As an individual who has put far too many hours into Monday Night Raw, Smackdown, AEW, and even deeper cuts such as RoH and NWA, I have come to love professional wrestling. There is something about these orchestrated fights that seems to bring generations back to the sport, no matter their age. My father passed down clips of his favorite wrestlers to me, and my grandfather often talks brilliantly about his days of watching Lucha Libre as a child. On one occasion, the three of us went to see a contemporary legend, Mistico, together at a local wrestling event.
As a Catholic revert, I have also come to recognize how parallel the fall of this sport is to our current ecclesiastical battles, along with a parallel to the falling decorum of American culture. For those who have never watched professional wrestling, this may seem irrelevant, but the reflection is almost crystal clear in the thoughts and mentality of many in our culture today and yesteryear.
I think it is most appropriate to begin the description of this fall at the height of traditional Americana and Catholicism, the 1960s. No classic name in professional wrestling seems to command more attention and respect than the legendary Bruno Sammartino, who reigned as champion for 2,803 days.
During this period of professional wrestling, the storylines were sparse, and the audience wanted to attend an arena to see their hero, called the face, beat the villain, the heel, a reflection of the traditional storytelling of a hero conquering evil. In these days, professional wrestling was unknown to the audience as a fake sport (a work). The 1960s brought about long-face title reigns and short-heel reigns. To put you into the perspective of the absolute heroism this era brought about, when Bruno’s record-setting reign as champion came to an end, the crowd was silenced to an absolute silence according to reports. These professional wrestling faces were squeaky clean, wanting to be an inspiration for the younger audience members, Bruno being no exception, a man clean from PEDs and from what I can tell through his burial and future comments, a Catholic man.
During the late 1960s to late 1970s, wheels began turning, promoters started to be a little more creative with their storylines, and promotional interviews became a core part of the product. No longer was wrestling mainly for the stadiums; it was for the TV stations too. With a changing American culture, rock and roll was on its way to influencing the product, and shaking up the industry.
Not more than 20 years later is what we could call the height of the televised territory days. The true shakeups of the territories were best embodied through heels such as Rick Flair and Jim Cornette and faces such as the Von Erichs and Hulk Hogan. The product in this era was still relatively clean, but on the inside, trouble was brewing. It does not take more than a few Google searches and public memory to see what was going on behind the mask, and while the product still showed some semblance of normality, pockets of disruption would ultimately precede the mask coming fully off in the late 90s.
The early 1990s held some semblance of the norm; the product had lost some interest from the locality of the territories, and the product suffered from dying stadiums. Wrestling was in a lull. No longer was the general public interested in traditional storytelling; no longer did the public seem to care for the clean, family-oriented product that was professional wrestling.
That was until the WCW began to take the airwaves and shake the WWE in their tracks. In the late 90s, enacted by a blasphemous promo where Steve Austin mocked the Gospel of John through his own twisted “Austin 3:16” verse, the Attitude Era began. This era continues to be looked upon fondly by many young millennials and the WWE itself would have you believe this was the peak of professional wrestling (although defenders of the previous state of the industry would beg to differ). To sum up this era, by this point in time, the territories were, for the most part, sold or shut down. The WWE and WCW were the two final remaining core products on television. They sought to outdo each other in raunchiness, and the crowds ate it up. American television was no longer concerned with trying to hide it, the era of traditional heroes and villains was over. Sanitized television was done for.
After overcoming the close call with WCW, the WWE experienced another decline in popularity in the early-mid 2000s. The public’s interest in raunchiness had waned, as they could access similarly raunchy content through more efficient means. The WWE struggled to keep up and began to wind down their content, only slightly though, throughout their Ruthless Aggression Era. They held onto pieces of the attitude, but never rekindled the peak interest of the late 90s.
The year 2009 brought about a new family-friendly era, influenced by political correctness taking hold of public opinion. This sanitized product, like most family-friendly content of our current decade, forgot about the trials and tribulations that create a hero, putting one man on top of every challenge, no matter how absurd his victories were. John Cena became the anti-Bruno: a man shoved to the top to sell tickets, merchandise, and TV deals without the struggle in between to back up his position. The product suffered, the wrestling world was tired, and audiences had become fatigued. An alternative existed in TNA (now Impact Wrestling) but suffered a similar fate to the WCW, falling into irrelevance only a few years into the TV broadcasting deal.
A whole wrestling generation had passed through this era, the WWE had forgotten what created a hero, crowds would beg for certain men to have a chance, and while some did, much new talent had fallen through the cracks over and over again.
The lack of mobility in the WWE lead many talented, world-class athletes into leaving for smaller ventures, ultimately culminating in a new competitor, AEW. AEW had become the face of the counter-culture of wrestling. Hardcore matches on live TV, obscenities, and other novelties lead a portion of the crowd to call AEW the king of professional wrestling.
By this point it was clear to fans of classic wrestling, this was not the wrestling of their fathers and grandfathers, and nor did anyone care to bring it back. The modern fads and novelties had seeped into the minds of almost every professional wrestler on the planet. The current era is best summarized by wrestling veteran CM Punk during a press conference “I’m old, I’m tired, and I work with children.”
To bring people up to speed on the current situation, in late 2022, CEO and longtime company owner Vince McMahon stepped away from the WWE, ultimately leading to the product taking a twisted return back to tradition. Anti-heroes and unclean language became prevalent again, modesty in dress stays as an afterthought, and AEW continues to attempt to reignite a wrestling craze with a failed attempt at Attitude Era raunchiness.
From a Catholic lens, it is clear to see that the 60s and 70s were the last hurrah for traditional values. The people who grew up with or in the Church were at the helm of TV, but liberal politics had infected the airwaves. People began to spice up their television, and the smoke of Satan had begun to infect the sport. While some people showed face throughout the 80s and early 90s, the new generation was intent on destroying traditional values. Pornography had become normalized, a TV-14-rated program was promoting sexual misconduct, and raunchy jokes berated what was previously a show for families to see classic heroes. The smoke of Satan had become the forefront of American culture, and it was no longer a trickle; it filled arenas.
Bruno Sammartino was one of the forefront critics of the contemporary product during the Attitude Era. In an interview published by Slam Wrestling, Bruno stated:
“When I saw what was going on after McMahon Jr. took over from his father, I said this wasn’t for me. I don’t watch it today because I’m disgusted and appalled. I refuse to watch it. It appalls me that parents would allow their kids to go to these events and watch it on TV. It appalls me that the TV stations would broadcast this type of garbage. As much as I despise McMahon for what he’s done, he couldn’t survive if it wasn’t for the stations that carried him and the people who watch it. When you go in [the direction] that McMahon has, this is something that isn’t long-lasting. I was in this business for 25 years, and we did continuous business in the arenas.”
Bruno did make amends with the WWE before his passing as the product began to be cleaned up in the 2010s, but the mask was off, and the sport was run by those who did not care to see traditional values exemplified any longer. The sport was run by those who didn’t mind objectifying women, creating anti-hero role models, and making evil look trendy for younger members of the crowd. Today, the wrestling business is dominated by two camps: conservative wrestling products and liberal ones, with WWE being on the conservative side and AEW on the liberal side. Much like the current political era, those at the helm of the promotions have forgotten what created great legends and kept generations upon generations coming to events.
Reactionary and traditionalist promoters are all but gone in America, but still hold one of the major promotions in Mexico, CMLL. This promotion is sparsely televised, focused on traditional face/heel wrestling, and minimizes/eliminates the use of blood on TV.
Jim Cornette, as vulgar as he is, is the closest voice to a “traditionalist” in the American wrestling sphere today. He seeks sparse use of weapons during matches, true subsidiarity in the running of the business as in the territory days, sparse use of flashy moves to create special moments, and a cleaner show to allow children and families to watch the product. He is popular for his critique of contemporary wrestling, and seeks to bring back the 80’s territory era wrestling he grew to love. He is unfortunately the product of a culture that disintegrated before him, but a voice I respect as someone holding on to some semblance of tradition. His popularity is a testament to how true the longing for tradition in everything you love is a part of loving it. Even if the tradition he longs for is the masked tradition of a bygone era, it is a longing for God’s order of good triumphing over evil, ensuring the feasts of the sport(special matches – such as cages, tables, etc.) are kept sparse, so as to not ruin their brilliance.
As a sport, professional wrestling can be a device to promote traditional values. It is not uncommon to see Mexican wrestlers such as Rey Mysterio, and even a recent African American wrestler Montez Ford, do the sign of the cross upon entering the ring. Bruno was one of the last heroes of the sport to recognize this fact, and it is sad to say that this era has ended. With the regime change in the largest professional wrestling corporation on the planet, it will be interesting to see what the future holds for the business. It appears that Triple H is in the conservative camp of things, with some unfortunate PC culture sprinkled into the product.
I look forward to the future of this business and hope that as Catholics, we demand stolen ground be given back to God in this and all sports, entertainment, and ultimately the world. As the professional wrestling hero did, may Bruno Sammartino’s soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.