When you see Bruno Elrington body slammed by Shirley Crabtree, he lies flat in the centre of the ring with his arms noticeably held in parallel with his body. This is a clear sign to his opponent that he is braced to accept a body splash.
This leads me to notice the same behaviour, less obvious, in other wrestlers' work
I have seen referees in American rings make an X sign with there arms to indicate that someone is hurt for real and to send in the physicians.
My dad used to maintain that when you saw a wrestler tapping the other's back, this meant "go easy, it hurts." Not so sure dad was on the ball there, but never mind.
So I'm wondering what other signs or indications there were to indicate something was real? That something hurt, or someone was injured, or that it was time to wrap up, or that it was perhaps time to start some pre-planned stunt?
Some things must have hurt a great deal and there needed to be ways of communicating this.
Has anyone else ever noticed anything like this?
I'm astounded that Martin is the only other who has noticed any signs at all.
It is clear a very large collection of in-ring communication techniques were in place. The very nature of the wrestling made this essential.
I am surprised that with so many of our expert eyes having vied thousands of hours of bouts that we can't come up with any more.
This is at the very core of PROFESSIONAL wrestling. It's like the magician's secrets.
I also think it depended on how close you were to the ring, you hear a lot more now as some Promotions particularly WWE have microphones under the ring, but also a lot of indy shows are in fairly small venues so you can hear a lot more.
Harry Kendall made one for people he didn't like working with.
RON HISTORYO....Time Cop,11h Somehow I never noticed much of this , I must have been pretty stupid. All I noticed was that some things were over sold and I thought this was poor , but whispering and signs , no , it eluded me.
I'm with Ron. Call me dumb.*
* Excluding Anglo Italian.
You don't have to watch too many of the old Joint TV tapings to know that a back-slap meant fall or submission coming up
A friend once told me he was at the wrestling at Morecambe and from his ringside seat heard this wrestler trapped in a submission hold saying “Yes, Yes, Yes!” then - under his breath - “I mean it, I mean it!”
Somehow I never noticed much of this , I must have been pretty stupid. All I noticed was that some things were over sold and I thought this was poor , but whispering and signs , no , it eluded me.