It's January 23 and as usual, I checked the This Day in History site to see some events that happened on this day in the past. The site divides up the events into categories like General Interest, Crime, the Civil War and Sports. Usually in Sports, it's something from baseball, American football, soccer (football to the rest of the world), basketball or cycling. In other words, a real sport. The entry for today was in wrestling. Not collegiate wrestling or even high school wrestling but professional wrestling. The World Wrestling Federation (as it was called then). The headline is "Hulk Hogan beats Iron Sheik to first WWF title".
I'm sorry but this is not sport. It is entertainment (to some). They even changed the name to World Wrestling Entertainment to reflect that fact. Yes, I know, the men and women who "compete" in the WWE are in very good shape. They are athletic. I could not do what they do. But the same could be said for acrobats. The same could be said for the Harlem Globetrotters. We don't see Globetrotter scores listed in the sports pages. The acrobats are entertainers and so are the men and women of the WWE. The members of the WWE do not compete. They act out stories where the "winner" is known ahead of time. Mr. Hogan is listed for something that the owners of the WWE had decided before January 23, 1984.
So, I was angry with the This Day in History folks. Then I turn to the Sports Illustrated site and see a heading for "Jan 23: Historic Sports Moments" and what does it list [you will probably have to hit "Next" a couple of times to get to it]? "Hulk Hogan beats The Iron Sheik to become World Wrestling Federation champion for the first time. The victory marked the start of the "Rock 'n Wrestling" era." Good grief.
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