Ultimate History of Pro Wrestling - A Time Line of Every Major Event in Pro Wrestling History - 267 AD
By: Karl Stern (karl@whenitwascool.com)
Much of the text of this entry comes from issue 82 of the DragonKing Press Newsletter available as a downloadable .pdf in the digital downloads section.
Credit for this entry goes to Jim Cornette and Brian Last for bringing it to the wrestling communities attention. The article is from Archaeology Magazine at - this link.
The origins of wrestling through 1832 are discussed on the Long Form History of Wrestling Podcast 01 - Click Here
267 AD: Among 500,000 fragments of papyri discovered in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, more than a century ago, one fragment, recently scrutinized by historian Dominic Rathbone of King’s College London, concerns a wrestling match between two teenagers, Nicantinous and Demetrius, in A.D. 267. The contract, agreed upon by Nicantinous’ father and Demetrius’ trainers, stipulates that Demetrius must “fall three times and yield.” For his intentional submission, the loser would be paid 3,800 drachmas. This is the first known papyrological evidence for bribery in an athletic competition. The agreement specifies that should the boy back out on the deal, Demetrius’ would owe a penalty equal to 18,000 drachmas. Full Article.
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DragonKingKarl (Karl Stern) is a long time pro wrestling historian who has been published in books, newsletters, and podcasts since the mid-1990s.
The Ultimate History of Pro Wrestling Zone is Karl Stern's attempt to chronicle the entire history of pro wrestling and is a work in progress with hundreds of pages of text added each month.
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Pro wrestling history. The history of professional wrestling. Timeline of pro wrestling history.
