In the pro wrestling of the 1970’s and 80’s, there was a lot more repetition in the matches compared to today’s fast-paced matches. A match script would go something like this:
- A wrestler would apply a certain hold
- The opponent would escape
- The wrestler would slap on the exact same hold all over again.
- The opponent would escape again — Go back to Step #1.
It didn’t have to be a really fancy move — it could be as simple as a Headlock, Armbar, Bearhug, or Scissor. The nice thing was he kept going back to it, like a comfortable old friend, like a pair of jeans broken in just right, like an old tool that you can’t toss out because it still works. And I’d be sitting there thinking “Oh yeah! Get him in it again!”
The implication was that each application of the hold would further weaken or wear down the competition. Putting the same hold on the same body part does a little more damage each time, they’d tell us. It also was a humiliation for the victim, to be unable to determine an effective counter-move or to block the repeated attack.
I, for one, enjoy seeing the same hold, especially a hold that looks interesting, used over and over in a match and applied for as long as possible. Far from being boring, that repetition can be fun to watch and it helps to tell the story of the match. Every time the victim breaks free, he finds himself frustrated, tangled up in that same damn hold again until he barely wants to try breaking out at all. It’s as if the dominant wrestler is saying “I can do this to you all night long. I own you with this hold.” The dominant wrestler is using his good old favorite hold to tame and subdue yet another victim.
Lets take a look at a match between the State Patrol — two beefy cops who get in the ring wearing police uniforms — and two guys who seem to love Headscissors:
