Pro Wrestling in the CSA

As a huge fan of wrestling and althistory and as I'm interested in althists involving the CSA, I asked myself, how would pro wrestling look like in the CSA? Different or the same as up north?

I don't think that the CSA would have adopted the sports entertainment style created by Vince McMahons WWF (Now WWE). Old school wrestling would still be a big hit in the south. And even in OTL, many great promotions were in the south, like Bill Watts UWF or Georgia Championship Wrestling, which became World Championship Wrestling.
But ITL, there are two states, so it's difficult for a US-promotion to set foot down south, but southern promoter would have also difficulties to settle up north. So, would we see some kind of war like in OTLs 90's? Or would US and CS Wrestling just exist alongside each other? And most important, how would pro wrestling look like today?
 
Isn't the WWE based in the south?

Well depedent on how society develops and how truly state-like the Confederate States remain, you could see regional co-operation remain dominate like a Dixie Wrestling Alliance, dominated by old school traditional wrestling, whereas in the north promotions like ECW could be far more influential as 'hardcore' wrestling overtakes the old fuddy-duddies. However wasn't wrestling a lot more popular down south to begin with? Would it be seen more as a Confederate sport than American in general?

Also, although I doubt its relevance by the 1990s, possibly a segregated Negro Wrestling Association into the mid to late 20th century? This could actually be a seat for more extreme, innovitive wrestlers as there would be little of the big money and spectacle behind more conventional 'wrasslin'. Possibly with a few young white wrestlers in the 70s and 80s basically poaching the styles and using them to domiate white wrestling. Then again I know bugger all about race in wrestling apart from the generally backward, un-PC attitude even in the mainstream WWE to minorities in general. The 'Arab' heel from a few years back who was basically lynched in the ring by a dozen American wrestlers to chants of "USA!USA!USA!" is a prime example.

Blacked up comedy heels into the 1970s and early 80s? It sounds disgusting but I wouldn't put it past wrestling promoters, particularly in a more racist ATL, also if Confederate wrestling retains its regional, carnival, travelling show roots such gimmicky entertainment would be even more likely
 
I think Euro-disco and female body building would be the big trends in CSA. On the other hand, I'll dubt guitarrs and piano will be big.
 
Isn't the WWE based in the south?

WWE is based in Stamford, Connecticut. You're thinking of Ted Turner's company WCW, which was based in Atlanta.

Back on topic, I think wrestling in the CSA would probably be like the old "territory" wrestling from the glory days of the NWA, up to the 1990s. You'd see companies like Jim Crockett Promotions in Virginia and the Carolinas, World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas, and the UWF in the Gulf Coast states.
 
WWE is based in Stamford, Connecticut. You're thinking of Ted Turner's company WCW, which was based in Atlanta.

No I'm not, but I could sware their HQ was below the Mason-Dixon line, ah well.

There's every chance wrestling would be just as monopolised as today, or due to butterflies getting there. After all, Canada is totally incorporated into the American wrestling scene so unless there's a Cold War going on, CSA-USA integration seems just as likely.
 
It would all depend on how cable television develops in the CSA, since the rise of cable was a big factor in the fall of the territories, leaving only Memphis (USWA) standing by 1990 (only to shut down by 1997).
 
I think that pro wrestling would probably be huge as an outgrowth of the carny circuit, just as it is nowadays. My suspicion is that due to the independence of each state within the Confederacy, each would evolve a very different regulatory structure surrounding the "sport". The more "dignified" cultures such as Virginia would probably regulate it tightly by the 20th century, keeping it to the barns and fields. States with a higher working class population would tend towards less regulation of wrestling, meaning that we could see more of a slobberknocker style forming in, say, Alabama.
 
Maybe black guys and Yankees as the heels? Ric Flair (ITTL) would be a monster Face only rivalled by the Yankees' abolitionist Hulk Hogan.
 
Black guys? Doubt it. Maybe as jobbers, sure, but you could never have a black wrestler win even once against a white guy. The Yankee heel concept is great, though.
 
Black guys? Doubt it. Maybe as jobbers, sure, but you could never have a black wrestler win even once against a white guy. The Yankee heel concept is great, though.

I was thinking of the 'black panther/ risup or 'we gonna steal your women' thing. If you remember the nation of Domination and add a Huge amount of CSA I think it could work, Someone like bob Sapp or even Bobby Lashley could pull of the 'huge powerhouse upstart negro' act. Not much different from the 'build a monster, Hogan beats him in the early nineties'. To take it a bit further, how about a black submissive sidekick for a white face?

Would there be any other races in the CSA Wrestling world? depends on how this ATL turned out I guess.....
How about a French wrestler?

Regards,
Rhysz
 
I just don't see the CSA culture as being open to blacks taking part in the sport in any way, shape, or form. If you're selling this as actual combat, then it would be as foreign a concept as a black boxer, or baseball player, or golfer. I could see a promotion trying to put someone in blackface, but the makeup would rub off in the ring, meaning that the bout wouldn't sell.
 
I see the CSA being highly conservative, but also very dedicated to sports. Given that a surviving CSA would be a considerably poorer country than OTL's southern United States (massive investment in the region would not have happened, and indeed, the CSA might be stuck with slavery into the 1900s due to its insertion in the Confederate Constitution)

Wrestling might have an entirely different origin: Dueling. Eventually, the practice of fighting a duel is going to be put to an end one way or another, but perhaps it becomes more a matter of beating the other party without killing them.

Throw in gambling on outcomes and a general rowdiness towards the whole deal and you get "Professional Brawlers" emerging as an outgrowth of the Dueling culture. But unlike Professional Wrestling, it would still be a bloody sport with people fighting each other with swords or bats or other dangerous but not instantly deadly weaponry--and many of them with real vendettas.

This would not start off as a media idea, but rather be a commericalization of a practice with its worst outcomes curbed. Televised Dueling sometimes results in deaths, and there would probably be some sanction for parties to have an "Amateur's duel" to solve their differences.

Meanwhile, its the Union, not the CSA, that's going to have the Media Power. Hollywood is a very Union instituion that the Confederates are going to probably wind up importing rather than getting for free.

As for black duelists and wrestlers--either it doesn't happen or its a plot device where the black guy is automatically the bad guy, who never wins in the end.
 
Your points are well taken, especially regarding dueling. I'd suggest the following: While wrestling did come out of the carnival circuit (which predated the Civil War), the dueling culture had an impact on wrestling in the years leading up to the 20th century. While the Yankees have the lead in national communications, there are still small television markets throughout the South, each one having a local promotion that it concentrates on. So we're not seeing anything like the WWF/WWE monstrosity of the 80s and 90s, but we are seeing regional shows doing big business. Add to that the luchadores from across the border in Texas, and we could end up having something less well-funded than what we see nowadays, but even bloodier and more popular within certain areas.
 
As for black duelists and wrestlers--either it doesn't happen or its a plot device where the black guy is automatically the bad guy, who never wins in the end.

This is exactly what I was thinking of.

I'd say wrestling would look a lot more like MMA and the 'dueling' thing might translate well to OTL 'hardcore matches' maybe with more rule.....
 
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