How do the wrestlers of yesteryear compare with the wrestlers of today?
When I pose this question I am not talking about "Professional Wrestlers" in terms of performance. What I'm trying to compare is the real wrestlers from different eras, the legitimate tough guys who KNEW how to wrestle. An example comparison would be Aleksandr Karelin, the best wrestler right now and possibly ever, and The Great Gama. For those of you who don't know (and I'm assuming that is about 98% of you), The Great Gama was an Indian wrestler who went undefeated throughout his entire career and dispatched some of the toughest men of his time. How would the fare against each other? If history has taught us anything it teaches us this: With the advancement of time comes advanced techniques, and with the advancement of techniques comes a superior athlete and a superior competitor in their event.
The point I just brought up brings up an argument that, no matter how much I try and debate it, can not be ignored. Is amateur wrestling different in this aspect? Amateur wrestling, in its simplest and fundamental form, has been around for thousands and thousands of years. Is 100 years or even 50 years an adequate measuring stick of talent when talking about a sport that has been around far longer than any other?
For those of you who have Classic Sports Network and have ever watched an old 70's NBA game you will see my point. The regular players (not the superstars) couldn't hang with most of the players now. Is it because they weren't as talented and didn't have the same drive? No, it's because most of them were white. Just kidding. All kidding aside, the reason why they weren't as quick and couldn't jump as high as today's players is because of the advanced training techniques that are now available. The first time I saw Billy Cunningham play basketball I laughed because he made the All Time 50 Greatest. Here was a little guy with the muscle tone of a skeleton that probably wouldn't even start in the NBA of today and he was taking over games.
Can wrestling be compared to these types of situations? Possibly, all depending on your point of view. However, no matter how strong of an argument you can make regarding the wrestlers of the past just as strong of an argument can go against them. I mentioned Aleksandr Karelin at the top of the article I will continue to sing his praises now. This guy is an absolute machine. He is from Russia and about 285-300 pounds of PURE muscle. He is undefeated in his amateur career and is the most feared competitor in the sport today. He hasn't been scored on in International competition for years and has won every contest he has entered. Beating Matt Ghaffari at Atlanta for the gold during the 96 Olympics was expected and achieved.
Karelin is easily the greatest wrestler of our time and has proven it time and time again. When will another one of his caliber come along? Will anyone of his caliber ever come along again? Has someone of his skills ALREADY come and gone? Hard to say, though there are those who swear that the greatest wrestlers have already lived and died.
I'm posing a ton of questions in this segment because I'm trying to lay down the basic arguments for my future columns discussing this issue. Believe me, although I have held my opinions out of this so far they WILL be forthcoming in the future editions. Any comments about what I have so far are most welcome as the idea for a string of columns concerning this just occurred to me today and I haven't quite outlined what it is exactly that I will be talking about. Again, let me know what you think.
