On his "Experience" podcast, Jim Cornette, along with co-host Brian Last, presented new research that rewrites the history of televised wrestling, pushing its origins back a full 15 years earlier than previously thought. While the common understanding was that wrestling first appeared on television in the late 1940s, Cornette shared new evidence of broadcasts from as early as 1931.

Cornette first discussed findings from a 1940 edition of NBC's in-house magazine, "Transmitter," which confirmed "the weekly boxing and wrestling matches from the Ridgewood Grove arena" were being broadcast in 1939. At the time, the total television audience was estimated to be around 2,000 home receivers, primarily belonging to RCA executives and engineers.

The most significant discovery, however, came from a listener who found a newspaper listing for a 15-minute "experimental wrestling match" that was broadcast in New York on September 17, 1931. Cornette detailed the primitive conditions of these earliest broadcasts, quoting from a 1931 newspaper article. "Boxers and wrestlers alike had to compete in a miniature ring and could easily fall out of the view of the camera," he said. "They also fought in a dark studio for the projector's benefit."

The technology was so rudimentary that even the wrestlers' hair color was a production issue. "Airing blonde competitors was a hassle... which meant light or dark backgrounds were needed to account for each wrestler's hair color," Cornette explained. The new findings add a significant new chapter to the history of wrestling on television, proving it was part of the medium from its absolute infancy. "We've added 15 years just with bringing this topic up and getting everybody to chip in and talk about it," Cornette said.