moves, and out-of-ring count-outs. By the early 1930s, most wrestlers had adopted personas to generate public interest. These personas could broadly be characterized as either faces (likeable) or heels (villainous). Native Americans, cowboys, and English aristocrats were staple characters in
3900-400: The 1930s and 1940s. Before the age of television, some wrestlers played different personas depending on the region they were performing in. This eventually came to an end in the age of national television wrestling shows, which forced wrestlers to stick to one persona. Wrestlers also often used some sort of gimmick, such as a finishing move, eccentric mannerisms, or out-of-control behavior (in
4000-506: The 1990s, WCW became a credible rival to the WWF, but by end it suffered from a series of creative missteps that led to its failure and purchase by the WWF. One of its mistakes was that it diminished the glamor of its World Heavyweight Championship . Between January 2000 and March 2001, the title changed hands eighteen times, which sapped fan enthusiasm, particularly for the climactic pay-per-view matches. In professional wrestling, two factors decide
4100-511: The 1992 Royal Rumble , lasting 2:13 before being eliminated by Rick Martel . At WrestleMania VIII , he was defeated in one minute and eleven seconds by Owen Hart . Keirn also unsuccessfully challenged Randy Savage for the WWF Championship on the June 29, episode of Prime Time Wrestling. He also competed in the 1993 Royal Rumble , but was eliminated by Mr. Perfect at the 3:05 mark. While in
Steve Keirn - Misplaced Pages Continue
4200-460: The 30 days before the survey. Usage was more common among males (15.0%) than females (2.2%) and among Whites (11.9%) than Blacks (3.3%) or Hispanics (5.1%). The five states with the highest percentage of high-school users were Wyoming (16.2%), North Dakota (15.3%), South Dakota (14.6%), Montana (14.6%), and West Virginia (14.4%). Notable chewing tobacco brands include: Chewing is one of the oldest methods of consuming tobacco. Indigenous peoples of
4300-457: The Americas in both North and South America chewed the leaves of the plant long before the arrival of Europeans. The Southern United States was distinctive for their production of tobacco, which earned premium prices globally. Most farmers grew some for their own use, or traded with neighbors who grew it. Commercial sales became important in the late 19th century, as major tobacco companies arose in
4400-641: The Atlantic Athletic Corporation (AAC). The AAC shut down in 1960. In 1958, Omaha promoter and NWA member Joe Dusek recognized Verne Gagne as the world champion without the approval of the NWA. Gagne asked for a match against the recognized NWA champion Pat O'Connor. The NWA refused to honor the request, so Gagne and Minneapolis promoter Wally Karbo established the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This AWA should not be confused with Paul Bowser's AWA, which ceased operations just two months prior. Gagne's AWA operated out of Minnesota . Unlike
4500-632: The Midnight Express respectively, with Lane as a common partner), the team made little impact, losing dark matches to Brian and Brad Armstrong at Bash at the Beach 1994 and Fall Brawl 1994 . While in WCW, Keirn was also involved in an angle in which masked men attacked Hulk Hogan . Several times in October 1994, Keirn wore a black mask to attack Hogan during and after Hogan's matches. After WCW, Keirn worked in
4600-973: The NWA International Junior Heavyweight Title. Keirn also won the NWA National Television Championship twice, defeating Terry Funk and Kevin Sullivan . In 1981, Keirn began wrestling with the Tennessee -based Continental Wrestling Association (CWA). He was successful as a singles wrestler, winning a tournament to claim the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship . He also held the NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Championship on two occasions. As in CWF, Keirn found his greatest success in
4700-408: The NWA, at which point his territory became fair game for everyone. The NWA would blacklist wrestlers who worked for independent promoters or who publicly criticized an NWA promoter or who did not throw a match on command. If an independent promoter tried to establish himself in a certain area, the NWA would send their star performers to perform for the local NWA promoter to draw the customers away from
4800-477: The NWA, which only allowed faces to be champions, Gagne occasionally allowed heels to win the AWA championship so that they could serve as foils for him. In August 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a promotion in the north-east , withdrew from the NWA. Vince K. McMahon then took over as its boss. No longer bound by the territorial pact of the NWA, McMahon began expanding his promotion into
4900-684: The South, becoming one of the largest employers in Winston-Salem, North Carolina , Durham, North Carolina , and Richmond, Virginia . Southerners dominated the tobacco industry in the United States. So much so that a concern as large as the Helme Tobacco Company , headquartered in New Jersey , was headed by former Confederate officer George Washington Helme . In 1938, R. J. Reynolds marketed 84 brands of chewing tobacco, 12 brands of smoking tobacco, and
5000-809: The United States, they won the NWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship twice. In 1991, the pair wrestled in the United States Wrestling Association , defeating Tony Anthony and Doug Gilbert to win the USWA Tag Team Championship . In the summer of 1991, Keirn debuted in the WWF as Skinner, an alligator hunter from the Florida Everglades . He was portrayed as a generally nasty individual, always chewing on tobacco and sometimes spitting it on his opponent. He carried an alligator claw to
5100-531: The WWF, Keirn also portrayed Doink the Clown on occasion. At WrestleMania IX , Keirn helped the original Doink defeat Crush by attacking Crush dressed as Doink during the match. Along with Bobby Eaton , Keirn wrestled in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1994 in a tag team known as "Bad Attitude". Despite the tag team success both Keirn and Eaton enjoyed in the past (with The Fabulous Ones and
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#17328878946985200-526: The Western United States, a device known as the spittoon was a ubiquitous feature throughout places both private and public (e.g. parlors and passenger cars ). The purpose of the spittoon was to provide a receptacle for excess juices and spittle accumulated from the oral use of tobacco. As chewing tobacco's popularity declined throughout the years, the spittoon became merely a relic of the Old West and
5300-670: The ante-room at the White House, covered its floor with pools and rivulets of their spittle. An observant traveller in the South in 1865 said that in his belief seven-tenths of all persons above the age of twelve years, both male and female, used tobacco in some form. Women could be seen at the doors of their cabins in their bare feet, in their dirty one-piece cotton garments, their chairs tipped back, smoking pipes made of corn cobs into which were fitted reed stems or goose quills. Boys of eight or nine years of age and half-grown girls smoked. Women and girls "dipped" in their houses, on their porches, in
5400-401: The arena's loudspeakers, his being Pomp and Circumstance . He also wore a costume: a robe and hairnet, which he removed after getting in the ring. He also had a pre-match ritual where his "butler" would spray the ring with perfume. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon made entrance songs, costumes, and rituals standard for his star wrestlers. For instance, McMahon's top star Hulk Hogan would delight
5500-418: The art of staging rigged matches and fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional wrestling matches were "worked" and some journalists exposed the practice: American wrestlers are notorious for the amount of faking they do. It is because of this fact that suspicion attaches to so many bouts that
5600-550: The audience by tearing his shirt off before each match. The first major promoter cartel emerged on the East Coast, although up to that point, wrestling's heartland had been in the Midwest. Notable members of this cartel included Jack Curley , Lou Daro, Paul Bowser and Tom and Tony Packs. The promoters colluded to solve a number of problems that hurt their profits. Firstly, they could force their wrestlers to perform for less money. As
5700-561: The cancer was linked to his lifetime use of chewing and dipping tobacco. A 2016 MLB collective bargaining agreement prohibited all new Major League Baseball players from using smokeless tobacco. Debate exists over whether players should be banned from using tobacco products during the games. The Major League Baseball Players Association disagrees, claiming it is a legal substance, so is acceptable to be used during games. Harvard School of Public Health professor Gregory Connolly , however, says, "the use of smokeless tobacco by players has
5800-466: The careful aim which made for cleanly living. Even the pews of fashionable churches were likely to contain these familiar conveniences. The large numbers of Southern men, and these were of the better class (officers in the Confederate army and planters, worth $ 20,000 or more, and barred from general amnesty) who presented themselves for the pardon of President Johnson, while they sat awaiting his pleasure in
5900-424: The cartel grew, there were fewer independent promoters where independent wrestlers could find work, and many were forced to sign a contract with the cartel to receive steady work. The contracts forbade them from performing at independent venues. A wrestler who refused to play by the cartel's rules was barred from performing at its venues. A second goal of the wrestling cartels was to establish an authority to decide who
6000-418: The case of heels). The matches could also be gimmicky sometimes, with wrestlers fighting in mud and piles of tomatoes and so forth. The most successful and enduring gimmick to emerge from the 1930s were tag-team matches. Promoters noticed that matches slowed down as the wrestlers in the ring tired, so they gave them partners to relieve them. It also gave heels another way to misbehave by double-teaming. Towards
6100-423: The character in shows must be considered fictional, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers also incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Kayfabe is the practice of pretending that professional wrestling
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#17328878946986200-461: The commission. The Commission did on very rare occasions hand out such authorizations, such as for a championship match between Jim Londos and Jim Browning in June 1934. This decree did not apply to amateur wrestling, which the commission had no authority over. Wrestling fans widely suspected that professional wrestling was fake, but they did not care as long as it entertained. In 1933, a wrestling promoter named Jack Pfefer started talking about
6300-540: The current fashion of wrestling is the universal discussion as to the honesty of the matches. And certainly the most interesting phrase of this discussion is the unanimous agreement: "Who cares if they're fixed or not—the show is good." Newspapers tended to shun professional wrestling, as journalists saw its theatrical pretense to being a legitimate sport as untruthful. Eventually promoters resorted to publishing their own magazines in order to get press coverage and communicate with fans. The first professional wrestling magazine
6400-405: The end of the 1930s, faced with declining revenues, promoters chose to focus on grooming charismatic wrestlers with no regard for their skill because it was charisma that drew the crowds, and wrestlers who were both skilled at grappling and charismatic were hard to come by. Since most of the public by this time knew and accepted that professional wrestling was fake, realism was no longer paramount and
6500-597: The facade of kayfabe as best as they could. In 1989, Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey government that professional wrestling was not a true sport and therefore should be exempted from sports-related taxes. Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real. The demise of WCW in 2001 provided some evidence that kayfabe still mattered to
6600-470: The first place. "Double-crosses", where a wrestler agreed to lose a match but nevertheless fought to win, remained a problem in the early cartel days. At times a promoter would even award a victorious double-crosser the title of champion to preserve the facade of sport. But promoters punished such wrestlers by blacklisting them, making it quite challenging to find work. Double-crossers could also be sued for breach of contract, such as Dick Shikat in 1936. In
6700-610: The game is not popular here. Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high. The wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated a lot of fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin". But rather than perform more shoot matches, professional wrestlers instead committed themselves wholesale to fakery. Several reasons explain why professional wrestling became fake whereas boxing endured as
6800-455: The government. They pledged to stop allocating exclusive territories to its promoters, to stop blacklisting wrestlers who worked for outsider promoters, and to admit any promoter into the Alliance. The NWA would flout many of these promises, but its power was nonetheless weakened by the lawsuit. Paul Bowser's AWA joined the NWA in 1949. The AWA withdrew from the Alliance in 1957 and renamed itself
6900-632: The independent circuit mainly in Florida and Tennessee. He retired in 2001 after a tour for New Japan Pro Wrestling . Since the late 1980s, Keirn has run a school to train wrestlers. Originally located in Tampa, Florida , Keirn's "Professional Wrestling School of Hard Knocks" is now located in Brandon, Florida . Keirn helped train many wrestlers, including Mike Awesome , Dennis Knight , Diamond Dallas Page , Dustin Rhodes , Tracy Smothers , and Roman Reigns . The school
7000-513: The independent. By 1956, the NWA controlled 38 promotions within the United States, with more in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The NWA's monopolistic practices became so stifling that the independents appealed to the government for help. In October 1956 the US Attorney General's office filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NWA in an Iowa federal district court. The NWA settled with
7100-471: The industry was anything but a competitive sport. The first wrestling promoter to publicly admit to routinely fixing matches was Jack Pfefer . In 1933, he started talking about the industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , resulting in a huge exposé. The exposé neither surprised nor alienated most wrestling fans, although some promoters like Jack Curley were furious and tried to restore
7200-487: The industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , maintaining no pretense that wrestling was real and passing on planned results just before the matches took place. While fans were neither surprised nor alienated, traditionalists like Jack Curley were furious, and most promoters tried to maintain the facade of kayfabe as best they could. Not the least interesting of all the minor phenomena produced by
7300-589: The last years of his life to speaking with Major League teams about not using chewing tobacco where television cameras could see the players so that children could not witness and be influenced by it. He also dedicated time to the National Spit Tobacco Education Program, which was being run by friend and former Major League player, Joe Garagiola. Tuttle died on July 27, 1998, after a 5-year battle with cancer. Hall of Fame outfielder Tony Gwynn died of salivary cancer on June 16, 2014. He claimed
7400-498: The members of wrestling cartels as the champion drew big crowds wherever he performed, and this would occasionally lead to schisms. By 1925, this cartel had divided the country up into territories which were the exclusive domains of specific promoters. This system of territories endured until Vince McMahon drove the fragmented cartels out of the market in the 1980s. This cartel fractured in 1929 after one of its members, Paul Bowser , bribed Ed "Strangler" Lewis to lose his championship in
7500-488: The place of some players' smokeless tobacco habit. Joe Garagiola , who quit, warned about chewing tobacco: "I tell these guys, 'You may not like what I say, but with lung cancer you die of lung cancer, ' " ... "With oral cancer, you die one piece at a time. They operate on your neck, they operate on your jaw, they operate on your throat." Bill Tuttle was a Major League player who made a big name for himself both through baseball and his anti-chewing tobacco efforts. Tuttle
7600-437: The platform used in boxing , serves as the main stage ; additional scenes may be recorded for television in backstage areas of the venue, in a format similar to reality television . Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography , stunts , improvisation , and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement. Professional wrestling as
7700-714: The promotion's closing in 1991. In the spring of 1984, the WWF purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), which had been ailing for some time due to financial mismanagement and internal squabbles. In the deal, the WWF acquired the GCW's timeslot on TBS . McMahon agreed to keep showing Georgia wrestling matches in that timeslot, but he was unable to get his staff to Atlanta every Saturday to fulfill this obligation, so he sold GCW and its TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). JCP started informally calling itself World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1988, Ted Turner bought JCP and formally renamed it World Championship Wrestling. During
7800-549: The public parlours of hotels and in the streets. Chewing tobacco is still used, predominantly by young males in some parts of the American South, but also in other areas and age groups. In September 2006, both the Republican and Democratic candidates for Senator from Virginia admitted to chewing tobacco and agreed that it sets a bad example for children. In the late 19th century, during the peak in popularity of chewing tobacco in
7900-585: The ring with him, which he would often use as a weapon against his opponents. He competed in the 1991 King of the Ring tournament, defeating Virgil in the first round but losing to Bret Hart in the second round. While still being billed as undefeated, he challenged Hart for the WWF Intercontinental Championship at This Tuesday in Texas on December 3, 1991, but lost by submission . Skinner competed in
8000-415: The risk of fatal coronary artery disease , fatal stroke and non-fatal ischaemic heart disease. Quitting chewing tobacco use is as challenging as smoking cessation . There is no scientific evidence that using chewing tobacco can help a person quit smoking. Chewing tobacco is a cause of oral cancer , oesophagus cancer , and pancreas cancer . Increased risk of oral cancer caused by chewing tobacco
8100-599: The risk of fatal coronary heart disease and stroke . In 2010 more than 200 000 people died from coronary heart disease due to smokeless tobacco use. Use of chewing tobacco also seems to greatly raise the risk of non-fatal ischaemic heart disease among users in Asia, although not in Europe. Chewing tobacco can cause adverse reproductive effects including stillbirth , premature birth , low birth weight . Nicotine in chewing tobacco products that are used during pregnancy can affect how
8200-440: The stamina for an hours-long fight. Audiences also preferred short matches. Worked matches also carried less risk of injury, which meant shorter recovery. Altogether, worked matches proved more profitable than shoots. By the end of the 19th century, nearly all professional wrestling matches were worked. A major influence on professional wrestling was carnival culture. Wrestlers in the late 19th century worked in carnival shows. For
8300-731: The tag team division. He held the AWA Southern Tag Team Championship 17 times, including 14 reigns as one half of The Fabulous Ones with Stan Lane . Keirn and Lane also teamed to win the CWA World Tag Team Championship twice. The Fabulous Ones competed in various promotions over the next decade. In 1984, the team won the Southwest Championship Wrestling World Tag Team Championship while wrestling in Australia. In
8400-426: The territories of his former NWA peers, now his rivals. By the end of the 1980s, the WWF would become the sole national wrestling promotion in the U.S. This was in part made possible by the rapid spread of cable television in the 1980s. The national broadcast networks generally regarded professional wrestling as too niche an interest, and had not broadcast any national wrestling shows since the 1950s. Before cable TV,
8500-453: The top-selling Camel brand of cigarettes . Reynolds sold large quantities of chewing tobacco, even though that market peaked around 1910. A historian of the American South in the late 1860s reported on typical usage in the region where it was grown, paying close attention to class and gender: The chewing of tobacco was well-nigh universal. This habit had been widespread among the agricultural population of America both North and South before
8600-505: The trial, witnesses testified that most of the "big matches" and all of the championship bouts were fixed. By the 1930s, with the exception of the occasional double-cross or business dispute, shoot matches were essentially nonexistent. In April 1930, the New York State Athletic Commission decreed that all professional wrestling matches held in the state had to be advertised as exhibitions unless certified as contests by
8700-471: The truth, their audiences would desert them. Today's performers don't "protect" the industry like we did, but that's primarily because they've already exposed it by relying on silly or downright ludicrous characters and gimmicks to gain popularity with the fans. It was different in my day, when our product was presented as an authentic, competitive sport. We protected it because we believed it would collapse if we ever so much as implied publicly that it
8800-414: The war. Soldiers had found the quid a solace in the field and continued to revolve it in their mouths upon returning to their homes. Out of doors where his life was principally led the chewer spat upon his lands without offence to other men, and his homes and public buildings were supplied with spittoons. Brown and yellow parabolas were projected to right and left toward these receivers, but very often without
8900-535: The way of proceedings: the "in-show" happenings, presented through the shows; and real-life happenings outside the work that have implications, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc. Because actual life events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines of performers, the lines between real life and fictional life are often blurred and become confused. Special discern must be taken with people who perform under their own name (such as Kurt Angle and his fictional persona ). The actions of
9000-420: The wrestlers quietly began faking their matches so that they could give their audiences a satisfying spectacle. Fixing matches was also convenient for scheduling. A real ("shoot") match could sometimes last hours, whereas a fixed ("worked") match can be made short, which was convenient for wrestlers on tour who needed to keep appointments or share venues. It also suited wrestlers who were aging and therefore lacked
9100-425: Was Wrestling As You Like It , which printed its first issue in 1946. These magazines were faithful to kayfabe . Before the advent of television, professional wrestling's fanbase largely consisted of children, the elderly, blue-collar workers and minorities. When television arose in the 1940s, professional wrestling got national exposure on prime-time television and gained widespread popularity. Professional wrestling
9200-463: Was a B-17 pilot who was shot down over Germany in September 1944 and became a POW . In July 1965, when Stephen was 13, Richard was shot down over Vietnam and again taken prisoner. He was held in the Hanoi Hilton for seven and half years. While his father was imprisoned, Steve hung out with his school friend Mike Graham whose father Eddie Graham was a wrestling booker, who was later inducted in
9300-583: Was a finalist for Best Pro Wrestling Book in the 2023 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards . The second edition of Keirn's memoirs, The Keirn Chronicles Volume Two: The Phenomenal Wrestling Resurgence of Steve Keirn, was released on April 15, 2024. This book was also coauthored by Ian Douglass, and includes a foreword from Drew McIntyre and an afterword from Ted Dibiase . Professional wrestler 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling (often referred to as pro wrestling , or simply, wrestling )
9400-565: Was an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers , Kansas City Athletics , and Minnesota Twins . He was an avid tobacco chewer; even his baseball cards pictured him with a bulge in his cheek from the tobacco. Nearly 40 years after he began using smokeless tobacco, Tuttle developed a tumor in his mouth so severe, it protruded through his skin. A few years before he died, Tuttle had many of his teeth, his jawbone, his gums, and his right cheekbone removed. He also had his taste buds removed. Tuttle dedicated
9500-488: Was challenges from independent wrestlers. But a cartelized wrestler, if challenged, could credibly use his contractual obligations to his promoter as an excuse to refuse the challenge. Promotions would sometimes respond to challenges with "policemen": powerful wrestlers who lacked the charisma to become stars, but could defeat and often seriously injure any challenger in a shoot match. As the industry trend continued, there were fewer independent wrestlers to make such challenges in
9600-527: Was discontinued and the WWE Performance Center opened on July 11, 2013. On March 10, 2023, Keirn's autobiography, The Keirn Chronicles Volume One: The Fabulous Wrestling Life of Steve Keirn, was released. The book is coauthored by Ian Douglass, a contributor to the autobiographies of Dan Severn , Hornswoggle , Bugsy McGraw and Brian Blair , and it includes forewords from Stan Lane and CM Punk , and an afterword from Natalya Neidhart . The book
9700-491: Was incorporated into the WWE 's developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling , which opened on June 26, 2007, and Keirn was named President of the FCW and made regular appearances on FCW television. His last match was on December 10, 2007, at the 15th Anniversary Raw participating in a Battle Royal where he was eliminated from the match by Sgt. Slaughter . On August 14, 2012, FCW
9800-568: Was previously considered a niche interest, but the TV networks at the time were short on content and thus were willing to try some wrestling shows. In the 1960s, however, the networks moved on to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped. The core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s. In 1989, Vince McMahon was looking to exempt his promotion (the World Wrestling Federation ) from sports licensing fees. To achieve this, he testified before
9900-415: Was something other than what it appeared to be. I'm not sure now the fear was ever justified given the fact that the industry is still in existence today, but the point is no one questioned the need then. "Protecting the business" in the face of criticism and skepticism was the first and most important rule a pro wrestler learned. No matter how aggressive or informed the questioner, you never admitted
10000-417: Was the "world champion". Before the cartels, there were multiple wrestlers in the U.S. simultaneously calling themselves the "world champion", and this sapped public enthusiasm for professional wrestling. Likewise, the cartel could agree on a common set of match rules that the fans could keep track of. The issue over who got to be the champion and who controlled said champion was a major point of contention among
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