Wrestling is a theatrically staged sport, a show. The winner of the wrestling fight is determined in advance. Wrestling is widespread on the North American mainland, Japan, Mexico. The origin of wrestling began in the 19th century, in France, underground (illegal) wrestling. However, it was an ordinary fight, and wrestling such as you see today began to emerge in the 40s of the last century. As a student, I loved wrestling a lot, I also like to pay someone to write my research paper for me.
In the 70s, wrestling was “imported” to the North American mainland, where it immediately began to enjoy great success. The most famous wrestling federations are World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA! Impact Wrestling), and Ring of Honor (ROH). In addition to these federations, there are a lot of independent promotions – Independent (English Indy, Rus. Indie). The maximum level of fame is your city/state. Also, indie promotions can be part of a large federation or a preparatory platform (approx. – FCW).
Lucha libre is the name of wrestling in Mexico. The style of the beam is a fast pace, with a lot of aerial techniques, grabs, etc. Ray wrestlers are called luchadors. Luchadores are characterized by performances in masks. If Maxi loses in battle, the Luchador does not have the right to wear a mask and we observe the law. Famous luchadores in the USA are Rey Mysterio, Chavo Guerrero, Eddie Guerrero, Sin Kara (in CMLL – Mystico). The most famous lucha promotions are CMLL (Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre) and AAA (Asistencia Asesoria y Administracion). There are also wrestling promotions in Russia. These are the NFR (Independent Wrestling Federation), NSW (Northern Storm Wrestling).
Wrestling Terms
Babyface (Face) wrestler playing the role of a positive good person. Facebook does not break the rules, supports the public. As a rule, the public reacts positively to Face, but there are exceptions when face fights with Hill in his hometown. Examples of faces – John Cena, Roman Raines, Neville in WWE, and Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle in TNA.
Heel wrestler playing the role of a bad guy. Heal breaks the rules in every way, fights dishonestly, and argues with the public. As a rule, the public shows their discontent/hatred towards the heel in every possible way, but there are exceptions when the heel is in his hometown, but only if he is a patriot of the motherland. The examples are – Seth Rollins, Seamus, Rusev in WWE, and Matt Hardy in TNA.
Tweener, the wrestler is not a heel, not a face. This happens if a wrestler has become a heel, but was a face and vice versa. As a rule, wrestlers do not stay in the role of a tweener for a long time, but there are also long “tweenerships”. Receives a mixed reaction from the audience (if he were a sick person, became a face, he may receive a slightly negative reaction and vice versa. Examples of twinners are Edge (summer 2010), Randy Orton (spring 2010), Brock Lesnar, and The Undertaker (now).
Turn, changing the role of the heel to face and vice versa. It can be instantaneous (Christian’s heal-turn when he attacked Orton in the summer of 2011) or gradual (SEE Punk’s face-turn – summer 2011). Usually, heely’s face-turns occur when he receives a sufficient amount of positive reaction from the audience or his merchandise (T-shirts, caps, cups, etc.) sells well. An example of such a face-turn is SM Punk, Randy Orton, Edge. Things are a little more complicated with the face’s hilt – if the face is poorly received by the public, bookers try in every possible way to create a plot to raise it in the eyes of the public again, but this happens with faces that profit from merchandising (for example, John Cena). If this does not happen, then he gets a hi-turn (for example, Rock, like Rocky Maivia at the beginning of his career).
Gimmick – the role, image, style of clothing of a wrestler. For example, gimmick Alberto Del Rio is a rich egoist, looking for an easy way to win, dresses in expensive clothes, drive expensive cars.
Roster – a list of wrestlers of the company. There are 2 (almost 3) of them in WWE – RAW, SmackDown, NXT. There was also ECW, but it was replaced by NXT.
Booker is a person who comes up with plots for wrestlers, for their enmity (feud), in other words, a wrestling scriptwriter. As a rule, these are people who know well what wrestling is, but there are cases (especially in WWE) when Booker was a screenwriter of cheap action movies, melodramas who had never seen wrestling in his eyes.
TV Show is a weekly show that is shown on TV both on record (WWE Friday Night SmackDown, Impact Wrestling) and live (WWE Monday Night RAW SuperShow). TV shows are typical for large federations when indie promotions are content with only live performances.
Paid Wrestling holiday – English Pay Per View (PPV), the show is live. Duration – 3 hours (Wrestlemania 4 hours, and Wrestlemania 20 – 5 hours). Fights with pre-prepared plots take place on the PPV (preparation for a TV show), but there are cases when the fight on the PPV is assigned to the PPV itself. In the USA, you need to pay for viewing PPV.
A house show is a show conducted by a promotion that is not shown on TV.
Card – a list of fights of the show.
A dark duel is a fight held before the start of a TV show or PPV. There are cases with dark main events (typical only for TV shows).
The low card is a duel with little-known wrestlers federations. They are often used to warm up the audience.
A low carder is a wrestler who takes part in a low card. Usually does not own a title.
Midcard is a fight with average wrestlers, the most important in the federation. It is usually held in the middle of a TV show and at the beginning of the PPV.
Midcarder is a wrestler taking part in the midcard. Usually does not own titles of high prestige, but it is typical to own minor titles (the title of the US champion in WWE). An example is Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston.
Uppercard is a pre-main event. Usually, wrestlers participate in it in a non-title fight and/or in the case that their fud is not interesting enough to the public.
The main event is the main event of the PPV/TV show. These fights are characterized by great spectator interest, the presence of a prestigious title. Nevertheless, now (especially in WWE) there are several main events on PPV (for example, Wrestlemania 28: Seamus/Brian, the Player/The
Undertaker, SEE Punk/Chris Jericho, Cena/Rock) when one of the meye-events start PPV.
The main eventer is a wrestler who takes part in an upper card, the main event. As a rule, a sought-after wrestler.
Jobbing is a fight in which one wrestler, without much difficulty, loses to another. Usually, jobbings are pure fights, as a rule, they do not exceed 3 minutes.
A jobber is a wrestler who is “jobbied” by another, as a rule, only debuted (for example, a Ryback) or a main eventer.
Push – promotion of a wrestler. Push makes a mid-carder out of a low-carder, a main eventer out of a mid-carder, and makes a wrestler almost the face of the promotion.
Fud is a feud of wrestlers. If main eventers take part in the fude, then it lasts 2 or even 3 months. An example of fda is Steve Austin vs. Rock.
Storyline – the plot of the fud. A good storyline provides a good feed, which ultimately brings profit to the company.
A team is an association of wrestlers into a team for a while – both one fight and several years. Teams can also be part of groupings. Examples of teams are Legion of Death, Fear Warriors, Hardy Brothers, Dudley Brothers (Team 3D), Edge, and Christian.
Grouping is an association of three or more wrestlers with a common plot and/or manager. Usually, the grouping exists for a long time. Example – D-Generation X (DX), Evolution, New World Order (NWO), The Four Horseman).
A manager is a person, usually a veteran wrestler, who is a mentor to a young wrestler. As a rule, the manager is assigned to a wrestler who is weak in public speaking but performs well in the ring. An example is Bobby Heenan, Paul Heyman (Heyman’s “project” is Brock Lesnar).
Keifeb is a rule to protect the wrestling plot from revealing the illusion of actions in the ring. Previously, wrestlers adhered to keifeb, both in public and out. Now the viewer is well aware that if Orton and Christian can be enemies in the ring, then outside of it they can be almost best friends.
Until the 2000s, the concept of keifeb was used only within the company, which meant that if Rock and Austin were sworn enemies in the ring, then in real life as well.
Joking is a real event that sometimes happens in wrestling and is carefully hidden by the buzz. For example, when a wrestler does not like another and beats him for real, hiding it behind what is happening in the match. Or some kind of setup, the background of which the promotion management is trying to hide, so as not to damage the reputation of this or that event or wrestler. The most famous example is the Montreal Bummer.
The blade is a mini blade that simulates wounds from blows. For example, a wrestler was hit with a chair, the camera shows his opponent, and the wrestler himself at this moment makes an incision on his forehead and causes bleeding.
Selling – a wrestler’s image of severe pain, attacks, damage from blows, etc. Accordingly, bad actors or shootfighters do not know how to show pain convincingly, which is why the quality of the fight suffers and does not create a convincing impression of the reality of what is happening.
Promo interview /presentation of the wrestler to promote the plot. In the promo, one wrestler can insult the other in every possible way. An integral part of the promo is the game with the audience, which makes you love/hate this or that wrestler. Some wrestlers work so well on the microphone that their weak skill in the ring is thrown into the background (for example, Hulk Hogan), and vice versa – a wrestler who does not know how to work on the microphone is not popular with bookers (for example, Tyson Kidd).
