Anyone notice when you watch old school wrestling, the ring announcer announce the timekeepers, the doctors, I get all that but they also announce the wrestling judges and mention that that the event is sanctioned under the New York Athletic commission!?!?!, so of course todays events these are never mentioned, why would a predetermined event need a judge? as well why would the New York athletic commission need to oversee something that is "entertainment" so was this all BS back then??
State athletic commissions really did sanction wrestling events similar to how they sanctioned boxing events or other sports. Of course, everybody on the inside was aware wrestling was a work.
The state athletic commissions did it simply as a cash grab.
Wrestling promotions went along with it to give wrestling credibility as a real sport.
The whole reason Vince McMahon (Jr.) publicly acknowledged that wrestling wasn't actually a sport and only sports entertainment was that he was fed up with being soaked by the commissions and being overregulated.
Thank you for that, I seem to recall Vince in 1989 stating that to either the NY or NJ state athletic club that it is pure entertainment, which at the time blew the lid off wrestling.
