Overview

The pioneer era of North American professional wrestling reached its peak just as tens of thousands of Scottish families were forcefully evicted from their residences in the Scottish Highlands, bringing their culture, their customs, and the legacy of the Scottish clan system across the world with them. As a result, dozens of Caledonian organizations sprouted up, creating a formal network of Highland Games events, at which substantial money was awarded to the winners of athletic contests. From this system sprouted several notable figures who leveraged their athletic talents into mainstream notoriety, and then capitalized on that name recognition to forge remarkable careers as professional wrestlers. The exploits of men like Donald Dinnie, Duncan C. Ross, Duncan McMillan, and Dan McLeod were interwoven into the foundational fabric of late-nineteenth-century professional wrestling in America. More to the point, the shared Scottish ancestry of these men was the basis for alliances and friendships that led to the establishment of some of the most influential professional wrestling territories of the era, and also the wielding of a remarkable amount of power over the most respected world wrestling championships of the time. Highland Games and Hippodromes explores the role that the culture of Scots and Scottish immigrants played in shaping the bedrock of the wrestling business that still exists today, and also sheds unprecedented light on the fact that the matches contested on the wrestling mats of the late 19th and early 20th centuries weren't nearly as authentic and innocent as has often been reported.

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