The Grapple Game

[Errorist Sympathiser]

It's a long shot given that we're all cognoscenti on here, but is anyone else a fan of professional wrestling in its myriad forms?

It's something I've been drawn back to after years away. The last six months have been a whirl of getting reaquainted...

[Ray de Galles]

The Grapple Game

I thought we were pushing it with speedway! You were a real 'World of Sport' child, weren't you?

[Errorist Sympathiser]

The Grapple Game

Weridly, I never really watched it on World of Sport! I only started watching "seriously" when I was 19 and chanced across the WWF on Sky...

[meregreen]

The Grapple Game

I was a big fan of the 70s stuff on World of Sport. Mick McManus, Kendo Nagasaki, Big Daddy, but above all Les Kellett, about whom there's supposed to be a brilliant biography.

When I was a kid we used to go on holiday to Butlins and they'd have live wrestling as part of the 'family' entertainment. Close up, you could see that however much it was faked, there was still a lot of violence involved.

[laverte]

Dozens of UK-based women pro wrestlers are disclosing stories of abuse, harrassment, bullying, stalking and mistreatment* from men in the industry under the hashtag SpeakingOut. It's clear that even those women who weren't directly targeted had heard warnings about some of the (so far) 75 men named, among them wrestlers (including some from WWE), plus trainers, referees, crew, promoters and more. The response from angry wrestling fans has been as expected (abusive messages accusing the women of lying and being cunts); the wrestling organisations seem to have found a template from corporate PR: "As of this month we are taking steps to diversify our core team, and wider circle of those with whom we consult, and we will learn from this watershed moment" yadda yadda.

Everybody knew.

* ETA: now also grooming, sexting, rape, indecent exposure, homophobia, tons of misogyny, etc.

[HeavyDracula]

It's not been an easy time to be a wrestling fan lately, but nowhere near as tough as it must have been for the men and women who finally came forward. It's always been a standing joke/truism that wrestling is a shitty business, and any change is well overdue. I just hope that the victims find some justice, and what's left once the Coronavirus is over is a much better, safer, more inclusive place to spend time and money.