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Midget wrestling is professional wrestling involving people of exceptionally short stature. Its heyday was in the 1950s and 1960s, when wrestlers such as Little Beaver, Lord Littlebrook, toured North America, and Sky Low Low was the first holder of the National Wrestling Alliance's World Midget Championship. In the following couple of decades, more wrestlers became prominent in North America, including foreign wrestlers like Japan's Little Tokyo.
The attraction was very popular in wrestling promotions from the 1950s into the 1970s. Many cards included midget wrestlers and included tag team and women's midget wrestling. Television shows for promotions in various cities frequently included midget matches.
Midget wrestling began to wane after WWF's WrestleMania III. Afterward, promotions continued to feature midget divisions, but its popularity was slowly declining. By the mid-1990s, midget wrestlers mostly appeared in comical matches and segments, rather than serious competitive wrestling-type matches. In Mexico, this was not the case, as wrestler Mascarita Sagrada continued to compete in prominent Mexican promotions such as AAA and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. By the mid-2000s in the United States, midget divisions once again were part of major wrestling promotions, and wrestlers such as WWE's Hornswoggle were competing for and winning championships made for average-size male wrestlers.
The Little People of America (LPA) have criticized midget wrestling as reinforcing stereotypes that little people are no more than entertainment, and the use of the word "midget", stating that it is as offensive as a slur.[1] Opinions on the term from performers competing in the events is mixed; some consider the term merely descriptive of their small size, and others considering it outdated or offensive.[2]
- ^ "Ban 'Midget' From TV, Little People Group Says". Huffington Post. July 5, 2009. Archived from the original on August 2, 2009.
- ^ Adelson, Betty M. (2005). The Lives Of Dwarfs: Their Journey From Public Curiosity Toward Social Liberation. Rutgers University Press. p. 295. ISBN 9780813535487. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
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