My Lucha Libre Life

1811
About 12,000 spectators watch the wrestling matches held during the annual horse races at Carlisle. Promoters of the races preferred showing wrestling matches instead of boxing matches because the wrestling crownds were judged less likely to riot.

Circa 1830
Collar-and-elbow wrestling is introduced into New England by Irish immigrants. The style became widely known during the American Civil War, and formed the basis for the American professional wrestling techniqes of the 1870s and 1880s.

1837
In Braemar, Scotland, the Highland Games are introduce. These games helped popularize Cumberland wrestling, which had been popular mainly in Northern England. The prize of a gold guinea is given to the wrestler with the neatest costume (consisting of long underwear, stockings, and a pair of shorts). Four weight divisions are created to ensure fairness in matches. Victory during these matches is determined by best of three falls.

1845
Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion and physical culturist William "The Solid Man" Muldoon" is born on May 25th in Belfast, New York.

1856
Professional wrestling is banned in Paris, causing many French boxers and wrestlers to move to Belgium, Greece, and the Americas.


1873
In Paris, the first masked wrestler enters the ring. He is known simply as "Le Lutteur Masqué," The Masked Wrestler.

1874
Former slaver, Viro Small, becomes the first known African American professional wrestler.

1878
American professional wrestler Frank Gotch is born on April 27 near Humbolt, Iowa.

1878
Strongman and professional wrestler Georg "The Russian Lion" Hackenschmidt is born on August 1st, in Tartu, Estonia (then part of the Russian Empire)

1881
The phrase "championship of the world" is coined by the National Police Gazette.

1885
The first Australian professional wrestling match is staged at Melbourne’s Theatre Royal on September 26.

1891
The National Police Gazette and Richard Kyle Fox sponsor a women's championship wrestling match in New York City. Women wear tights to "keep everything decent" and their hair is cut short to prevent hair pulling. (Frederick Van Wyck, later recollects in 1932, that not all early women's matches followed the same efforts to maintain decency, stating that some matches of his youth were between "two ladies, with nothing but trunks on."


Sources:
http://www.pwi-online.com/pages/wrestlingframe.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Hackenschmidt