The Katz Files – Arnie Katz
The Unwritten Laws of Wrestling
The Kingfish Arnie Katz woke up early this Monday so you don’t have to. He’s in one of his weird moods, so hold onto your keyboards!
Pro Wrestling wasn’t invented yesterday.
It isn’t a new business. The North American version began with guys fighting all challengers at carnivals more than a century ago. (No, one of them was not Fit Finlay.)
Pro Wrestling thrived even as the Six-Day Bicycle Race and Roller Derby became respectively, defunct and small-time. Although I’ve encountered a few wrestling promoters who are geniuses, most of them are somewhat less than brilliant.
One of the things that has helped promoters survive is the vast storehouse of practical knowledge that pro wrestling has accumulated over more than a century. There’s nothing fancy; it’s more like a catalog of what works and what doesn’t.
These unwritten rules rank somewhere between the Ten Commandments and the US marijuana laws in terms of how strictly they are enforced. Imaginative bookers bend, break and twist them in fascinating ways, but most promoters can stay out of real trouble by just sticking with them.