Just watching the Hackenschmidt bout on mats and I was surprised they weren't in a roped ring.
This sets me to wondering: when did the first ring appear for wrestling? In UK and elsewhere.
Maybe there had been wrestling rings before the Hackenschmidt bout we see.
It's not as if it was a mind-blowing innovation, merely copying boxing. But some of the simplest discoveries have been based on common sense, like Isaac Newton's.
Thanks Ron, great logic. 1910 sounds good (for now.)
Of course, the question may be nearly answerable by establishing the earliest photo of British wrestling in a ring.