Im reading about the Dick Shikat-Danno Mahoney world title double cross in 1936 and I found this little tidbit interesting
"To the public, wrestling was a joke, and when major newspapers stopped covering it, attendance dropped. Promoters knew the public thought its product was a joke so they promoted it like a joke. By 1940 the sport was filled with gimmicks like mud matches or Jell-O matches or dead fish matches. Performing freaks became wrestling's biggest draws"
But, but, I thought everyone took rasslin seriously back in the olden days and it wasnt until Tony Kahn and the Young Bucks came along that everything became a punchline