There never seems to be the right place to post historical discussion, so here is a brief history of wrestling as it relates to the US and a place to discuss it! I'd like this thread to be the place to discuss classic wrestling, wrestling history or anything old that isn't WWE, WCW. Much of the early information comes from Karl Stern, so if you want more information his show on F4W and Stern Sticks are a great place to start. Much of the information about Montreal and Boston comes from Mad Dogs, Midgets and Screwjobs. This is not an exhaustive history, just an attempt to sum up a ton of history in one post.

1660 First known manual of wrestling published.

1730 Collar and Elbow wrestling becomes popular in American colonies.

~1800 Wrestling becomes a popular carnival attraction.

Jean Exbrayat creates French Wrestling (Greco Roman) as a soldier in Napoleon's armies.

1830s Abraham Lincoln wrestles a series of matches against Jack Armstrong. A hybrid style of French and Freestyle begins to appear in the later half of the decade. Wrestling begins to see grandstand challenges in Paris with over the top nicknames and challenges.

1848 Exbrayat bans submission holds and grappling below the waist in French Wrestling. The style is later dubbed "Greco Roman" by Basilio Bartoli either to snub the French or to connect the sport to the ancient roots of wrestling.

1856 Wrestling is banned in Paris due to match fixing.

1860s Collar and Elbow becomes popular among Union soldiers. Col. James H. McLaughlin becomes first American champion in 67 but loses it in 68. McLaughlin is a Civil War veteran who won collar and elbow bouts in Union camp. He becomes a regional powerhouse in the Northeast, later wrestling nationwide. He was notorious for his strength, competing in both collar and elbow and catch matches.

1870 Introduction of padded mats. The same year Barney Smith died of injuries sustained in "Diamond Belt" championship match with McLaughlin. (I am not sure if there is a connection or which happened first.)

1871 Catch as Catch Can Wrestling is introduced, starting in England.

1873 "The Masked Wrestler" believed to be Thiebaud Bauer debuts in Paris, the first known masked wrestler.

1873 Again American Champion, McLaughlin loses the belt to John McMahon in a match where betting heavily favored McLaughlin. The result was not contested at the time. Early pro wrestling was worked for betting purposes, this may be an example.

1874 Viro Small becomes the earliest known African American wrestler.

1875 McLaughlin declares he will no longer wrestler catch as catch can style bouts after an opponent dies.

1880 William Muldoon an NY police officer wins American Greco Roman championship. Muldoon bcomes a rival of McLaughlin, engages in mixed matches and promoter of what might be called proto "sports entertainment."

By 1880 wrestling is now believed to be largely worked.

1881 Muldoon quits the police force to concentrate on wrestling after his shift ends late and forced him to be hours late for a match. Later that year Muldoon wrestles a brutal 8 hour draw with Clarence Whistler in what is dubbed a "torture marathon."

1883 Sorakichi Matsuda, a sumo travels to the US and becomes first recorded Japanese professional wrestler. Whistler and Muldoon rematch which goes to a draw, Muldoon claims Whistler planned to throw him into the crowd to be beaten by thugs.

Muldoon begins promoting matches with a time limit, the first promoter to do so.

1885 Whistler dies after a glass eating stunt.

Evan "Strangler" Lewis wrestles a series of matches with Matsuda. In the rematch Matsuda threatened to shoot Lewis if he used his Strangle hold, so Lewis hospitalizes him with a leg lock. Lewis is the inspiration for Ed "Strangler" Lewis and famous for you guessed it, a rear naked choke. Later a rival of Farmer Burns.

1887 Strangler Lewis wins a Catch world title from Joe Acton after receiving a grandstand challenge.

Muldoon retires after a boxer vs wrestler match which causes a riot and has widespread questions of legitimacy.

Twenty pro wrestlers are brought to Japan for a sell out show, but the sport does not catch on.

1890 Muldoon returns to defeat Lewis in a Greco Roman bout. He retires as champion the next year.

Martin "Farmer" Burns emerges as one of their premiere wrestlers, going undefeated for the next three years. Burns will win the American title, unify the Greco and Catch belts, and later on become an influential trainer to wrestlers such as Caddock and influenced the trainer of Ed Lewis. He is reported to weigh <160 lbs throughout his career.

1893 Lewis unifies American Greco and Catch titles to create the American Wrestling Championship.

1895 Lewis loses the title to Martin "Farmer" Burns with a finish that caused the crowd to chant "Fake." Newspapers also report the bout to be considered illegitimate.

1898 First Madison Square Garden sell out for wrestling.

George Hackenschmidt debuts. Hackenschmidt will become the first consensus World Heavyweight Champion.

1899 Frank Gotch debuts. Gotch also wrestles under the name "Frank Kennedy" including obviously worked matches where both men tumbled onto the orchestra! Gotch also boxed.


Gotch would become the first American World Champion hold the Championship through multiple retirements. These retirements caused major problems with the idea of a "World Champion" and is one of the reasons anyone who says their belt dates back to 190X is making shit up.

By this point wrestling is transitioning from a carnival and betting sport to a spectactor sport in stadiums and arena.

1901 Hackenschmidt wins European World Greco Roman championship.

First tag team matches held in San Francisco.

Strongman Louis Cyrl wrestles 8'2 "The Giant" Beaupre in Montreal.

1904 Gotch wins American title from Tom Jenkins bust loses it back the next year.

1905 Hackenschmidt defeats Jenkins to lay claim to a World Heavyweight Championship. Jenkins still defends the American title.

Ed "Strangler" Lewis debuts.


1906 Stanislaus Zybyszko wins World Greco Roman championship in France.

Gotch wins the American title a third time.

1908 Gotch defeats Hackenschmidt via forfeit to lay claim to the World championship. Fall Guys laid a number of claims about this match including a biased ref and questionable tactics by Gotch, Hackenschmidt claimed he greased later.

1910 Gotch defeats Zybyszko, handing him his first loss.

George Kennedy a wrestler turned promoter purchases the Montreal Canadiens. Kennedy was a former Lightweight champion in Montreal, and upon losing his title to Eugene Tremblay he became his promoter. Kennedy learned the art of promotion from Farmer Burns, and acted as a modern day promotion, booking venues, scheduling matches and hyping them to the press.

1911 Gotch defeats Hackenschmidt in the two straight falls drawing 25,000 people in Chicago. The legend is that Gotch paid a training partner to injure Hackenschmidt prior to the match. It is more likely the match was worked and that was a face saving story.

1911-1920 Gotch retires multiple times, after different retirements he gives different wrestlers and matches his blessing for the title or a title fight.

Charlie Cutler lays claim to the World title but is defeated by Joe Stetcher in 1915. Stetcher defends against Ed Lewis the same year but the gate money is confiscated due to the match not being on the level. Wladek Zybyszko, Lewis, Alexander Aberg, Earl Caddock and others emerge as stars.

Mort Henderson becomes the first American masked wrestler, debuting in 1915 as the "Masked Marvel."

In 1913, George Kennedy promotes a match between Stanislaus Zybyszko and Constant Le Marin in Montreal that draws 12,000 fans a record for the city that stands for 20 years.

An International Tournament is held in New York from 1915-16. It becomes a huge fiasco at times, leading to a court fight involving a Stecher vs Masked Marvel title match. Alexander Aberg is awarded $5,000 for winning the tournament.

George Bayley debuts a hypnosis gimmick.

Stecher forfeits the world title to Caddock in 1917, but Caddock forfeits his title when he walks out of a tournament leading to Wladek being declared champion. Caddock then defeats Wladek the next year, but ends up serving in World War 1.

Ed Lewis wins a disputed version of the World title in 1917, and goes back and forth with Wladek for that belt. Despite Caddock being the recognized champion, Lewis continues to promote himself as champion. Caddock retires, and Wladek is proclaimed champion by Jack Curley. Lewis then defeats Wladek to win the title, only to lose it to Stecher who is now the widely recognized champion.

In 1918, Jack Curley, Billy Sandow and Tony Stecher began a talent trading agreement that encompassed the Northeast US as well as Montreal.

1920 Joe Stecher defeats Earl Caddock to become undisputed world champion in Madison Square Garden. The gate is 80K with Caddock being paid 15K and Stecher 25K.

You can watch footage of the match here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQl6mmAtkbE

It is hotly debated whether this match is a shoot or a work. Most title matches had been worked since the Gotch days, but I think the belief now is that this was a shoot. Don't quote me on this though! Wrestling will change greatly in coming years.

Ed Lewis then wins the belt from Stecher in what Lou Thesz claimed was a shoot, but most now claim to be worked. If it was a shoot it was the last shoot World Championship match.

1920s

Wrestling changes greatly from worked matches where it greatly resembles shoot matches to a more audience friendly style that comes to resemble what we today know as wrestling. The Goldust Trio of Toots Mondt, Billy Sandow and Ed Lewis taking a large part of the responsibility of that as they maintained a grip on the world title. Mondt becomes the first modern booker, and even when the group dissolves ends up with control of New York (which is important later!) Mondt is credited with what he calls the Slam Bang Western Style of wrestling, the more theatrical wrestling that combines, Greco, catch and well, fighting inside a boxing ring. They leverage Lewis as champion to do this, with the belief that Lewis is such a strong shooter he won't be able to be double crossed anyway. However, this is not the only world title during this period. Caddock, Stanislaus Zybyszko, Stecher and Londos will make claims various titles during this period, with Jim Londos posting grandstand challenges to Lewis.

The Gold Dust Trio dissolves in 1928 due to infighting. Mondt ends up at war with Sandow's brother while Sandow and Lewis grow apart. Paul Bowser, an ally of Sandow ends up at war with Jack Curley for control of New York and Montreal. which leads to Jack Curley losing control of Montreal in 1929. Curley had controlled Montreal since the death of Kennedy in 1921 and revived it from a dark period in 24-26 by promoting Henri Deglane as a Francophone star.

Jim Londos emerges as a huge star in the 20s and especially the 30s, but is often frozen out by Lewis. Londos reportedly draw nearly 100,000 fans in Greece, though this is disputed. He is known as being more style than substance, being a poor wrestler, but it seems that people are coming around on Londos, thinking his reputation may have been created by Lewis and Thesz who didn't like him.

Wrestling becomes increasingly regionalized with Lewis and then others becoming touring champions. Lewis lets his grip on the title slip in the later part of the 20s, and we see non shooters start getting runs with the belt, like Gus Sonnenberg a football player with a signature flying tackle finisher. Paul Bowser agreed to pay Lewis $50,000 dollars to lose to Sonnenberg with a promise of additional $70,000 guarantee that Lewis would win the title back when Sonnenberg no longer drew. This leads to further fracturing of the world title. Sonnenberg is heavily backed by Bowser who at this point has a growing grip over the Northeast.

1930s

Paul Bowser forms the original AWA, based out of Boston with Ed Don George as his primary star. The original AWA World Championship (not to be confused with Gagne's!) comes into existence in Boston and the National Wrestling Association title as well, both coming out of the Sonnenberg reign. Despite the promise to Lewis, Bowser puts the title on George without paying Lewis the guarantee. Lewis then double crosses George in Chicago at Wrigley Field. Lewis basically told George to cooperate or he would shoot on him, and George agreed, knowing he could not take Lewis. This leads to Henri Deglane vs Ed Lewis and the first Montreal Screwjob.

Henri Deglane had continued to grow into a major star in Boston, Montreal and later France. In Montreal he drew 6-10,000 fans on a nearly weekly basis and several crowds numbering 25,000 at Braves Field in Boston. This makes him the perfect person to challenge Lewis for the title in Montreal. Lewis requested an American referee, but the Montreal commission instead instated Eugene Tremblay as ref. After Deglane won the first fall from Lewis, bite marks were noticed on Deglane's arm and Lewis was DQed, losing the fall and the title. Lewis claims he was double crossed, some historians believe Lewis was in on it, wanting a claim to the title but not the belt. Others believe Lewis, which is backed up by Thesz in his book Hooker.

Londos becomes the first National Wrestling Association champion and he AWA and NWA belts are unified in 1935, but then a disputed split happens when the champion at the time Steve Casey leaves the country. Lou Thesz and Bronko Nagurski will hold the NWA belt multiple times as the decade closes. This NWA (not to be confused by the later NWA) is sanctioned by the an off shoot of the National Boxing Association. Casey and The French Angel seem to be the major stars for the Boston based AWA title.



1940s Wrestling is weakened as the Depression takes hold, and even more so by World War 2. This isn't to say it is completely dead, with Nagurski, Thesz and Londos remaining stars, the emergence of Gorgeous George and many others. Wrestling continued to become more fractured in the US with more territories and with it, more world titles. This leads to the creation of the National Wrestling Alliance in 1948. The NWA is basically an attempt to create a wrestling monopoly, with one recognized World Champion. Promoters can have their own regional champion, but not a world champion, they instead request dates on the NWA champion. Promotions that don't join the NWA are considered outlaws and promoters and wrestlers become blackballed from the NWA. Orville Brown becomes the first NWA champion and a unification match is planned with Association champion Thesz. However, Brown's career is ended in a car wreck and Thesz is awarded the Alliance title to become "undisputed" champion.



In 1949 wrestling also debuts on the DuMont network, which will help lead wrestling into its first televised golden age.

1950s Wrestling starts dramatically expanding on TV, and possibly most importantly: In 1953 Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt formed the Capitol Wrestling Corporation in New York City. Jess dies a year later, and his son Vincent James McMahon joins the business. This is basically the beginning of the WWE's legacy.

The DuMont Network is the major hotbed for pro wrestling. It's weekly show is centered in Chicago, and Verne Gagne becomes its biggest babyface. Gagne becomes the US Champion and enjoys a national spotlight until the DuMont network falls apart in the middle of the decade. He's still a major national star. Thesz is the NWA mainstay, although a double cross with Edouard Carpentier in 1957 fractures that belt. Thesz gives way to Pat O'Connor in 1959, which sets up the creation of the modern AWA.

By the end of the decade wrestling is all over TV on a territorial basis. Portland TV, Wrestling at the Chase in St. Louis and Houston begin decades long TV traditions. Jim Crockett Sr. gets his product on TV in the Mid Atlantic region, Capitol Sports is on in the North East, and there's many more. The territorial system is pretty much in place.

1960s-the death of the territories The decade starts with Gagne taking control of the American Wrestling Association. This AWA dated back to the 40s, but it is under Gagne that it becomes a major force. He can't get the NWA title, or even matches with Pat O'Connor, so he issues a grandstand challenge to O'Connor the world champion. The challenge isn't accepted and Gagne declares himself AWA world champion. Gagne dominates the belt, but other stars emerge throughout the decade including the Crusher, The Destroyer, Mad Dog Vachon and Dick the Bruiser. These men become the main draws of the promotion as Gagne becomes increasingly busy in running the company, despite still being champion. Gagne slowly releases his grip on the belt in the 70s, giving way to Nick Bockwinkel as the major singles champion, although Gagne retires as champion. The AWA goes on a tremendous upswing in the early 80s as Hulkamania begins, but also drawing on nostalgia acts such as Gagne and Vachon. Their talent is subsequently raided by the WWWF, leaving Gagne with an outdated TV show and no remaining stars. Today Gagne is laughed at for not making Hogan is champion, but the reality is if he did, Vince would have still raided Hogan. On top of that AWA wrestlers typically toured All Japan Pro Wrestling while Hogan toured with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Giving Hogan the belt would create a political mess there.

Roy Shire begins promoting San Francisco in 1960, and his promotion starts heating up as Ray Stevens comes to town and feuds with Pepper Gomez. Ray Stevens becomes a huge star as a heel in San Francisco and is known as one of, if not the best worker of the period. In surveys of the time Stevens is selected not only as the most hated wrestler, but the most popular wrestler in local polls. Stevens teams with Pat Patterson as the legendary Blonde Bombers, and even gets a count out win over Bruno Sammartino, which in SF is regarded as clean. Shire promotes an annual battle royal that featured intricately booked storylines and was part of the inspiration for the creation of the Royal Rumble.

In 1963, the World Wide Wrestling Federation or WWWF is formed as McMahon Sr. and Mondt break away from the NWA over Rogers losing the NWA title. They book Rogers as the WWWF champion, losing the belt to Bruno Sammartino in May of that year. Sammartino, who had just been blackballed from the NWA a few years earlier holds the belt the rest of the decade becoming an incredible draw and mainstream star in the North east. Bruno holds the title until 1971, when he dropped the belt to Ivan Koloff due to his desire to get away from the exhausting touring schedule. Pedro Morales succeeds Bruno, but fails to draw well outside of NY, prompting Vince Sr. to ask Bruno to return as champion for another year. Bruno wins the belt back in 73, and holds it until 77. During this period Bruno would be a major part of salvaging the WWWF's investment in the Inoki/Ali fiasco. They held the North Eastern closed circuit rights and the show was promising to bomb. Bruno had his neck broken in a match with Stan Hansen, and was virtually begged by McMahon to do a match on the show or it would risk the WWF's solvency, which they did, saving the live gate and maybe the company. After Bruno ends his second title reign Bob Backlund is selected to be the next major star of the company, though Bruno remains as a draw for major shows, in semi retirement. He also has a legendary feud with Larry Zybyszko in the early 80s that sets the territory on fire. At the same time Vincent Kennedy McMahon purchases the company, and within a few years is making his national expansion. The World Wrestling Federation and Titan Sports are born.

Details on Inoki vs Ali

quote:
Inoki's basic strategy to become a star was to promote himself as a legitimate shooter. So he would book "mixed martial arts" matches where he'd fight various martial artists in worked matches and people would go "woah, Inoki is so much badder of an ass than that fake ass Giant Baba." The biggest possible "MMA" match he could book would be against the greatest boxer, so he offered Ali six million dollar to do a worked match. The story of the match would be Ali beats Inoki half to death with his boxing, with Lebelle trying to stop the fight to check Inoki's cuts. Ali would even ask Lebelle to stop the match, at which point Inoki would fire up, make his big comeback and pin Ali. So it would look like Ali had won the match, and it should have been stopped to make him look good, but Inoki would win and would take a brutal beating while not giving up which Japanese fans would love.

It was win win, and Inoki partnered up with several US promoters to do closed circuit, including the WWWF in Shea Stadium. However, the press started asking Ali why he was doing pro wrestling which started giving him second thoughts. The boxing community didn't like that wrestling was controlling the promotion of this and making boxing out to be the heel in their hype got into Ali's head too. Ali did a few worked matches on US TV to hype it up, and flew to Japan where he told Inoki he didn't want to do this worked loss, which led to the whole show almost falling apart until Inoki agreed to make it a shoot since he wasn't going to pay $6,000,000 to do a worked loss.

To make the fight happen Inoki agreed he wouldn't be able to kick to the head, suplex, punch or choke. That led to him laying on his back and kicking at Ali's legs, occasionally trying for a takedown. This did a ton of damage to Ali's legs, landing him in the hospital. With the fight now a shoot, Inoki would only pay Ali $2,000,000 a decision that ended up in court.


Jim Crockett Promotions promoted wrestling dating back to the 1930s, but in the 60s and 70s would become a major force in the small Charlotte and Greensboro markets, under Jim Crockett Senior. Jim Junior then took over Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling which became the promotion that eventually became WCW. The territory started out as a tag team centric promotion, something that seems impossible today. It became the flagship of the NWA during the 80s, having a stranglehold on the title, mostly centered around Ric Flair. The company promoted the first Starrcade in 1983, building on the region's Thanksgiving Day wrestling tradition. With Flair as champion and Dusty Rhodes as booker (and sometimes champion) the promotion remained red hot until the mid 1980s. However, things started burning out. McMahon's national expansion meant Crockett needed to go national too.

Crockett, Gagne, and others formed an unlikely partnership in this period, creating Pro Wrestling USA. Pro Wrestling USA would be aired on ESPN, taping shows in the Meadowlands as a major shot at McMahon. Their supercards would feature the NWA and AWA champion, and with their combined talent rosters maybe, just maybe they could mount a challenge. They drew 21,000 in Chicago for Superclash I, but within months the alliance fractured. Crockett split and Gagne was left with the ESPN timeslot. If you've ever wondered why there are horrible AWA reruns on ESPN Classics, that is why.

The AWA would try other alliances. Superclash III, their first Pay Per View was co-promoted with Memphis and World Class Championship Wrestling.

WCCW is now infamous. Run by Fritz Von Erich, the promotion reached a golden era in the early to mid 1980s with Fritz's sons. Based in the Dallas Sportatorium for TV and doing major Stadium shows for their biggest cards the Von Erichs were gigantic stars in the area and big ratings draws. Their feud with the Fabulous Freebirds would draw for years and Kerry Von Erich even got a short NWA title reign. However, as I am sure most know drug abuse led to the deaths of all of his sons but one.

Memphis I cannot even do justice to. Memphis basically created "sports entertainment" as we now know it, a weekly wrestling soap opera. Today it is most associated with Jerry Lawler, however Lawler was preceded by the recently deceased Jackie Fargo, who was every bit as big as Lawler at his peak. Lawler took over as the major draw when Fargo passed him the torch in a blood feud, and in the late 70s Jerry Jarrett and Lawler broke away from Nick Gulas to form their own promotion. They quickly came to dominate the territory with Lawler remaining on top throughout the 80s. This included a world famous feud with Andy Kaufman, however this feud only drew for a short period of time, despite its fame. Kaufman would never cash Jarrett's checks, so they kept booking him, feeling obligated.

As the 90s dawned Memphis was struggling. Jarrett bought out WCCW and the territory was renamed the USWA, but they couldn't compete in the modern market. Lawler began part timing in the WWF, attempting to work as a heel there but a face in Memphis. Crowds dwindled until 1996 when Jarrett was forced to close. The territory would be restarted at various times, but it was finally killed dead by the 2007 match between Hulk Hogan and Paul Wight (Big Show.)

Mid South Wrestling existed in some form dating back to the 1950s when it was run by Leroy McGuirk. He promoted Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi until 1979. At that point, Bill Watts who had been headlining the promotion bought McGuirk out and renamed it Mid South Wrestling. Best known for its giant Super Dome shows in the 1980s with the Junkyard Dog as its attraction, it was a logically booked promotion that typically booked around big men for Watts to feud with, but also saw smaller tag teams introduced like the Midnight and Rock and Roll Express. Watts saw the writing on the wall in the mid 80s and began his own national expansion with television on TBS that outrated the timeslot Vince McMahon bought from Georgia Championship Wrestling, and a huge national syndication network. However paying for syndication crippled Watts and he was forced to sell to Crockett.

Crockett, who also bought the timeslot Vince owned, found himself crippled in 1988 when Pay Per View revenue failed to appear. The WWF runs the first Survivor Series against Starrcade on PPV, crippling Starrcade. Vince then runs the first Royal Rumble on USA against Bunkhouse Stampede, hurting that PPV. Crockett fires back with Clash of the Champions up against Wrestlemania IV, seeing the double VHS mega-spectacle disappoint on PPV. However, the company was now spending a tremendous amount of money and sinking fast. There was a private plane, new offices in Dallas and no PPV revenue. The core fans in the Carolinas felt slighted as major cards moved to Atlanta and Chicago and Dusty's booking was burning through ideas weekly. By the end of 1988 the company was in debt and it was sold to Ted Turner to become World Championship Wrestling.

WCW is the continuation of JCP, but major parts of the equation came from other promotions. Georgia Championship Wrestling was the promotion that held the TBS timeslot that Vince McMahon bought out. GCW dated back to the 40s, but its hey day would be in the 70s under Jim Barnett once they aired on Superstation TBS. Barnett would be ousted in 83 and the Brisco Brothers lasted a year before they sold to Vince McMahon, giving the timeslot to the WWF during their national expansion. Georgia itself had dabbled in expansion, promoting shows as far away as in Michigan thanks to its national reach.

This is barely a drop in the bucket of territorial promotions. Houston had a long wrestling tradition, LA was a hotbed, Florida had Florida Championship Wrestling, the Sheik owned Detroit and the Bruiser owned Indiana. While the WWE claims Raw is the longest running whatever, it still cannot compare to the runs that Houston and Portland wrestling had on TV. Continental Championship Wrestling promoted the Deep South, not to be confused with Jarrett's Memphis promotion which also used the name Continental. Randy Savage's father than an outlaw promotion in Memphis which famously feuded with Jarrett's promotion both inside and outside of kayfabe. Montreal and Toronto have long wrestling traditions, as did Calgary with Stampede. I barely touched upon Wrestling at the Chase in St. Louis which not only has a longer history than Raw, but was attended by a high class audience. I haven't even mentioned Danny Hodge, or Mildred Burke who competed in what became a shoot fight for the women's title in 1954. There's a million things to talk about.

I can't possibly do justice to the entire history of wrestling in the US, so I'll stop there. I'll try to update this OP as time goes on too, so if there is something wrong or a glaring omission, add it!