Wrestling was first developed by the ancient Greeks. It was also one of the sports in the ancient Olympics. It was a test of strength, skill, and intelligence. Often at the end of the match the loser would be executed. Winning was an asset.
Before the the 1900's wrestling was showcased at carnivals and circuses. The ringmaster would offer an amount of money to anyone who could beat his wrestler. No one could. The carnival would usually have three kinds of wrestlers that would travel with it: The Hooker- usually the biggest and most skilled of the group, knew all of the wrestling moves. He would use all of the illegal moves that were banned in actual competition. The Strongman- usually the strongest of the group, who knew nothing about wrestling, relied on pure strength to impress an audience. The Journeyman- usually this wrestler was an average grappler, who knew enough to beat a challenger. He was also a body builder who would be used to attract and audience. The ringmaster would use the journeyman as a dummy for the hooker in matches to ensure that the hooker would win.
In the late 1800's and early 1900's wrestling was the most popular spectator sport in the United States. Professional wrestling was also a real sport. Wrestlers from all over the world would showcase their talents in American arenas. Matches would last anywhere from five minutes to two or three hours. Due to match length people would soon get tired of attending matches. Professional wrestling soon lost popularity.
During the time of great popularity wrestlers would hire hookers to take out an opponent in training sessions. This would give the wrestler an advantage over his injured opponent.
Around the 1930's an actual unstaged match was rare to find. Promoters would choose territories and have their top wrestler be the champion. The top wrestler had the ability to take the belt back when ever the promoter would want him to. When trying to take over a rival organization the promoters would send the top wrestler to take out the top wrestler of the other organization.
Wrestling was used more as entertainment than competion. Most of the moves were made up to make wrestling more exciting. Certain rules would be made up to, such as being able to get back in the ring by the count of ten or get disqualified. There was also the concept of a face (good guy) and a heel (bad guy wrestler).
In the early 1980's, Vince McMahon brought pro wrestling to pay-per-view, turning wrestling into sports entertainment. Vince McMahon began to market toys, videos and syndicated wrestling programs to television networks all across the U.S.
Recently, professional wrestling has become a soap opera set up. With storylines, and characters in crazy situations. Now pro wrestling doesnt resemble the ancient sport.
Amateur wrestling has stemmed from this ancient sport to freestyle, greco-roman, and folkstyle wrestling. AAU and USAW have excellent wrestling programs to join for tournaments.