Listen up! Class is in session.

It's 1966. Wrestling fans pack the Olympic Arena in Los Angeles to see their local favorites. At ringside, taking photos of the grapplers - - is a 10 -year- old kid. Ten years old? Are the promoters nuts? This punk could get hurt!

It wouldn't happen. In fact, the kid did such a good job that he would soon travel the world snapping photos of legends. Over time, he would also earn a degree in dentistry - - eventually giving free dental care to the wrestlers ("the boys" ) who needed it.

His name is Dr. Mike Lano, who, at the age of 49, has retired from dentistry, but continues to practice his craft of wrestling photography (and writing). Chances are if you've glanced at an issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated over the years, you've seen Dr. Mike's work. (Click to a slideshow of some of his most famous photos right here.)

Back to 1966. How did the kid get such a break?

"I was good with a camera, and one of the wrestlers was married to my mom's sister," Lano said in a recent phone interview. "(He) got me the job ... and I was shooting at ringside. I was pretty tall, so I looked older than the age of 10. It was the first time I had a story and photos printed in the Stanley Westin magazines -- The Wrestler and Inside Wrestling -- which later became known as the Apter magazines."

By 1974, Lano says he had road trips to Mexico, England, Australia and Japan under his belt, as the mat magazine moguls couldn't get enough of his stuff. Japan, he says, is a radically different atmosphere than the U.S., especially when it comes to women's wrestling.

"Probably the biggest buzz I get is shooting in Japan," Lano said. "The women just are so incredible. It's not the T-and-A thing, as it is in the U.S. It would be like (watching) Serena Williams ... and Lyndsey Davenport ... at the top of their games. And those guys work way harder than the men. It just blows your mind away. It looks great on tape, but to see this stuff in person -- and to see how the audience reacts -- it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up."

Dr. Mike is also a historian of what's referred to as the "old school." Back before Vince McMahon monopolized the industry in the 1980s, pro wrestling was broken up into territories, with each area of the country having its distinct promotions. They're gone now, but not forgotten -- especially in the photos taken by Dr. Mike. He's photographed and met just about everybody: Buddy Rogers, Bobby Heenan, Verne Gagne, Fred Blassie, Ric Flair, Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho, just to name a very few.

"The neatest thing for me was to be able to shoot all the territories around the world," he said. "Each place was so distinct. I was so blessed -- all the stuff that I saw. Compared to today's stuff, I fall asleep. It's so homogenized and boring. And they (WWE) make the wrestlers that way. Rey (Mysterio) and (Chris) Benoit can do so much if they weren't told how to wrestle. The only thing that brings back the memory of the territories is TNA and Ring of Honor. There's still some great stuff, but man, when there was like 42 territories -- all of them completely different with a huge cast and crew - it was out of this world."

As for the wrestling world these days, Dr. Mike says because of big-time TV commitments, there's also less ring psychology than ever. Before the saturation of cable, he says performers would have longer matches and tell a much better story in the ring - - improvising their moves as they talked "carny," signaling moves via verbal cues only known to those in the wrestling fraternity.

"They didn't practice before "Raw" or" Smackdown!" they way they do now before they let the crowd in," Lano explained. "They (WWE sports entertainers) go over their matches and do all this stuff. They never did that in the old days. They would just improvise.

"It's frustrating because a Ray Stevens or Dick Murdoch - - they'd have a zillion beers and go out there and put on a five-star match, just winging it. They were just such pros. A lot of these guys today are fantastic, but I think for many of them, if they hadn't worked out their match in advance -- they'd be in trouble. It's not their fault, they're just not allowed to improvise and that's a result of wrestling being a timed, TV product. Eddie Guerrero and Benoit however could do anything, they were a throwback to the all- time greats."

Next week: More of Dr. Mike's thoughts on the all-time greats, how he gets a good picture -- and much, much more -- as we continue our visit.

That's it! Scram!

Class dismissed!

(Professor Wrestling is a masked employee of Internet Broadcasting. Got a question, comment, complaint? E-mail him right here. )