History of Wrestling Timeline

Celtic wrestling continued as a historical tradition from the era of the Tailteann Games until the 12th century AD, when the Normans invaded.

By the eighth century, Byzantine emperor Basil I was said by court historians to have defeated a boastful wrestler from Bulgaria in a wrestling match.

Image source: Basil I

German records from the 15th and 16th centuries describe master-Ringer who specialized in unarmed combat. Their work formed part of the German tradition of ringen.

Although no treatise written by Ott himself has survived, his wrestling system was taught by several fencing masters during the later 15th century.

Fiore dei Liberi’s work, dating to around 1410, included material on ringen and swordsmanship, preserving techniques from the medieval and Renaissance martial traditions.

Image source: Fiore dei Liberi

Fabian von Auerswald’s 1462 treatise contained material on both ringen and swordsmanship, contributing to the written record of European wrestling techniques.

Pietro Monte’s work from around 1480 included instruction on ringen alongside swordsmanship, documenting wrestling as part of a broader martial curriculum.

Hans Wurm’s treatise from around 1500 contained material on ringen and swordsmanship, adding to the period’s surviving record of wrestling practice.

Wrestling remained popular during the Renaissance and throughout much of the 16th century, continuing older European traditions while appearing in public contests and cultural life.

At the 1520 Field of the Cloth of Gold pageant, Francis I of France reportedly threw Henry VIII of England in a wrestling match, possibly using a Flying Mare. The incident followed victories by Francis’s Breton wrestlers over Cornish wrestlers.

Image source: Field of the Cloth of Gold

Johann Georg Passchen published a late treatise on ringen in 1659, extending the written German wrestling tradition into the 17th century.

Johann Andreas Schmidt’s Leib-beschirmende und Feinden Trotz-bietende Fecht-Kunst, published in Nuremberg in 1713, is described as possibly the last book treating ringen as a deadly martial art.

Modern wrestling developed during the 19th century from folk-wrestling traditions. Regulated freestyle and Greco-Roman styles emerged from British and continental European traditions, respectively.

Image source: Amateur wrestling

In 1848, French showman Jean Exbroyat formed the first modern wrestlers’ circus troupe. He established a rule prohibiting holds below the waist and named the resulting style flat hand wrestling.

Image source: Professional wrestling

By the end of the 19th century, the modern Greco-Roman style had become the most popular event in fashionable European sport.

In 1898, French wrestler Paul Pons, known as “the Colossus,” became the first Professional World Champion.

Wrestling experienced a golden age around the turn of the 20th century, when both modern sports and professional contests enjoyed enormous popularity. The period was cut short by the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

Georg Hackenschmidt became world champion after defeating Tom Jenkins in 1905. He later associated himself with British promoter and entrepreneur Charles B. Cochran.

Frank Gotch became world champion by defeating European wrestling champion Georg Hackenschmidt in matches held in 1908 and 1911. Modern wrestling historians regard the bouts as among the most significant matches in wrestling history.

Wrestling’s popularity declined dramatically from 1915 to 1920, partly because of World War I. In the United States, widespread doubts about the legitimacy and competitive status of professional wrestling further damaged its reputation.

Greco-Roman wrestling was introduced as an Olympic discipline at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.

After wrestling was absent from the 1900 Olympics, it returned at the 1904 Games in St. Louis, where the competition was held in freestyle wrestling.

Since 1921, the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles, or FILA, has regulated amateur wrestling as an athletic discipline.

The term shuai jiao was chosen by the Central Guoshu Academy of Nanjing in 1928, when competition rules for the Chinese wrestling discipline began to be standardized.

The NCAA published rules for collegiate wrestling in 1928, helping formalize the American collegiate style as a regulated competitive sport.

Freestyle wrestling and American collegiate wrestling initially lacked a scoring system for matches that ended without a fall. The NCAA introduced a point system during the 1940–1941 season.

In the late 1950s, Dr. Albert deFerrari of San Francisco, who became a vice president of FILA, advocated a visible scoring system and a controlled-fall rule. The proposed rule recognized a fall only when the offensive wrestler had caused it.

Women’s freestyle wrestling was added to the Summer Olympic program in 2004. Since then, both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling have continued to be represented, alongside the new women’s competition.