All-in professional wrestling

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This article is about the 1930s British style of professional wrestling. For the 2018 professional wrestling event promoted by Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks, see All In (2018). For the 2023 professional wrestling event at Wembley Stadium, London, England promoted by All Elite Wrestling, see All In (2023).
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All-in wrestling was both a style of

catch as catch can and other forms of British folk amateur wrestling with the emerging performances and showmanship of professional wrestling. Unlike Olympic freestyle wrestling, "All In" professional wrestling was presented as "no holds barred".[1][2]

The term "All In" later became synonymous with more anarchic professional wrestling shows, leading to censure by local authorities by the late 1930s. Consequently, the "All In" label was disowned by most British wrestling promoters following the adoption of the 1947 Mountevans rules.[2] Nevertheless, the term still lingered for many years afterwards amongst the media and the public.

History

A professional wrestling match between Atholl Oakeley and "Bulldog" Bill Garnon, circa the early 1930s in London, England. In this match, Oakley and Garnon emphasise a grappling-based style intended to suggest the match is a legitimate wrestling contest rather than a performance.

Professional wrestling in the

gimmickry
and showmanship, were introduced to British wrestling.

It was with this revival that the more

Greco Roman wrestling as the dominant style of professional wrestling in the United States back in the 1890s, became the new dominant style in Britain. With Lancashire
catch-as-catch-can already a major amateur sport particularly in Northern England, there existed a ready-made source of potential recruits to professional wrestling.

Amateur wrestler Sir Atholl Oakeley got together with fellow grappler Henry Irslinger to launch one of the first promotions to employ the new style of wrestling which was coined "All-in" wrestling. Though, like many wrestlers throughout the business, Oakley would claim his wrestling was entirely legitimate, his claim was highly dubious. According to Pro Wrestling Press, Under the British Wrestling Association banner, Oakley's promotion took off with wrestlers such as Tommy Mann, Black Butcher Johnson, Jack Pye, Norman the Butcher, College Boy, and Jack Sherry on the roster, while Oakley himself would win a series of matches to be crowned the first British Heavyweight Champion.[3]

The business was reaching one of its highest points at the time, with the best part of forty regular venues in

Johannesburg, South Africa in 1938.[5] In April 1938, Justice Charles of the King's Bench Division in London declared that it was "not a sport."[6]

After the war, attempts to relaunch the business in 1947 failed to catch on with journalists who condemned the gimmickry calling the show fake. The revelation of this, and the general chaos which had surrounded All In Wrestling prior to the War, prompted

Modern Freestyle.[2]

In popular culture

Despite the rejection of the name "All In" by British wrestling promoters, the term continued to be used in the UK to refer to professional wrestling - often in a derogatory sense by non-fans. An example of its use in this context is in the Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch "All In Cricket" which depicts two cricketers dueling with cricket bats in a wrestling ring.[7]

English translations of Mythologies by Roland Barthes have frequently rendered the French term Le Catch as All In wrestling, (despite Barthes having written the book in France in the 1950s).[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ Blue Blood On The Mat, Sir Atholl Oakeley, Summersdale Publishers Ltd 1994 edition
  2. ^ a b c The Wrestling, Simon Garfield, Faber & Faber 1996
  3. ISBN 978-1-4116-5329-0
  4. ^ Stead, R. Maillard (November 3, 1937). And Talking of..."Wrestling": 'All In' Wrestling--and Wrestling No "All In" Wrestling Professional Methods Mat-Work Does Not Fit Two Amateur Codes. The Christian Science Monitor
  5. ^ Staff report (January 9, 1938). "All In" Wrestling Condemned. The Age
  6. ^ Staff report (April 3, 1938). "All In" Wrestling. English Judge's Views. "Not A Sport." The Sydney Morning Herald
  7. ^ "Monty Python: Interesting People".
  8. ISBN 978-0-374-52150-9

External links
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