Professional wrestling in Russia has been promoted in the country from the late 19th century.

1892 is considered the year when professional wrestling appeared in Russia, when Polish wrestler Vladislav Pytljasinski came to St. Petersburg. In 1894, the first public contest in French wrestling was held, in the same year wrestling was first allowed in the Ciniselli Сircus. The circus administration considered wrestling to be "dangerous for inciting passions among spectators" and only allowed "demonstration of wrestling techniques" with a time limit of 10 and 20 minutes. Among the amateurs who wrestled Pytljasinski in the circus was A. F. Meo, a local clerk, for whom a performance in the circus could have caused problems in his career, so he performed wearing a mask. European and Turkish wrestlers are invited to perform in Russia. "Professionals" were considered those wrestlers who have no other job and earn solely by performing.

In 1897 Vladislav Kraevsky created the "St. Petersburg Athletic and Cycling Club", which trained professional wrestlers. His pupil was the greatest wrestler of the first wave, Georg Hackenschmidt. In July 1900, Hackenschmidt took part in a forty-day wrestling tournament in Moscow, making his first appearance as a professional in Russia. Wrestling goes for two prizes, he won both, and became champion of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Circus wrestling developed in the same time. Wrestling was the highlight of the circus program; championships could last for weeks and months. By 1905, it resembled modern professional wrestling with its rules, customs, and manners. One of the most notable promoters of such shows was "Uncle Vanya" Ivan Lebedev, an associate of Kravesky's, who entertained the audience, announced the wrestlers' entrances and developed a number of characters—Svyatogor, Uncle Pound, Sarakiki, Ivan the Cain, and Abel. It was considered essential for black wrestlers to perform. Georg Lurich once persuaded the wrestler Osipov to paint himself brown and passed him off as the leader of an endangered Native American tribe. Uncle Vanya invented Sarakiki, a Chinese pretending to be Japanese, which was in vogue after Russia's defeat in the war with Japan. There were "beasts"—wrestlers who broke the rules and excited the public with their wild antics. There were "noble beauties", who earned the audience's sympathy with their gentlemanly manners and fairness, and who would inevitably defeat the "beasts" at the end of the championship. Comic wrestlers staged parody fights, there were wrestlers in colorful masks. In the competitions were staged performances, which played on human feelings, capable of touching the heart of the then viewer. To arouse interest resorted to various tricks: started arguments in front of an audience, threatened each other with violence, hid behind the cheek swim bladder with red paint, which then poured faces.

The fight was divided into two types:

Ivan Zaikin said: "you can't make a wrestler endure serious 'bur' fights every day. He just can't stand too much tension, and the audience won't enjoy it either". The best wrestlers rarely faced each other, as each defeat sidelined them.

According to Ivan Poddubny's recollections, there was the following hierarchy:

At the highest level of the wrestling hierarchy were "technicals", or, as they were also called, "pirouettes"—wrestlers who had a perfect command of wrestling techniques. Below them stood "loggers". And on the lowest step were wrestlers, who were contemptuously called "padding", those who by order of the director of the championship lost by pinfall.