8 Sharpest Hustlers In Wrestling
1. Toots Mondt
Professional wrestling in the USA (and, therefore, in Europe, Mexico and Japan by proxy) owes a significant debt to the Gold Dust Trio, the cartel that transformed the way the industry did business during the 1920s, and no mention of the Gold Dust Trio would be complete without discussion of the influence of Joseph Toots Mondt. The sport was in danger of vanishing when the Trio began influencing the way things were done. Mondt convinced his compatriots, Ed Strangler Lewis and Billy Sandow, that a new style was required to replace the slow-but-steady mat-based style of the time.
He innovated the addition of slams, suplexes and basic punching and kicking into wrestlings grappling lexicon, creating a form of wrestling which we would recognise today. Mondt also popularised and perfected the wrestling finish, the idea that the climax to a match could be dramatic and exciting, regardless of who won. Wrestlers now had signature moves they used to win. Mondt created the concept of the draw in wrestling: people could now fight to a no-contest, or be counted out, or there could be a time limit draw with no victor. Most of the concepts we take for granted as part of a worked wrestling match were invented by Toots Mondt.
This new style of wrestling proved phenomenally popular, of course: and shifted the whole point of professional wrestling, from being a simulacrum of legitimate competition, performed by legitimate competitors, to being a spectacle existing purely to entertain. More tickets sold meant bigger venues, meant more money to spend on performers. The Gold Dust Trio became the industrys first ever nationwide wrestling promotion, with he industry's first ever wrestling roster, a package tour that booked ongoing storylines with the same wrestlers.
Mondt introduced the idea of working a match, and working a programme to build a performer up in the eyes of the audience. Toots Mondt was the mentor to Vince McMahon Sr, formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation (as was) with McMahon in 1963, and pushed Bruno Sammartino as the WWWF's first proper headliner. He was the personification of the hustle thats built professional wrestling: the promoter that Vince McMahon Jr. likes to tell everyone he is. Which other hustlers deserve to be on this list? Share your picks below in the comments thread below.