Kings of the Ring

The biggest show in sports entertainment comes to Thailand

Photos courtesy of UBC

They're big! They're bad! They're loud! And they're coming to Bangkok next week.

That's right, Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, Undertaker, Big Show and the rest of the WWE Smackdown crew will be rumbling into Impact Arena to display their hard-hitting and high-flying wrestling skills.

No longer is wrestling just sweaty men tossing each other around an old boxing ring. No it is a show that is like a modern day circus combined with soap opera storylines. And the show has earned fans across the globe.

With Unleashed in the East, the WWE is bringing some of its biggest stars for a tour of Asia. Like most things around the WWE, it isn't certain who will be wrestling at the event.

The WWE has said that WWE champion Brock Lesnar, real life Olympian and former WWE champion Kurt Angle, 2.1 metre and 226 kilogramme giant Big Show and the Undertaker will be making the trip to Thailand.

Angle, Lesnar and Big Show are all three currently involved in a battle for the WWE title. So maybe something big will happen if they face off in Bangkok.

No matter what, it is sure that these amazing athletes will put on a show to be remembered.

Wresting has been around forever, but not always in its modern form. Long before The Rock or Brock Lesnar - or even their parents - were born, men were squaring off against each other in the ring

The first documented wrestler was known as The Masked Wrestler and - you guessed it - he wore a mask. He made his debut in 1873 in Paris.

While wrestling may have got its start in France, over the years it was perfected in the smoky arenas of the United States. And through the years one American family has been at the heart of all things wresting - the McMahons.

In 1925, Jess McMahon, grandfather of current WWE owner and Smackdown bad guy Vince McMahon Jr, started promoting wrestling.

By the 1930s, Jess's son Vince Sr had also started promoting wresting matches. In 1963 Vince Sr started the World Wide Wrestling Federation, or WWWF, which would eventually become the modern WWE.

The flair of made-for-TV wrestling really got its start in 1982, when Vince Jr bought the WWF from his father.

In 1985, the first Wrestlemania was held in New York City. The main event featured both Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper, two guys still going at it today.

After Wrestlemania, wrestling saw amazing growth and popularity in the late 1980s. But in the early 1990s, fans had gotten bored of wrestling and TV ratings were on the decline.

It would take something special to make the fans come back. And something special did happen. In the mid 1990s, wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and Triple H kicked off their careers.

These flashy wrestlers, along with brilliant promotion and new storylines by Vince McMahon, helped put wrestling back on the minds of TV viewers around the world.

Vocabulary

rumbling (v): to make a long deep sound or series of sounds
squaring off (phrase): to fight or prepare to fight somebody
document (v): to record the details of something
flair (n): a quality showing the ability to do things in an interesting and imaginative way