Perhaps most sports go through a boom and bust period, sort of like styles of comedy, styles of drama.
Boxing used to be very big when I grew up in 60’s and 70’s.
I’m from Michigan, so Hockey was huge too, being so close to Ontario.
One Canadian sport that I don’t believe will ever be big here is called “Curling”. It looks like hockey players using brooms (yes, I said brooms) to sweep a big flat rock across the ice. My cousins and I used to fall over laughing when we saw it on Channel 9, from Windsor, Ontario.
“Perhaps most sports go through a boom and bust period....”
Wrestling has had several booms and busts. I remember the wrestling results being reported in the sports sections of newspapers. Then it petered out until the late 70’s or early 80’s when it was big again.
Unlike earlier days which had local promoters who “owned” their territories, wrestling is, for the most part, controlled by one company today.
When the WWE goes down it will be interesting to see what replaces it.