Old school readers and one particular member of the Awful Announcing staff (*raises hand) fondly remember when ABC’s Wide World of Sports used to air a plethora of niche events. One favorite event was arm wrestling and it was regular staple of WWOS especially in the 1960’s through the 1980’s.
Here’s a clip of one particular arm wrestling event on Wide World as skewered by the Sklar Brothers on an old episode of ESPN Classic’s Cheap Seats.
In fact seeing arm wrestling on TV inspired a Sylvester Stallone movie, “Over the Top” and it was classic Sly.
Well, ESPN has signed a contract with the World Armwrestling League to stream and televise various events including this year’s Championship and the 2014 season on its platforms. Most will be streamed online through ESPN3 although the Championship will air on ESPN2.
We have details from the ESPN press release:
“The deal features eight hours of programming on ESPN networks and WatchESPN, starting with the 2014 World Armwrestling League Championship, which takes place on January 10, 2015, and will air shortly thereafter. Events from the 2015 season will air throughout the summer.
“Through a series of 100 events in 100 cities throughout the United States, the WAL brings the best professional and amateur arm wrestlers alike to compete for cash prizes and for the opportunity to make it to the 2015 World Armwrestling League Championship.”
This follows the announcement that ESPN has picked up a series of curling events.
You know what this means? ESPN has to bring back Wide World of Sports in some form just so we can have a mix of arm wrestling, barrel jumping, curling, and maybe even a little Mexican cliff diving. Anything so we can bring back this classic intro!
Well, at least we’ll get ready for arm wrestling on ESPN’s platforms and can dream about seeing another version of Wide World of Sports.
[ESPN]
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