Holy shit, this article. You start off by talking about wrestling territories, then you transition by saying that it isn't "unlike" early video games. How in the fuck is Pong like pro wrestling territories? Pro wrestling had been around for decades by then, they had absolutely nothing in common.
Nothing symbolized the boom of wrestling more than WCCW, a regional syndicated wrestling program? How about the first Wrestlemania, which signalled the end of the territories and a brand new business model? How about Hulkamania? How about the FUCKING MONDAY NIGHT WARS, THE BIGGEST BOOMING ERA OF ALL TIME?
And it was not "unheard of" for wrestlers to go "no further than Canada." Canada had its own regional promotion (Stampede) and Japan had TWO huge promotions in AJPW and NJPW. The UK had syndicated pro wrestling as early as 1965 on World of Sport. Just a handful of examples, but there are many more.
Vince turning to the silly gimmicks in the late 80s and early 90s was much more of a strategy to market to children than anything else. The New Jersey Athletic Commission did virtually nothing to kill the perception of pro-wrestling as real or fake. Vince didn't do that until the Montreal incident with Bret Hart when he announced on live television that it was entertainment, that was well into the 90s.
Your presentation of ECW is wildly, wildly exaggerated. Breast shots were incredibly uncommon and unintentional. There was never a "bush" shot. The closest thing to lesbians was Kimona and Beulah kissing and deciding that they would date each other and Tommy Dreamer making them bisexuals at best for that ONE angle and in that ONE instance. ECW was a creation Paul Heyman came up with because he saw Grunge and Industrial taking over the meainstream music scene.
The WWF did not embrace the attitude era because "the social climate was changing," they did it because they were embroiled in a ratings war that they were badly losing with WCW.
The attitude era was not a more realistic setting by a longshot. As a matter of fact, after Vince exposed the business, he took it upon himself to make it far more unrealistic. Wrestling vampires, an arson victim that could summon flames, absurd matches where you had to retrieve things from poles and anything else head writer Vince Russo came up with (whose fucking legacy is based on coming up with things that don't make any sense).
Comparing Postal to the attitude era was the best part of this article. What a coincidence that you would draw a parallel between WWF at the height of its popularity and Postal, you unrepentant ass-kissing fanboy. If you had to compare RWS to a wrestling promotion (and let's face it, you don't and shouldn't), it would have been XPW. Incredibly niche, wildly gratuitous and what little storyline exists is only there to transition to the next bit of sex and violence.
One did not attempt to keep up with the other. One did not affect the other. If there was any effect that wrestling had on videogames, it would be a Japanese relationship since most WWE video games are based on an engine that was used for a Japanese wrestling game (usually New Japan Pro).
Ironically, as the gaming audience has matured, the pro wrestling audience has gone from sweaty old cigar smoking drunks, to children, to adolescents-young adults, back to children in present day in North America, and Pro Wrestling is all but dead in Japan.
Any parallels are a huge reach at best.
Also, you have no idea how commas work, and you can't spell for shit.
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