The Aesthetic Beauty of the Pro-Wrestling Referee

A ring in a back alley that suits a bare lightbulb

Pro-wrestling, as a system of spectacle, does not choose the location where the event is held.

The scene surrounding the ring is like a picture.

The ring at a large urban venue is glamorous.

However, the makeshift ring at a rural bowling alley plaza is also hard to dismiss. While being set up, the ring absorbs the scent of the land, assimilating and blending into the local culture. As if it had been there all along until yesterday. The unpretentious nature of the bare lightbulb illuminating the ring creates an atmosphere like a festival.

The ring at an urban venue is dazzling. This is because lights are cast onto the ring from all four sides. The lighting that illuminates the ring is also a form of aesthetic beauty. There is also a practical purpose: to allow the audience to better enjoy the wrestlers' bodies and movements, and to improve the quality of the TV broadcast.

Thanks to the lighting, the temperature in the ring sometimes exceeds 40 degrees Celsius. The wrestlers are also fighting another enemy: the unnecessary production of beauty.

The Referee as a Producer of Beauty

It is not only wrestlers who step into the ring; a referee is also needed to officiate the match, but the existence of the referee is also a device for beauty.

Since the referee's role is to highlight the beauty of the wrestlers, they must not have a more impressive physique than the wrestlers. The referee is required to wear a uniform that makes them instantly recognizable as a referee: a shirt with black and white horizontal stripes and black trousers. Self-expression is sealed within that standardized style.

However, while that understated aesthetic is there only to highlight the main characters, there is also a beauty born from that very simplicity.

A prime example is "Red Shoes" Dugan, the most praised referee in the history of pro-wrestling. His crisp movements, positioning that did not interfere with the wrestlers' actions, accurate judgment of fouls, and gestures to signal the winner to the headquarters table all brought a unique beauty to the ring.

The nickname "Red Shoes" comes from his trademark red shoes. Dugan was the key figure who gave discipline—a form of beauty—to the genre of pro-wrestling, which was considered a black sheep, and made people call it a sport by the skin of its teeth.

He is also known to Japanese fans for officiating the match of the century held at the Kuramae Kokugikan in 1975: Antonio Inoki vs. Bill Robinson.

There has never been a match that showed the aesthetic beauty of pro-wrestling's power and technique to the world as much as that one. Dugan brought out the beauty in both of them.

The Tokyo Sports newspaper of the time reported that Shigeru Kasahara, a Melbourne Olympics silver medalist and vice-chairman of the Amateur Wrestling Association, who was watching the match, was stunned by the exchange of high-level techniques between the two. It is said that Kasahara, who had not been fond of pro-wrestling, changed his view of it after this match.

Raise Authentic Referees

When it comes to pro-wrestling referees, actions that cast doubt on the competitive nature of pro-wrestling are often highlighted, such as Oki Shikina in the Japan Pro-Wrestling era having his shirt torn by a wrestler and calling a disqualification, Mr. Takahashi intentionally turning a blind eye to Tiger Jeet Singh's fouls, or Shiro Abe (bottom) of All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling siding with the Dump Matsumoto villainous army.

However, it can be said that Red Shoes Dugan added depth to the spectacle of professional wrestling, in that his refereeing did not hinder the matches, but rather enhanced them.

The professional wrestling world must cultivate a second Dugan.

But how many wrestlers are there who are worthy of being officiated by a Dugan? This is likely the greatest challenge facing the professional wrestling world.

Thank you for watching until the end today as well.

See you again tomorrow.

Ichiro Noro