By Brian Argabright
If boxing is the “sweet science,” professional wrestling can best be described as artistic violence.
There’s something beautiful in watching a true artist like Daniel Bryan, Will Ospreay or Zack Sabre Jr. work their magic in a mat classic or a 60-minute Broadway. It keeps your attention, makes you wince at the stiffest of blows and brings you to your feet when you think the end is near, but a miraculous kick out brings another round of trading blows before reaching the official finish.
That’s what this column is about. It’s not about telling you who won or who loss, but it’s about speaking on the art, the business and the sport of professional wrestling not just in the United States, but across the world.
First off, this is my third pro wrestling column. Most folks learned of my passion for pro wrestling from my original column on the subject, “Powerbombs and Press Slams.” It ran from April 2000 to March 31, 2008. A second column, “The Ringside Report,” was an on and off kind of thing for the next few years, but it never caught on and was never a regular thing, only wheeled out when it was necessary.
Now, I present to you “On the Mark,” a new pro wrestling column devoted to opinions, reviews and observations on the thing so many of us love, or loved, and still have a place somewhere in our hearts. There will be fewer results, more opinions and hopefully a way for readers to weigh in with the takes on wrestling.
Before I sign off, I want to thank Adrian Garcia and Joey Zavala for hosting me on their Power Hour Wrestling podcast recently to break the big news on the return of a regular wrestling column to Del Rio. Adrian was a fan of my original column in his youth, and Joey grew up watching wrestling in Mexico before embracing wrestling here in the US. They’re the next generation of pro wrestling commentators, and I look forward to hearing what they have to say.
Their podcast has been around for nearly five years, so give them a listen on anchor.com or Spotify, Google Podcast, Apple Podcast or other places anchor works with.
