Читать книгу Ali vs. Inoki. The Forgotten Fight That Inspired Mixed Martial Arts and Launched Sports Entertainment онлайн

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No one uttered that term prior to Griffin’s work being published, but everyone in the pro wrestling world remembered it afterwards. The group nickname stuck because in many ways the Gold Dust Trio bridged pro wrestling’s lingering competitive nerve, the roots of catch-as-catch-can, to part-of-an-angle exhibitions indicative of WWE’s product in 2016.

“Strangler” Lewis, Billy Sandow, and one of the smartest pro wrestling people that ever lived, Joe “Toots” Mondt— whom Griffin, a newspaperman, was rumored to be on the payroll of from 1933 to 1937, and whose interviews were used as Fall Guys’ main source—changed pro wrestling. Mondt’s shift in ring philosophy and practice, Sandow’s approach to consolidating wrestlers under exclusive contracts, and Lewis’ star power, when combined, were that meaningful.

Mondt, a young wrestler, booked matches, plotted storylines, and envisioned an open style that blended elements of combat sports without the trouble of sport—an impediment, from time to time, to exciting wrestling action. Body slams and suplexes were mixed in with fisticuffs and grappling, laying the framework for a charged-up, vaudevilleinspired creation: “Slam Bang Western-Style Wrestling.” This wasn’t dumb luck. Even in his youth, Mondt possessed a wealth of knowledge regarding many forms of competitive combat sports.