Comparisons and Contrasts: British Wrestling vs Lucha Brawls
Mar 29, 2018 7:54:17 GMT -5
Post by Cap on Mar 29, 2018 7:54:17 GMT -5
Part of the comparisons series of threads, I found myself a couple of months ago watching a lot of 70s and 80s British wrestling (mostly World of Sport) around the same that I was checking out some knock down drag out bloody lucha brawls. On the surface these feel like they are on opposite ends of the wrestling spectrum to me. Lucha brawls can be clunky and sloppy (like a real fight) and escalate through violence and - more often than not - blood. Classic British wrestling escalates through quickening pace and more heated exchanges. These are of course broad brush summaries. However I think they have some similarities. To me, the highest highs of each style depend on making animosity palpable. That is maybe true for all wrestling, but that animosity/anger/hatred feels woven into these styles a bit more (or maybe just differently). In Lucha brawls that manifests itself (quite often) as a match that starts with hate that somehow grows throughout. in classic British wrestling that manifests itself (quite often) as a match that begins with respect with animosity growing as one man cheats or gets frustrated etc. That process in each is really important if a match is to stand out in my mind.
My favorite matches in other genres/times (90 AJPW, 00s indys, WWE) depend upon that escalation as well, but it doesn't always feel like its central to me. Maybe that is because I am able to distinguish matches in those genres/times in other ways, whereas with classic British wrestling and Lucha Brawls there can be some more uniformity among middle of the road versions. That says at least as much about me and my exposure to each (particularly CBW) as it does about the styles themselves. Still, whereas emotion and an escalation of animosity of are an important part of all wrestling to me, they seem to be the core of these two disparate styles in a way that i see as a parallel of sorts.
Perhaps others think of each style differently or even draw upon a different scope when they think about each. I find the comparison and contrast between them interesting because both will have decent representation on my list.
My favorite matches in other genres/times (90 AJPW, 00s indys, WWE) depend upon that escalation as well, but it doesn't always feel like its central to me. Maybe that is because I am able to distinguish matches in those genres/times in other ways, whereas with classic British wrestling and Lucha Brawls there can be some more uniformity among middle of the road versions. That says at least as much about me and my exposure to each (particularly CBW) as it does about the styles themselves. Still, whereas emotion and an escalation of animosity of are an important part of all wrestling to me, they seem to be the core of these two disparate styles in a way that i see as a parallel of sorts.
Perhaps others think of each style differently or even draw upon a different scope when they think about each. I find the comparison and contrast between them interesting because both will have decent representation on my list.