Media Notes / Professional Wrestling Jargon

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Professional Wrestling's unique position as choreographed sports entertainment with a strict culture of secrecy (called kayfabe) created a rich lexicon of terms to describe how matches were conducted, to differentiate between real and scripted occurrences, and to describe the "meta" narrative of how matches and performers related to each other without actively revealing the show's scripted nature.

Even today, after the decline of kayfabe during the 1990s, casual fans simply watching the broadcast or attending performances will never hear most of these terms spoken by presenters or talent. Those that dive deeper into blogs, newsletters, and podcasting, where many of wrestling's most prominent stars and backstage minds are now cashing in by presenting their accounts of wrestling's most famous moments, will start to hear backstage lingo or insider terms.

• A and B shows: Split touring crews of a promotion. In the pre-90's WWE and the larger territories, promotions would split their roster across two or even three shows, both to promote a larger number of events and ensure the same areas didn't see the same talent too often. When WWE was syndicated programming, the two crews would have separate television shows (WWF Superstars and WWF Wrestling Challenge). Unlike a brand extension, assignment to A or B shows was not permanent and would change based on storylines. A circuit of towns that was almost entirely B-shows was referred to as a "buttermilk run," particularly in the southern territories.
  • A show and B show can also be used to describe a wrestling promotion's television and their relative importance to that promotion, even if that promotion does not split its crews. Ex: "Thunder was WCW's B-show, while Nitro was the A-show." In the 2000s (and especially under WWE’s brand extension), the line between which of a promotion’s shows are the “A” and “B” shows is much more blurred as the shows instead try to cater to different styles;^note Historically, for example, WWE’s Raw leaned more into storytelling whereas SmackDown was the home of talent that excelled better in the ring; AEW’s Dynamite and Collision currently have a similar but less distinct split you can normally tell which is which by observing which show gets the most attention and headline talent.^note Hence why, despite being the younger and shorter show, SmackDown between 2019 and 2024 was the de facto A-show for WWE, being on network TV and being the home of both Roman Reigns, who was the top talent for most of that period.
  • B show can also refer to WWE's lesser pay-per-views (or "Premium Live Events", the preferred nomenclature now that most people watch them on streaming rather than PPV), in other words every PPV that's not one of the "Big 4/5": WrestleMania, the Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and, recently, Money in the Bank (King of the Ring was considered a major show in the late 90s and early 00s). The B-shows cost less on PPV, usually have shorter run times, and are usually held in smaller venues than the Big 4, which have mostly moved to NFL and MLB stadiums.^note Though recently even B-shows have been done in large stadiums located in wrestling-starved international markets, with WWE moving to streaming rather than PPV they're no longer handcuffed to the 7 pm EST on a Sunday timeslot for big events, even if a show starts at 2 am in the U.S. people there can just watch it at their convenience when they wake up.
• C Show: Used to describe a lesser television show, often syndicated, that featured only matches between mid-card and lower card wrestlers and recaps of the more important television programs. The 1980's-era WWF would also run a "C-team" house show tour, typically with only a handful of midcard talent, in very small buildings; these shows were often contractually obligated for local TV deals^note Or in other words, "running the local promotion out of business.". These days, C-shows like WWE Main Event and AEW Rampage are taped on the same night as a show that’s broadcast live (Monday Night Raw and Dynamite respectively). Note that a C-show can also result from a decline in status, such as when WCW Saturday Night went from A-show to B-show to finally C-show (and then to cancelled outright about a year before WCW folded) following the introduction of WCW Monday Nitro and WCW Thunder respectively.
• Abort: To cut an angle or gimmick off abruptly because of poor reception or disinterest from the fans, or due to off-camera issues (like one of the people involved quitting/getting fired). Compare Aborted Arc.
• Ace: A term mostly used in Japan for a wrestler designated as the face of the promotion. Not necessarily the same as the top champion. The term comes from Riki Choshu's period of booking in the late 80s which was described as a "deck of cards;" his top wrestler was the "ace" and could beat any other wrestler on his own, but another "high card" wrestler (top guy) could work circumstances in his favor (cause or exploit an injury, or even develop a counter to a big move) and obtain a stronger "hand".
  • The definition of the term in the 2020s has also come to mean a wrestler who can produce a great match with any wrestler and in any match type or length. They may not necessarily have the winningest record or the best moves, but they are very likely former world champions, remain consistently at the top of the card, and are greatly respected by the fans and the locker room. Jon Moxley of AEW has been called the company's Ace, as was Hiroshi Tanahashi in New Japan.
• Afterbirth: A post match fight, beatdown, or other sort of angle. These are important for furthering storylines, but doing an afterbirth after every match leads to fans losing interest in the matches themselves because they're just waiting for the match to end to see the angle.
• Aged Out: When a promotion or territory finds itself dying because they never bothered to get young talent over, thus causing diminishing interest in their product. This was more common in the territory days when promoters would keep using the same talent, including sometimes themselves, for years and even decades because they were proven draws. Sometimes the talent themselves refuse to put people over, which results in this situation. A good example would be Dick the Bruiser, who ran his own cards for years and years using the same talent until they were simply too old to be believable tough wrestlers anymore. Another historical example can be seen in Los Angeles, where Freddie Blassie retired as one of the promotion's top stars because California wouldn't license him after 55. The Los Angeles territory soon saw a sharp decline it never completely recovered from. Essentially, most territories Vince McMahon didn't help kill died because of aging out.
• Agent: Individuals working directly under the booker or promoter, often former wrestlers or managers. For live events, agents are responsible for ensuring wrestlers are at the building on time, make their entrance at the right times, and hit the necessary time cues for their match. Historically, a trusted agent would be assigned the task of dealing with the venue's box office and collecting the gate for that show. For televised events, agents go over matches with wrestlers, and ensure they are in position for their actions to be picked up on camera. WWE refers to its agents as "Producers", and AEW calls them "Coaches". Can be used as a verb to describe the agent doing his/her job, e.g. "agenting a match".
• André shot: A camera trick by which a wrestler is made to appear bigger by shooting from below. Named after André the Giant, a frequent subject of this shot.
• Angel: The financial backer of, or an investor in, a wrestling promotion. Usually overlaps with "Money Mark" (see below) but not always - the bulk of the initial funding for Smoky Mountain Wrestling came from record producer (and huge wrestling fan) Rick Rubin, who largely left SMW owner/booker Jim Cornette to his own devices^note Though the often-mocked wrestling mummy in SMW was actually Rubin's idea. Rubin also requested that Cornette not book Junkyard Dog after seeing a very deteriorated JYD have a rotten match on the show where the SMW Pilot was filmed and as a silent partner never tried to insert himself into the TV shows.
• Angle: Not to be confused with Kurt Angle, an angle is a professional wrestling storyline. It is the purpose behind the match. it is the reason two wrestlers are fighting or "feuding". This can be over just about anything, but typically revolves around professional jealousy, a desire to claim a title belt, or a personal issue. The term "angle" comes from carny speak; a carny's "angle" is what lets them turn a consistent profit from a perceived game of skill or chance. By association, "angles" are what allow a wrestling promotion to profit from a specific matchup.
  • The term angle refers to the overall feud, and to the individual vignettes, interviews and backstage pieces filmed and presented as part of the storyline. Angles are commonly associated with television but actually predate the medium. In the old days, wrestlers would start fights in public, sometimes even intentionally getting themselves arrested, to generate publicity and interest. These days, it’s rare for a promotion to start an angle anywhere except their own programming, but it happens occasionally.
• Apartment Wrestling: Matches usually filmed in apartments (hence the name), usually featuring scantily-clad women and focused more on sex appeal than athletic ability, sold on video or later online. Sometimes used as a derisive name for things like Bra and Panties matches.
• Apter Mag: Slang for Pro Wrestling Illustrated and its former sister magazines, named after main contributor and photographer Bill Apter. Also called the London Publishing^note now Kappa Publishing magazines or the "Stu Saks mags" after their former editor-in-chief. In older usage, they were nicknamed the "Stanley Weston" magazines, after their former publisher and Apter's mentor. These publications are known for strictly upholding kayfabe and refusing to use insider lingo (like most of what you see on this page, for example referring to babyfaces and heels as "fan favorites" and "rulebreakers", respectively), making them a sort of in-universe version of the "Dirt Sheet" shown below. PWI is also famous for the "PWI 500", a yearly kayfabe ranking of the top 500 wrestlers in the world^note In theory male wrestlers, though a handful of women made the list, for example Chyna rightly made the 2000 list (at #106) after winning the WWF Intercontinental Championship in October 1999. Starting in 2008 the women got their own ranking for the "PWI Female 50", which was expanded to 100 in 2018, to 150 in 2021, and to 250 in 2023; though women that compete in intergender matches are still eligible for the men's ranking that is hotly debated among fans.
• Arena Show: An archaic term for a television taping held in an arena as opposed to the studio show (see below). Some promotions handled all of their television tapings at arena shows, but the vast majority of smaller territories preferred to tape in the studio and save the arenas for their untelevised house shows.
• Athletic Commission: Often referred to as the commission, these are shoot organizations found in some U.S. states whose job it is to regulate professional wrestling (and in most states these same commissions regulate boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, and other "real" combat sports). Historically, these organizations worked closely with established promoters to keep outlaws and other opposition out of established territories. They also legitimately banned moves and other shenanigans, often at the behest of the promoter as to get heat on the heels. Not all commissions survived the territory days. Some established promoters used their political sway to have them abolished when they decided the commissions became more trouble than they were worth. However, some still exist with significant power. ^note  The state of Kentucky, for example, banned the use of blood in wrestling after Ian Rotten ran shows there featuring hardcore wrestling. Oklahoma made headlines in 2024 after its commission barred AEW from holding "Intergender" matches featuring transgender wrestler Nyla Rose in the state. Commissions typically licensed wrestlers, but since most recognized wrestling wasn't a legitimate sport, these were rarely more than a formality.^note  One of the rare times an athletic commission wouldn't license a wrestler was when Yokozuna got rejected by the state of New York due to his morbid obesity. Another would be Sean Waltman being forced to miss a TNA PPV when the state of Missouri refused to issue him a license after he was diagnosed with Hepatitis C (he's since recovered.) To this day Waltman holds a grudge towards TNA and Dixie Carter (see "Money Mark" below) after commentator Tazz (on Carter's orders) told the fans that Waltman no-showed because he was off getting high.
• Attitude Era: A time when WWE (then WWF) shifted its program to adult-oriented content, which included an increase in the level of depicted violence, profanity and sexual content. Typically considered to be from 1997-2003, give or take^note 2003 is WWE's company line, but most fans consider the end to be "Stone Cold" Steve Austin hugging Vince McMahon at WrestleMania X-7 in 2001, with a sort of unacknowledged and unnamed period (call it The Invasion Era for lack of a better term) lasting until WrestleMania XIX in 2003. Many fans also consider the Attitude Era to have started with Austin winning the 1996 King of the Ring (and giving the famous "Austin 3:16" speech) or even the tail end of 1995, WWE's canon usually goes with the Montreal Screwjob. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was the star of this era (and pretty much neck and neck with Hulk Hogan as the star of wrestling period), and it is typically considered to begin with his "Austin 3:16" promo. Aside from Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker, Triple H, and Mick Foley were the key stars for the WWF at this time.
• Attraction: A wrestler or a group of wrestlers known for cycling through promotions instead of staying for lengthy amounts of time. The classic territory example would be André the Giant, who, outside the Northeast, used to cycle through the territories and would inevitably draw a lot of money because fans could see someone they normally couldn’t. Both midget and women’s wrestling operated this way before the 1980s when the WWF attempted to create a full time women’s division. Part time wresters that only work major events (like Brock Lesnar) can be considered a modern equivalent.
• Audible: A change to a planned spot, finish, or segment during the actual match or segment. Sometimes done to cover for an injury. Can also result from fan reaction. Ex: "Chris Jericho called an audible after Neville broke his ankle." Note that this can overlap with going into business for yourself if the change favors you, and wrestlers can get serious heat on themselves from the office if they don’t have a damn good reason for a significant change to the original plan.
• Authority figure: A person who, in storyline (and occasionally real life), represents the interests of the wrestling promotion. They may be referred to as a commissioner, president, or general manager. In territorial days, this was often a babyface role, even when acting (reluctantly) against the promotion's babyfaces, and represented the promotion's kayfabed interest in fair play, best exemplified by Jack Tunney. In modern days, due to the success of the "Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon storyline, the role was assumed by heels up until the absolutely rancid reception of The Authority angle (Triple H and Stephanie McMahon trying to recreate the Vince-Austin magic with various people and failing miserably due to burying anyone who faced them and suffering little to no punishment in turn, while any heel who worked with them consistently won and suffered no consquences, which went on for a grueling two and a half years as well), which was such ratings poison that no major promotion has done an "evil boss" storyline since.
  
  As of the post-pandemic era the role is once again babyface since being assumed by Adam Pearce during Roman Reigns' lengthy "Bloodline" championship tenure. Pearce was often at odds with the heel faction while booking babyfaces to challenge Reigns for his title. In October 2024 this was solidified by making Pearce the General Manager of RAW and bringing in long time TNA and NWA world champion Nick Aldis to be the General Manager of Smackdown. Both highly-respected former wrestlers serve as babyfaces handling and helming their respective shows.
• Babyface: Often shortened to "Face", this is the "good guy" or "hero" character in a pro wrestling angle or match. Faces usually fight according to the rules and are valiant despite overwhelming odds, as opposed to Heels who cheat, distract, use outside interference, or revel in their dominance over their opponents.
  • A 'White Meat' babyface is a wrestler who plays the good guy role to the hilt, with smiles, pure intentions, and earnest sportsmanship, but they can also be a bit bland and 2-dimensional. Ricky Steamboat was a white meat babyface for most of his career (and also, according to none other than Ric Flair, the best in the business). A young Rocky Maivia started off as one too (before the audience soured on him and he switched to being a cocky heel).
  • "Babyface" can also be used as a verb when a wrestler or promoter tries to make themselves look good to other wrestlers, the fans, or the public. Ex: "Vince McMahon tried to babyface himself in the weeks following the Montreal Screwjob."
• Babyface program: When two face wrestlers feud with each other. Although much more common than a heel program, many old-school promoters, such as Vince McMahon Sr., refused to do these for fear of splitting the audience and hurting one or both faces. That said, many of these matches involve "passing the torch" by using an established babyface superstar to solidify the stardom of a new superstar. Compare Good Versus Good.
• Backyard Wrestling: A specific type of independent wrestling among teenagers and young adults, typically untrained, who wrestle in backyards and often imitate the moves they see on television. Although a handful of major names got their start this way ^note  The Hardys being one of the most famous examples. , this is highly discouraged due to the danger involved and the potential lawsuits should someone get hurt and sue a major promotion for inspiring the activity. Thus, major promotions often issue Don't Try This at Home warnings during broadcasts or home releases.
• Barker show: An advertisement for an upcoming pay-per-view that a wrestling company films to air on the pay-per-view channel. In the ‘90s, pay-per-view companies required pay-per-view producers to create a program to help sell the pay-per-view. Although not limited to wrestling, the wrestling barker show typically featured recaps of major angles with host wraparound segments featuring talent, typically announcers or other non-wrestling personnel. Paul Heyman was once fined for not delivering a barker show, demonstrating how important they were to pay-per-view companies. More or less replaced with the pre-show^note Though WCW would often do both, sending a barker show to the PPV companies and then moving WCW Main Event (WCW's C-show that aired on TBS on Sundays at 5:05 pm) up an hour and broadcasting it live from the PPV, which would start at 7 pm. WWE, then the WWF, would dip their toes in the water with a pre-show for the 1995 King of the Ring PPV and make it a regular thing starting with the 1996 Royal Rumble, which serves a similar function but with more action and not limited to pay-per-view channels.
• Beg Off: A spot in a match where a heel pleads for mercy from the babyface. Since heels are often a Dirty Coward, they tend to do this after striking the babyface, which they No-Sell, or after performing some kind of illegal act on the babyface. This can lead to a Wounded Gazelle Gambit where the heel uses underhanded tactics to gain the upper hand or played completely straight as the beginning of a comeback.^note The former was actually Hulk Hogan's finishing move in the Nintendo 64 game WCW/nWo Revenge, since the game engine didn't allow ground-based finishers like Hogan's leg drop. Instead he begs off, then hits the opponent in the balls. A related term is Back Up, which isn't exclusive to heels and sees the attacking wrestler back away and show concern when it becomes clear their attacks aren't working. Babyfaces sometimes do this when faced with especially tough opponents to get over the seriousness of the situation.
• Bell Rung: To be legitimately hit on the head in a way that renders you severely dazed or possibly unconscious. More or less synonymous with a concussion, but many wrestlers who experience having their bell rung refuse to stop the match because of the “show must go on” mentality in the business. That being said, promotions in recent years have been more mindful of head injuries due to the increased scrutiny surrounding them in sports, and many have set up concussion protocols to deal with these kind of injuries.
• Belt: A professional wrestling championship or title, represented by a gaudy belt made of leather and precious metals/stones^note An old joke about wrestling is that it's "two men without pants fighting over a belt", typically gold (in kayfabe at least; they're more likely to be cubic zirconia and gold plate over white metal). Also sometimes called a "Strap". Note that WWE typically prefers "Title".
• Bicycle: In the territorial days, the term "bicycle" signified that there would be a time delay between a TV show airing in its home market and in affiliated markets ("the tape traveled on a bicycle"). This meant that the program for different markets would feature different matches at different times, and things like title changes would have to account for this. This term wasn't exclusive to the wrestling industry, as game shows (ie. The Hollywood Squares) and other syndicated programs also used this method; it wasn't until satellite transmission became a going thing in the 1980s that this term became obsolete, as using satellites meant production companies could transmit their shows to affiliates and be aired much sooner (the reason they had to do this was because syndication firms couldn't afford the system the Big 3 networks used, that being telephone lines leased from the Bell System/AT&T to send signals to affiliates).
• Bill: To market or promote someone as having a certain quality, such as height, weight, or living in a certain location. Promoters often want their wrestlers to seem physically bigger than they are, so weight and height are often exaggerated to achieve this end. If this is done well, nobody notices. If the height or weight is exaggerated too much, fans will openly mock it. Similarly, some promoters bill wrestlers as coming from places they aren't actually from. This can be inspired by a gimmick, such as when The Undertaker was billed as being from Death Valley (the actual man is from Texas), or a deliberate reframing of a hometown done to help a talent appeal to the fanbase, such as when Chris Benoit was billed as residing in Georgia despite originating from Canada.
• Blackball: Pretty much means the same thing in wrestling as it means everywhere else. When one or more promoters agreed to refuse to use a specific wrestler because that wrestler has committed some real or imagined heinous act. Wrestlers in the old days would be blackballed for working opposition, exposing the business, failing to give their notice, developing a reputation for being difficult to work with, significant mental health issues that made them unreliable or dangerous. or getting in serious legal trouble that reflected badly on wrestling. Note that blackballing, with few exceptions, was almost always temporary, and some unscrupulous promoter somewhere would use just about anyone. Therefore, the effectiveness of blackballing was often limited at best.
• Blade: The act of using a small, concealed razor or utility blade to inflict a cut and draw blood for the purposes of making a match look more brutal. Also the instrument of performing the action. The process can also be referred to as "to blade", "blading", "gigging", "juicing", "juice", "color", or a "blade job".
• Blind Tag: When a wrestler tags their partner without the consent of the partner. Also sometimes called a "back slap tag." Often done to highlight tension within tag teams or in makeshift Enemy Mine teams who don't like each other. It should be noted that this isn't really a legal tag (that is, both feet on the apron, one hand either holding the tag rope or touching the ringpost, and the other making hand to hand contact over the top rope with their partner) and even as recently as a decade ago doing this would just result in an annoyed ref sending you back to your corner, but in modern wrestling the tag rules are selectively enforced, to put it mildly.
• Blow up: To become physically exhausted during a wrestling match.
• Blowjob: A rather antiquated term for a smaller good looking babyface popular with young women^note It's antiquated because the people that go see wrestling shows anymore are mostly men in their 20s and 30s. The Rock 'n' Roll Express made a 40+ year career out of it, Jeff and Matt Hardy were a more modern example (at least in their younger days), Finn Bálor is currently occupying this role in WWE.
• Blowoff: The final match of a feud, usually at a major pay-per-view event.
• Blue eyes: British term for a face wrestler.
• Book:
  • Either the act of booking (see below) or the state of being scheduled on a card. Some wrestlers who weren’t booked used to hang around a show in hopes of getting a spot on the card.
  • Also used to describe the metaphorical (or in some cases, literal) book that is used by the person running the promotion. Whoever the head booker of a company is, is said to, "have the book" or "take the book". See also pencil below, which is functionally identical to this definition.
• Booker: In filmmaking terms, a booker is a combination of a screenwriter, director, and producer in a wrestling organization. Bookers come up with, or 'book' matches, storylines and characters, and determine the length, content, and finishes to wrestling matches. They can also be involved with recruiting wrestlers, or arranging for guest appearances from another promotion. Can be synonymous with Book, though book can also refer to the actual booking of a match or the object ^note  Some bookers were so informal they would write cards out on napkins or any scrap paper they could find. a booker uses to write the cards on. Ex: "Ric Flair demanded the book when business went in the toilet."^note And business went straight back into the toilet after Flair had enough of the Executive Meddling and resigned as booker, then really went into the toilet when that same executive fired Flair altogether.
• Booking Office: In the days before the territories, these were the organizations responsible for managing talent and supplying local promoters with wrestlers for cards. The territory system effectively replaced the booking offices. Some notable booking offices included Dallas and Chicago.
• Botch: A noticeable accident during the course of a match. Can be as harmless as a slip and fall, or it can be something that leads to significant injury. In the 1990s and early 2000s these were met with a "You fucked up!" chant, assuming no one involved is badly hurt. As the PG Era wore on, the chants vanished (at least in WWE, they can still be heard in AEW and in independent promotions). Can also be used for a match that has completely fallen apart; the much less PC term "abortion" was once used instead.
• Boys, The: A term used among wrestlers (and other on-camera performers like managers and referees) to describe each other as a collective unit. Often used in the phrase "one of the boys." Generally, someone close to the office (the promoter, the booker, or stooges) lose this honorific and are instead referred to as the office. Ex: "I found out the old security guard at the arena was one of the boys. We talked about how the business was in his day." The term is gender-neutral, a female wrestler would still be referred to as "one of the boys."
• Breakdown: One step below a shoot. When two wrestlers stop cooperating with each other, at least momentarily, and begin either posturing, yelling, or exchanging stiff shots out of genuine anger or frustration. A good example of a match breaking down was when "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan nearly fought Matt Borne in an independent match in 2010.^note Duggan and Bourne had been each other's Arch-Enemy in Real Life since the 80s, so booking them together was a serious error in judgement on someone's part It wasn't a full shoot because Borne ultimately walked away from the fight. Another example would be when Shawn Michaels screamed at and kicked Vader live on pay-per-view. Again, no actual shoot fight took place, but Michaels clearly let his frustration with Vader boil over into verbal and physical attacks. A more recent example would be a match between Charlotte Flair and Nia Jax on Raw in 2021 that got so heated that a couple punches were thrown before cooler heads prevailed and they continued on with the planned match.
• Breaking the field: A disorienting effect caused when the floor cameras are positioned opposite to the hard camera in the stands, causing action to be reversed when the director switches from the hard camera to the floor cameras or vice versa. Hallmark of a poor television production. (Though there can be extra floor cameras for showing a replay from a different direction where it's easier to see what happened.)
• Break Spot: A double KO, big dive to the floor that wipes everyone out, or a similar sequence that ends with everyone involved laying out and selling, the pause in the action allows the announcers to pitch to a commercial break. While the term is new the idea probably dates back to when wrestling started being shown on TV.^note Normally when this is done the wrestlers will sell for a bit and then get moving again, because even if the people watching at home can't see you everyone there in the building can, and then the commercial break will end with one of the wrestlers having the upper hand (usually the heel, and the babyface will begin their comeback shortly thereafter). However during the COVID-19 Pandemic WWE was shooting everything on a closed set in Orlando, so during ad breaks the wrestlers didn't have to do anything but be where they were supposed to be when they got the on-air signal, and they just stood there talking. A couple videos leaked of this, but no one really cared because there was obviously more important things in the news than wrestling being exposed for the millionth time.
• Broadway: Traditionally a match that goes to an hour-long time-limit draw. These matches were common in the NWA territory days where the NWA World Heavyweight Champion toured between the territories and wrestled the territory's top guy. Since the NWA didn't want to put the belt on the territory star, but the territory didn't want their top star to look weak, this was often the compromise; they would wrestle for an hour (then the time limit of world title matches) and go to a draw. Popular usage has come to lead to the term describing any time limit draw usually by denoting how long said match went, such as "15-Minute Broadway", "30-Minute Broadway", etc. The term is almost obsolete in modern wrestling for many reasons. Matches are largely not presented with time limits, rarely go longer than ten minutes, rarely end in a draw, and time counts (see below) haven't been used in over 30 years.
• Brown eyes: A British term for a heel. Unlike American wrestling programming (where most matches are between a babyface and a heel), there were very few "brown eyes" in British wrestling, with most matches being between babyfaces.
• Bruno spot: A main-event match programmed above what would normally be considered a main event match in its own right, such as a title match. Refers to Bruno Sammartino's position in the WWF from 1977-1981, where he would wrestle infrequent programs that were billed above champion Bob Backlund's title defenses.
• Build: The entire presentation leading up to a match and anything related to selling the match to the fans. This can include promos, vignettes, pre-recorded segments, matches, angles, brawls, the feud itself, contract signings, and even social media posts. In the old days, television was used to build to house show matches, which is where wrestling drew most of its money. Today, television is used to build to pay-per-view or “premium live events.” A poor build can hurt a big match, while a good build can make a money match even bigger.
• Bump: A wrestler falling and landing in a manner to both avoid injury and heighten the sense of impact from an opponent's move. In most of the world, bumping is done "flat-back" (squarely across the back, with arms out and chin tucked in, to protect the head and give a wide impact zone), and "flat-back" bumps are one of the first things taught to new wrestling students. Most wrestling rings have some manner of give and padding to make bumps easier to take. In Mexico, due to the intricate high spots done by wrestlers, the ring has little give for better balance^note Particularly the 6 sided ring popular in Mexico (and used at various points by TNA), which has no give whatsoever due to the hexagonal design, and flat-back bumps are discarded in favor of out-of-the-ring gymnastic tumbles. A wrestler who is working hard to get another wrestler over is said to be "bumping their ass off" or "Bumping like a Pinball" for the other wrestler.
  • "Bump" can also be used to describe a dangerous (or dangerous looking) spot during a match that's designed to get a big reaction from the crowd, usually involving a foreign object of some kind. For example, "I'm going to take the table bump" or "He broke his arm on the ladder bump." These kind of spots are a fundamental part of Garbage Wrestling, see below.
• Bump Card: An archaic term used by wrestlers to describe the notion that there are only so many bumps the human body can take before it inevitably gets injured via a tear, broken bone, etc. This varies significantly based on style, health, and many other factors, but most wrestlers experience pain and/or injury from the physical toll inflicted by wrestling on the body over time. Main event wrestlers try to extend their bump cards by working a safer style, taking fewer bumps, or working lighter schedules. That being said, some wrestlers (such as Jeff Hardy) can bump like crazy and have lengthy careers, while others can be retired by comparatively fewer, smaller bumps (see Adam Cole and Jason Jordan).
• Bury: To hold down a wrestler or talent by forcing them to lose matches, talking about them unfavorably to the fans (such as in promos or on commentary) or backstage, or putting them in unimportant matches in an unfavorable spot on the card. If a promoter or booker does this intentionally, it's usually a punishment for a perceived slight. The act of burying someone is highly subjective and hotly debated amongst wrestling fans and other wrestlers. Fans are very quick to accuse a promotion of burying a favorite talent the moment they lose a single match or are put into an angle with someone the fans believe is beneath that performer's level. A good example of burial is the WWE-produced documentary The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior which WWE produced at a time when the Warrior was not on favorable terms with the company and an easy target. After WWE mended fences and The Warrior passed away, the DVD was removed from the WWE shop and is not available on the Network.^note A similar DVD was in the works for Bret Hart, but got axed when Bret returned to the WWE (it's been speculated that basically coercing Bret into coming back was the whole point and they weren't ever going to actually release it). Given that Bret is much, much more popular among his peers than Warrior was it might have been a little harder to get footage of other people in the business trashing him.
  • Bury can also mean to speak negatively about someone or something or to make someone look weak or foolish, either on purpose or not on purpose.
• Business: Whether or not one wrestler is willing to work with another. Typically, though not exclusively, used in the negative. Ex: "Shawn Michaels wouldn't do business with Vader at the Survivor Series."^note However Michaels would do business with Sid, who won the WWF Championship at Survivor Series (a match famous for babyface HBK getting booed out of Madison Square Garden and heel Sid getting a monster pop for ending Shawn's "boyhood dream") and lost it back to Michaels two months later at the Royal Rumble.
• Business, The: Used by wrestlers to describe professional wrestling as an industry.
• Calling spots/Calling the match: When one wrestler indicates to his opponent what action to perform. This may be verbally (with some care, as for TV the ring is frequently mic'ed; some wrestlers such as Sid Eudy and John Cena are infamous for being particularly loud while calling their spots) or with body language. Traditionally, the heel calls the match, although a more experienced or prominent babyface may opt to do so instead.
  • A related term is Call it in the Ring. This was the default for much of wrestling history until the last forty years or so and meant calling a match as it happened rather than the extensive pre-planning popularized by wrestlers like Randy Savage and Diamond Dallas Page. Specific spots might be pre-planned, and the finish was always planned out ahead of the time, but the vast majority of the match was done on the fly based on the audience's reactions. Old-school wrestlers got offended (indeed, many old timers are still very offended by planning a match ahead of time) if asked to do this.^note Dallas Page basically signed his own death warrant with regards to his WWE career when he attempted to pre-plan a match with The Undertaker with no input from Taker, who was so offended that he had Page buried to the point that Page was jobbing to Taker's wife, who wasn't even a wrestler. Ric Flair has stated he doesn't consider the aforementioned Savage a great worker because of Savage's tendency to plan out his matches instead of calling them in the ring.
• Card: The order of matches in a given show. Also used to describe the hierarchy of star quality of the talent. You have your top stars often vying for the main belts, and then the 'mid-carders' who are your strong, often veteran workers who can be relied to give entertaining matches but haven't transcended to top-level status, while the 'undercard' are your least popular/experienced talent, often used to job to the bigger stars.
• Carny: A pig-Latin style language used to disguise words by adding "-iz" to random syllables, so that "time" becomes "tizime", for example. Professional wrestling was a common sideshow at carnivals in the early 20th century, and acquired a similar culture. Wrestlers once used carny to call spots and otherwise disguise working; the language has fallen by the wayside in recent times.^note Strangely (and almost certainly unintentionally) it ended up being stolen by West Coast rappers, leading Jim Cornette to once jokingly exclaim on his podcast "Fuck Snoop, he's the one that got everyone speaking carny!"
  • Also used as an adjective to refer to an older culture of wrestling, where wrestlers would constantly "work" the marks, never drop their personas, and were willing to do anything for a couple of bucks.
• Carry: Also known as a 'Carry Job', where a skilled worker is able to make an inferior partner look good, sometimes by calling every spot for both wrestlers during a match. Bret Hart famously carried newcomer Tom Magee (an impressive bodybuilder and martial artist but awful wrestler) to a match so good Vince McMahon thought Magee could be the WWF's next Hulk Hogan. Note that Bret lost his match against Magee, so 'skilled worker' does not necessarily mean 'winner of the match', and even a low-ranked jobber can carry a star to a good match. A common expression used to describe skilled workers is "[Wrestler] could carry a broom to a three star match".
  • Also note that 'inferior' here is not just 'incompetence' or 'inexperience', but can be due to many things, like intoxication (Bret Hart, again, carried Davey Boy Smith in their SummerSlam 1992 match when the latter was completely zonked out after smoking crack the previous night), or just sheer difference in talent and experience (Shawn Michaels called the entirety of Ric Flair's retirement match, despite the latter's seniority).
• Chair shot: Any direct blow from a steel folding chair.
• Champion's Advantage: The name given to a rule which states that champions can retain their title if they are counted out or disqualified. Used correctly, it can extend a reign, but used poorly, it can kill a champion’s momentum- and note that the rule is almost always used for heel champions.
• Cheap Heat: Drawing a crowd reaction in a way that is seen as not being conducive to drawing actual money. Cheap heat can include things such as knocking a town or a local sports team^note Cheap heat can work both ways, for example instead of knocking the home team a babyface will come out wearing the star player's jersey to try and get a pop. Bonus cheap heat point if you can get said star player to appear on camera, or attacking people who are not involved in a planned match, such as officials or valets. Cheap heat can backfire. For example, attacking a local sports team can actually get you a pop if the audience is from out of town or if you’re in an area with multiple rival teams and you mock the one most of the crowd hates.
• Cheap Pop: The opposite of Cheap Heat; getting a crowd reaction by putting over or even mentioning the local town. Though the practice is as old as wrestling itself, the term first became popular when Mick Foley used to do this and started to lampshade it.
• Cinch Up: To apply a hold or pin in a legitimate manner instead of a working one. Common in double crosses but also sometimes done as ribs or receipts (see below.) Occasionally done the other way around (as in someone using a legit hold to pin themselves), usually for laughs but sometimes over a creative dispute.
• Clean Finish: A finish without outside interference or other shenanigans that give the losing wrestler an excuse for losing. Contrast "Fuck Finish" below. Ideally a babyface should get all his/her victories in a clean manner, while a heel beating a babyface clean (unless the heel is much higher up on the card to begin with) is considered a humiliating experience for the babyface, and will often lead to smarks claiming the babyface is being buried.
  • Note that what is and isn't a clean finish is somewhat subjective. Heels are, after all, bad people and are expected to cheat to some degree. A heel getting a pinfall by putting his feet on the ropes or grabbing the opponent's tights would still be considered a clean win by most people, for example. On the other end a babyface can use illegal tactics so long as they're proportional to any cheating a heel has already done. For instance, just grabbing a chair from ringside and hitting the opponent wouldn't be considered clean, but decking the opponent with the chair after they tried to hit you with it first would be. Likewise, run-ins on the heel’s behalf is not clean, but run-ins on the face's behalf to prevent the heel’s allies from helping them is.
• Comeback, The: Part of what is considered the classic four-part match structure: The shine, the heat, the comeback, the finish. The comeback is the part of the match where the face begins to turn the tides and regain their momentum before the finish.
• Comedy Spot: A moment in a match that is Played for Laughs instead of being taken seriously. These often involve non-wrestlers, such as managers or referees, but sometimes lower or mid card wrestlers will have entire comedy spots centered around their gimmick. Top wrestlers in major promotions tend to avoid comedy spots except on house shows, where much greater emphasis is placed on entertaining the live crowd. Comedy spots are more prevalent on the indies, and too many of them in a match can be looked down upon by old school fans and wrestlers alike. The general rule is that too much comedy destroys the suspension of disbelief needed to become fully immersed in the match.
• Cold match: A match without a feud or angle behind it.
• Color: Blood, usually intentionally drawn with a blade, but can sometimes be done hardway. Typically used in the phrase "get color" which is the process of drawing blood.
• Comp: A free ticket handed out either as a favor to one of the boys or as a promotion as part of a media campaign. Although the word carries the same meaning outside of wrestling, comps are important to the wrestling business since they can be used to generate publicity or goodwill. Wrestlers will typically ask for comps for family members or friends. How successful they are depends on a number of factors.^note  Stricter promoters, such as Bill Watts, would "give" wrestlers a ticket and then take it out of their paycheck. A top star can usually get comps much more easily than a jobber can. However, only the very top talent can be expected to get comps if the promotion is very hot and selling out everywhere.
• Cover Up: To hide the weaknesses of a wrestler by placing them in a tag team with a better worker who can take all the offense and let the former make the comeback. This is often done for one-time celebrity wrestlers or aging wrestlers who can't perform an entire singles match on their own anymore. If a tag team isn't used, Hardcore wrestling or Gimmick Matches might be used instead. Onita, for example, began utilizing hardcore wrestling in Japan to cover up his own injuries. Paul Heyman's greatest talent as a booker is his ability to cover up a wrestler's negatives and accentuate the positives - he got one of his ring crew guys over enough to get a 6 figure contract from WCW, for Christ's sake. Sometimes referred to as "hiding" a talent.
• Creative: A sort of catch-all term to describe the booker and the group of writers, agents, and production people that work under the booker. Mostly associated with WWE (where the term is official lexicon and "Head of Creative" is an actual job title^note Currently held by Triple H, though as he's also "Head of Talent Relations" he's combined the two job titles into "Chief Content Officer". To put it another way, if WWE was a pro sports team than the Head of Creative would be the head coach and the Head of Talent Relations would be the general manager. His wife formerly held the position of Head of Creative) and their group of television writers. Wrestlers that aren't really being used are often told "Creative has nothing for you" if they're released; see "Future Endeavored" below.
• Creative Control Clause: A clause in a contract which gives wrestlers say over how they are used. Although top wrestlers often had substantial influence over their presentation, it wasn't until the '90s that these clauses became common. WCW was infamous for these^note Often incorrectly; only Hulk Hogan had contractual creative control, and his was limited to the finishes of his own matches, "not to be unreasonably withheld." WCW's top stars all held a lot of "soft power" regardless of formal contract wording, as management wanted to keep them happy. Not helping these issues in WCW was the fact that it was virtually impossible to actually fire anyone who didn't want to play ball because WCW's contracts were fully guaranteed, so if someone was able and willing to work they were getting a check no matter what, but it should also be noted that the Montreal Screwjob happened because of one.^note  Bret Hart had a clause in his contract that gave him final say over his character during his final days with the company. The Screwjob effectively happened because Vince refused to honor this.
• Crew: Wrestlers associated with a particular booker who follow him from promotion to promotion because he's comfortable using and trusts them. Dusty Rhodes, for example, had a number of wrestlers he effectively poached from Florida when he become booker for Jim Crockett Promotions. Similarly, Vince Russo often brought The Harris Brothers wherever he went. Can also refer to the ring crew, who are responsible for taking down, hauling, and putting up the ring, in addition to the other definition.
• Crowbar^note Not to be confused with the wrestler that used Crowbar as his ring name: A wrestler that has a reputation for being stiff and difficult to work with. The most classic examples would be The Road Warriors in their early years, as they weren't anywhere close to fully trained when they started and would simply beat up their opponents.
• Curtain Jerker: The wrestlers in the first match of a show (typically a PPV). Can also be derogatory, referring to wrestlers whose matches are inconsequential and just meant to pad out the time (in other words the lowest form of Jobber), though today most shows open with strong matches that have decent build to get the crowd hot right away, making this an archaic term that's only used as an insult. Note that while "curtain jerker" and "jobber" were often used interchangeably some guys stuck in the opening match actually had a pretty decent win-loss record, especially if they were a babyface, it's just that all those wins were coming against lousy competition.
• Cut off: The action of a heel taking over the match from the babyface at a given point (typically between the shine and the heat segment). Cut off can also be used in tag team wrestling and refers to the heel team keeping the babyface from making the tag by keeping the face away from their corner.
  • Cut off can also be synonymous with abort. To abruptly end an angle due to disinterest, injury, or backstage issues.
• Dark: A town that went unclaimed in the territory days. Traditionally, these were towns that were unprofitable to run in or had been “killed” by some incident. If a promoter decided to claim a town and start running it, it was said that the town was “opened up.” A good example would be when Jerry Jarrett decided to open up Louisville, Kentucky in the early 1970s after a period of being dark.
• Dark match: Traditionally, a non-televised main event match added to an arena TV taping (which would otherwise see squash matches with a few "marquee" matches featuring mid-card competitors) to increase attendance. Nowadays, is used for any non-televised match at a TV or PPV show. WWE has traditionally used pre-show untelevised matches to ensure all attendees are seated prior to the show going live, and their competitors have largely followed suit.
  • The term "dark match" comes from the Memphis territory. Their 90 minute live studio show would be cut to 60 minutes to air in affiliated markets such as Nashville, Tupelo, or Louisville. "Dark" segments were those which would only be seen by the Memphis audience, and great care was taken to ensure that promos aired outside of Memphis wouldn't refer to matches or storylines from the "dark" segments.
  • The In Your House shows the WWF formerly ran were two hour PPVs sold at a reduced price, these shows would often have dark matches after the show went off the air, with upper card wrestlers that weren't on the PPV. For example, the second IYH show featured a Diesel-Sycho Sid main event and a highly anticipated match between Shawn Michaels and Jeff Jarrett,^note Which is probably the only time you'll see the words "highly anticipated" and "Jeff Jarrett" used in the same sentence after Diesel retained his title the live crowd also saw matches with Bret Hart and The Undertaker. This was done to juice ticket sales and give those fans a full card.
  • It's not uncommon for Monday Night Raw and Smack Down Live to also do post-show dark matches, especially if the TV broadcast ends with the heels having the upper hand. After the show goes off the air the babyface makes a comeback or gets saved, an impromptu match happens, and the babyface(s) win, sending the crowd home on a positive note. Unless WWE makes footage of one of these matches available themselves anything that happens in these post-show matches should be considered non-canon.
• Dates: When a promoter agrees to lend a talent to another promoter, they are said to give "dates" on that wrestler. Very rare in the modern era due to contracts and various legal issues, but this frequently happened in the territory days. In exchange for a favor or payment, a promoter might offer dates on a top star. André the Giant frequently got sent around the territories this way^note Vince Sr. would often call territory promoters and ask to bring one of their wrestlers to New York, and to compensate that promoter for basically stealing one of his guys Vince Sr. would give him a week of dates on Andre. Contrast this with Vince Jr., who would just contact the wrestler directly and then encourage him to not meet any prior commitments. Compare "shot," which is effectively a date from the talent's perspective.
• Daylight: The quality of a wrestler's offense and whether other wrestlers, and more importantly fans, can tell the wrestler is working as opposed to having a legitimate contest. The less daylight in a wrestler's offense, the more believable it is. To some extent, nearly every trained wrestler (and others with trained eyes) can tell if a wrestler is working, but wrestlers with no or little daylight are said to be so good that it's impossible for the untrained eye to tell that the moves aren't actually real. Terry Funk, especially in his younger years, was said to have little daylight in his offense because having been raised and trained in the West Texas territory, he had to make his work look as believable as possible since most grown men in his audience had been in or seen many real fights. A wrestler with a lot of daylight might be subjected to a Stealth Insult like “I learned to work by watching you,” which meant your work was filled with so much daylight that someone could learn how to give or take moves by watching it.
• Death Spot: When a wrestler is put in the unenviable position of working the match following a really big match or angle on a major show, particularly certain gimmick matches like the Royal Rumble and Money in the Bank. More often than not the crowd will be dead for these matches because they're burned out from the previous segment. Often a promoter will see this coming and book something that the crowd won't really care about to begin with (see "Popcorn Match" below) to give the crowd a chance to use the restroom or head to the concession stand, though this can occasionally happen randomly when a match far exceeds what people expected of it.^note It can also happen if someone is stuck following a match or segment that was a complete disaster, an example would be Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit having to go out in front of a crowd that just sat through the infamous Triple H-Scott Steiner botchfest at the 2003 Royal Rumble. Angle and Benoit were able to bring the crowd back, but had WWE not followed that Steiner match with two of the best in-ring workers ever it would have got pretty ugly. Brock Lesnar won the Rumble itself that year, if you were wondering. Compare Tough Act to Follow.
• Developmental promotion / Developmental territory: A small, usually regional promotion where inexperienced or underperforming but promising wrestlers are sent to gain in-ring experience before being moved onto the card proper. WWE maintained several over the course of a decade or so before eventually concentrating them into the in-house NXT brand. Compare wrestling school.
• Dirt Sheet: Also referred to as a "scandal sheet" or a "rag". Term for a type of publication that sprung up in the 1980's which would break kayfabe to report on the backstage developments of professional wrestling promotions such as planned angles, match outcomes, and talent being hired or fired. The Ur-Example would be Dave Meltzer's The Wrestling Observer Newsletter which was the first such publication to gain widespread notoriety. Before the internet, these types of publications were cheaply produced and distributed as subscription-based newsletters which were not widely read except by the most dedicated fans. These fans would be christened "smart marks" or "smarks". The proliferation of the internet and the death of kayfabe after the 1991 steroid trial changed the nature of these publications and their distribution. Today a cottage industry of wrestling insider websites and podcasts exist, and wrestling fans are in on the scripted nature of the business to a much greater degree than they were before the early nineties. The term "dirt sheet" still refers to these publications, though it is largely The Artifact at this point (the Observer finally went online-only in December 2023.)
• Disney Tapings: WCW's syndicated TV tapings held at Disney Studios in Orlando, infamous for their marathon taping sessions that would reveal months of storylines in advance^note While the syndicated TV was taped months in advance WCW Saturday Night was taped every 2 weeks and PPVs and Clash of the Champions shows were shown live, but everything had to match up with what's already been taped. Thus if you knew the results of the syndicated tapings you could pretty easily predict the results of everything else. This is why the WWF never taped more than 4 weeks at a time and always held PPVs after a taping cycle rather than in the middle of it. These shows were also notorious for their crowds, which were basically paid extras that were told who to cheer and boo. WCW did their best to exclude actual wrestling fans to prevent the taping results from getting leaked (and to prevent them from booing babyfaces that weren't getting over), but a couple would always slip through the net and blab about it to the (admittedly tiny at the time) internet wrestling fanbase. This massive breach of kayfabe was believed to be the final straw for the NWA, who cut ties with WCW shortly thereafter^note and never recovered.
• Double Booked: To be booked to work for different promotions or cards on the same day, typically in such a way as to make both appearances impossible. Ric Flair, for example, was once double booked for Jim Crockett Promotions and the Florida territory on the same night. Impressively, Flair managed to make both shows thanks to a chartered jet and some creative match placement.
• Double Cross:
  • Has the same meaning in regular parlance, meaning a betrayal within a tag-team, stable, or even between friends, sometimes involving an authority figure corrupting one party.
  • An older meaning of the term is when a wrestler (usually in conjunction with the promoter) changes the agreed-upon finish to the match. This was common in the early days of wrestling, especially around the NWA World Championship which toured the territories. Promoters would conspire to double-cross the champion to have their guy win the belt and bring more prestige to their territory. This was why old-time NWA Champions were usually shooters and hookers (see below) like Lou Thesz. They were usually tough and skilled enough to handle things if the match turned from a work into a shoot. The most famous instance of this older meaning is the Montreal Screwjob.
• Double Shot: When a wrestler works on two different shows in different venues on the same day. Often achieved by having an afternoon show and an evening show with a couple of hours of travel time between them. Much more common in the territory days.
• Double Turn: An angle where the face and heel wrestlers or teams will have effectively switched alignment in the course of the match or angle. One of the best historic examples would be the submission match between Bret Hart and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIII. Double turns are regarded as very difficult to pull off, and are rare for that reason.
• Draw: A wrestler's real or imagined ability to convince a crowd to pay money to see them. This is the core of how the business works, wrestlers need to convince people to come see their matches in person, or on television or pay-per-view. Frequently used standalone, or in the term "Draw money" which means the same thing.^note During the territory days "draw" also referred to an advance against your upcoming payoff for road expenses. A wrestler that took too many draws because he was at the bar until close each night would see a pretty light paycheck.
• Draw the Referee: To distract the referee so the heels can cheat while the ref isn't looking. This is the first weapon in any heel manager's arsenal, and pulling off the Ricky Morton trope requires frequent diversion of the referee's attention away from the heel team's corner.
• Drop: A verb used to describe losing a championship title to someone. (e.g. Jon Moxley dropped the AEW Championship to Kenny Omega)
• Dusty Finish: A finish to a match wherein one wrestler, typically a babyface, wins a match only to have it reversed after the match on a (sometimes obscure) technicality (double-pins, a foot under the rope, etc.). This was used mostly back in the days when champions would tour different territories to challenge the locals, usually putting their title on the line. The local would pin the champ, only for the decision to be overturned, thus giving a reason for the champ to retain the title and resume touring, while giving the audiences some satisfaction in seeing their hero in a sort-of victory, and setting up a potential rematch down the line. This was once a pretty standard practice during the territory days, and while not invented by him, the finish got its name due to Dusty Rhodes' overuse of it in the 1980s when he was booker at the NWA, especially when, due to the advent of television shows, audiences noticed the same finishes occurring over and over again, and the practice was gradually phased out (but still occasionally pops up in modern matches to create dramatic tension).
• Ethnic Hero: Also called an ethnic babyface, this is a babyface marketed as belonging to a particular ethnic or racial group with the goal of getting members of that group to buy tickets, merchandise, pay-per-views, or watch television. Historically, Vince McMahon Sr. used this trick in the very ethnically diverse New York, pushing the Italian Bruno, the Puerto Rican Pedro, or the Irish Hogan^note  Vince Sr. even gave Hulk Hogan the name and suggested Hogan dye his hair. Hogan refused, however, as he was already balding., among others Almost everyone did this to some extent during the territories, though nowadays it can be considered pandering. When Junkyard Dog left Bill Watts' territory, Watts tried to replace Dog with a number of black babyfaces until fans started to realize they were being pandered to.^note Watts would try the same thing when he became WCW's booker, putting the world title on Ron Simmons shortly after he arrived, which didn't really gel with fans because Simmons is a natural heel. WWE tried for years to find a replacement for Rey Mysterio to court the coveted Latino demographic Rey appealed heavily to. Contrast the Foreign Wrestling Heel, which could be considered the "evil counterpart" to the ethnic babyface.
• Expose: To either intentionally or unintentionally highlight a wrestler’s lack of skill or charisma in the ring or on the mic. A good booker knows the limitations of a talent and will work to hide those limitations. A bad booker might unintentionally expose a wrestler by having them cut a promo when they can’t talk or placing them in a match with someone who can’t carry (see above) them. Additionally, talent can expose a wrestler, sometimes intentionally, by highlighting a wrestler’s legitimate flaws either during a match or in a promo. William Regal was once accused of doing this by wrestling Bill Goldberg for much longer than Goldberg was used to and taking Goldberg to the mat, which exposed Goldberg’s lack of technical knowledge. ^note  Regal has defended himself by saying he put the time in the agent told him to, and he can’t wrestle himself. Goldberg has stated he thinks Regal took liberties due to Goldberg’s inexperience. A few people, most notably John Cena and Paul Heyman, have a reputation of badly exposing people with weak promo skills.^note Here's Cena absolutely slaughtering Roman Reigns on the mic. This is why Heyman does most of Reigns' talking now.
• Exposing the Business: Any action that implies Professional Wrestling is less than 100% legitimate. This can include selling botched moves, two enemies being seen together in public, publicly admitting wrestling is a work, or a variety of other offenses. Since kayfabe isn't protected these days, this is no longer considered a big deal to most wrestlers under a certain age. In the days of the territories, however, this was a fireable offense that could even get one blackballed from the entire industry, depending on the severity of the exposure.
• Face–Heel Turn: When a good guy (babyface) wrestler switches sides and becomes a bad guy (heel).
• Face in peril: The member of a face tag team who is dominated by the heel team for an extended period of time, a tactic often used to get the crowd behind the face team and prepare for a hot tag. This wrestler is often said to be "playing Ricky Morton", after the wrestler regularly used in this role by The Rock 'n' Roll Express.
• Fallout show: A promotion's first televised show after a pay-per-view event. New storylines are often introduced, and consequences of the PPV explained. These shows often draw increased ratings, the episode of Monday Night Raw that takes place the night after WrestleMania is often the most watched wrestling show of any kind in a given year. Contrast "Go Home Show" below, the last TV show before a PPV.
• False Book: A wrestling Bait-and-Switch. Booking a match you don’t intend on actually having. For example, a heel will often back out of the match and offer a substitute. This is done to get heat on a heel or pop a rating, but it can backfire immensely if the audience blames the promotion instead of the heel, as WCW found out the hard way. ^note  The Trope Namer for Finger Poke of Doom was an example of false booking and widely seen as the beginning of the end of WCW.
• False Comeback: Similar to a Hope Spot. When a heel has been getting heat on a babyface and that babyface hits a move or two to make it look like they're still in the fight but the heel cuts off the babyface's offense fairly early, this is a false comeback. These spots exist to keep the fans from losing faith and to raise the audience's investment in that babyface before the actual comeback.
• False Finish: A moment in the match that seems like the logical end, especially after someone hits a finishing move, yet someone still kicks out.
• False Tag: When a babyface tag team makes the tag, but the Easily Distracted Referee didn't see it or the referee was unconscious, so the referee makes the babyface who tagged in return to their corner. Essentially, this is a tag team exclusive false comeback or hope spot.
• Fast Count: The act of a referee counting a pinfall unusually quickly, giving the pinned wrestler less of a chance to resist or kick out of the pin. Typically used to facilitate a Dusty Finish, worked screwjob or other storyline element where a wrestler unfairly wins. Starrcade 1997's infamous finish came about as the result of a botched fast count^note The plan allegedly was that the heel ref would fast-count Sting and award Hulk Hogan the win, only for this to be reversed and Sting to go home the winner. The referee botched up by doing a regular count instead, meaning that Hulk beat Sting clean and making the subsequent match restart much more confusing..
• Fed, The: Nickname for WWE, whose two prior names included the word "federation".
• Feed: When a heel intentionally runs into a babyface's offense and takes a bump. Typically done several times during the comeback to get the crowd excited.
• Fence Builder: When a wrestler enters into an exclusive relationship with a rat (see below), he is said to have "built a fence" around that rat to keep the rat from engaging in relations with other wrestlers. Generally, fence builders were looked down upon by the other wrestlers, who believed any wrestler should be able to sleep with any willing rat.
• Feud: When two wrestlers fight several times over an issue or title, or when two wrestlers do a lot of build up to one single match, usually over a title.
• Fight(ing) From Underneath: The act of a babyface attempting a comeback when overmatched by a bigger heel, or when getting jumped by a group of heels. This is as much about selling as it is about actually making a comeback, the goal is to make it look like you're getting the crap kicked out of you but still have some fight left. Pretty much any wrestler worthy of being mentioned on the Face page is going to be pretty good at this, though smaller babyfaces tend to excel at it.
• Fight off: When two wrestlers get into a fight by the ring and continue fighting until they reach the back. In the territory days, it was actually common for a babyface to do this to protect a heel from a hostile crowd.
• Figured in: To be part of a promoter and booker's long-term plans. Alternatively, to be getting paid very well by a promoter. Pretty much synonymous with a high degree of job security.
• Finish: A wrestler's Finishing Move. Traditionally, this was highly protected by a wrestler^note  usually by refusing to let someone kick out of it, refusing to let someone else on the card use the same move, or only using it in once in the finish of a match and sometimes by a booker/promoter. Sometimes called a finisher or simply finishing move.
• Finish, The: Part of what is considered the classic four-part match structure: The shine, the heat, the comeback, the finish. The finish is the end of the match, typically with one wrestler beating another, but there are other options like a double count out or no contest. A finish can be anything from a simple roll-up to an elaborate sequence carefully choreographed to drum up business to see the next event. Eddie Graham was famous for his elaborate finishes he’d make his wrestlers memorize and then call them out if they forgot one move.
• Finish Up: To prepare for a wrestler's departure by resolving anything that wrestler is involved in, such as alliances, feuds, or angles. Frequently involves the departing wrestler losing to a variety of people on the way out (see "Job Out" below).
• Fire: A babyface's ability to get the audience invested in them as a person, potentially including their mannerisms, look, and wrestling ability. Can also describe a comeback (see above). A babyface with poor fire will likely languish on the lower card or be turned heel.
• Flat: Either a finish that didn't get over with the fans or to beat or lose to someone clean in the middle of the ring.
• Flat Back Bump: To fall or land flat on the back, with arms and legs out wide and the chin tucked in, this spreads the impact of the fall over a wide area, while tucking the chin safeguards against head and neck injures. This is usually the first thing taught in wrestling schools and drilled into students with constant repetition, many wrestlers of the previous generation (and even a few of the current one) have talked about doing nothing but running the ropes and falling on their backs for the first few weeks or even months of their training.
• Foreign Excursion: A practice commonly associated with Japanese wrestling, where young wrestlers who have completed their basic training in their dojos are sent overseas, either to American or Mexican companies that have working relationships with the dojos, where they work regular shows and hone their craft before returning, usually getting promoted to the main roster and debuting under a new gimmick. This practice has been going on for decades, with Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki both going into the US as part of their early training.
• Foreign Object: Any type of weapon used on a wrestler. You’ve got your classics like chairs and tables, more personalized ones like sledgehammers and two by fours, and downright bizarre ones like cacti and kitchen sinks. Typically they’re only used in no disqualification matches, or in a heel spot, as a consistent rule disqualifies anyone who strikes their opponent with one. Jokingly referred to as International Objects in WCW (and occasionally even in the WWF by Jim Ross) due to Ted Turner's vocal belief that the word "foreign" was pejorative and to be avoided. ^note  The story goes that the original directive prohibiting foreign was meant to apply only to Turner’s news division, but WCW management either didn’t want to draw unwanted attention from corporate, or they did it as Biting-the-Hand Humor.
• Format: In the territorial days of wrestling, this was as close to a "script" as one would find. It simply listed the segments in order to give the announcers and production crew an idea of what was coming up (something every TV show does). Also called a "run sheet". Information was kept to a minimum to preserve kayfabe lest a fan or other outsider find one.^note Today formats actually are scripts, at least in WWE, with promos written out word for word. Formats are frequently leaked online, and usually mocked, but no one really cares because by that point the show has already happened. To give you an idea of how over-produced wrestling has become, formats in the Attitude Era were around 5 pages and before that maybe one sheet of a legal pad. In the 2020s they average around 40 pages.
• Freebird Rule: An unofficial "rule" allowing a stable with three or more members to challenge for and defend a tag team title with any two of its members. Named after The Fabulous Freebirds, who popularized this concept.
• Fuck Finish: Basically any finish that isn't considered a clear and decisive victory for one of the participants. Draws, countouts, disqualifications, the dreaded Dusty Finish (see above), manager interference, and getting the pin after the ref gets bumped and about 20 heels come down and beat up the babyface are all examples of fuck finishes. Contrast "Clean Finish" above. When done properly they help build (or extend the life of) an angle and draw more money in the long run, when done too often or when done at the wrong time (like in blowoff matches or at major events) fans start feeling like they're being ripped off and tune out. Too many of these finishes are believed to have not only killed off WCW, with the constant nWo beatdowns and the later constant convoluted finishes under the Russo regime, but also WCW's predecessor company Jim Crockett Promotions (again, see "Dusty Finish" above). In polite company the term "screwjob finish", which is closely related but not exactly the same thing^note A screwjob finish puts the heat on the heel, a fuck finish puts it on the promotion, will usually be used instead.
• Future Endeavored: Fired. Comes from WWE's standard message for announcing releases, in which the company without fail "wishes [wrestler] well in their future endeavors."^note When WWE doesn't do this, either by giving a very curtly worded press release (like "WWE has terminated [X]'s contract") or not saying anything publicly and just leaking it to the dirtsheets, it's a pretty sure sign the wrestler in question was canned for some sort of serious disciplinary issue, rather than cost cuts or "creative has nothing for you".
• Gaijin: A Japanese word for foreigner, any foreign wrestler who wrestles in Japan is a Gaijin. For the most part, these wrestlers were usually the heels heroic Japanese babyfaces had to overcome, which was a successful formula going back to the days of Rikidozan. Over time, foreign wrestlers gained the respect of the Japanese fans, which is why certain wrestlers, such as Terry Funk, became legends in the country. Note that most top stars in the old days had successful careers in Japan most non-Japanese fans wouldn’t know about. This has changed in recent decades with exclusive contracts often preventing American wrestlers from leaving for extended tours of Japan. Note that Gaijin can be considered impolite or offensive when used outside of wrestling, although it is still acceptable within puroresu, making this a bit of an Affectionate Nickname.
• Garbage wrestler: A common synonym for "hardcore" wrestling; a style based more on brawling, weapons, and highspots than traditional working styles.
  • It can be said that there's two grades of garbage wrestling. The first, generally referred to as "hardcore" or "extreme" wrestling involves lots of foreign object use (primarily chairs, tables, and ladders, WWE even has a show called Tables, Ladders, and Chairs) but these objects are usually gimmicked in some way, or worked with in the safest way possible (see "Plunder" below). Blood is often seen but only from the forehead via blading, fire and barbed wire is used sparingly. Stunts such as jumping off a high place onto an opponent laying prone on a table are commonplace. This style was popularized by ECW^note Though it traces its roots back to the Memphis territory, and was heavily influenced by both Japanese promotion FMW and the wild bloody brawls of Puerto Rican promotions like WWC and was heavily featured in the WWE during the Attitude Era and the Ruthless Aggression Era, today it is prevalent across all North American promotions.
  • The second type of garbage wrestling is what's known as "deathmatch" or "Ultraviolent" wrestling, which is like if someone read the above paragraph and said "Okay, but how can we make it really unsafe?" Window panes, fluorescent light tubes, explosives, power tools, and liberal use of barbed wire and fire are the hallmarks of deathmatch wrestling. These matches tend to be incredibly bloody thanks to the participants getting cut to shreds on real broken glass and razor wire because there's no real "working" involved, it's just people willingly and intentionally inflicting injuries on themselves and each other. Unlike the hardcore wrestling above deathmatch wrestling is mostly relegated to the VFW halls and Juggalo gatherings, though it's a bit more popular in Japan, remaining currently strong in the independent circuit. Deathmatch wrestling is absolutely despised by many in the wrestling business (WWE refuses to even acknowledge it exists) because it takes no actual talent and it casts the entire business in a very bad light.^note Jim Cornette is probably the most vocal critic of this type of "wrestling" and rightly so, as deathmatch promotion IWA-Mid South went so far overboard with it that they nearly got pro wrestling banned entirely in Cornette's home state of Kentucky, which caused a ton of hassles when he owned Ohio Valley Wrestling (which at the time was WWE's developmental promotion). Even to this day Kentucky is second only to New York in having the strictest athletic commission with regards to wrestling, and a handful of states (Maryland in particular, as evidenced by them slapping AEW with a $10,000 fine after Kenny Omega used a barbed wire broom in a match with Jon Moxley, along with a warning that any further trouble would lead to their show getting shut down and their promoter's license revoked) have rules in place that act as a de facto ban of this sort of "blood and guts" wrestling.
  • To sum it up, if two wrestlers are having a match that's dangerous, but if everyone behaves like a professional and everything goes as it should then everyone goes home with nothing more than a few bumps and bruises, that's a hardcore match. If a trip to the emergency room is a certainty even if everything goes exactly to plan, that's deathmatch wrestling.
• Gas:
  • Euphemistic slang for steroids used almost exclusively in wrestling. Ex: "Lex Luger was on the gas." Also called "supplements" and "vitamins". The latter is borrowed from Hulk Hogan's catchphrase, "Train hard, say your prayers, take your vitamins," since Hogan admitted under oath in 1994 that his massive physique had been partially built with steroids.
  • Nowadays, this is more often used to refer to a wrestler's stamina and state during a match; one who is exhausted or blown up is said to be "gassed" or "out of gas".
• Gate: The money collected in ticket sales for a show. During the territory days (and today with some smaller promotions) wrestlers were paid a percentage of the gate, meaning more fans equaled better payoffs^note Of course what the promoter said the gate was and what the gate actually was were often two different amounts. This skimming was done more to screw the IRS and the state athletic commissions (who usually got a 10% cut) rather than the boys, though some promoters were known for going a bit overboard with it, though today television rights fees are the main source of revenue and wrestlers are on fixed contracts. Shows like WrestleMania and the NJPW Tokyo Dome shows can draw gates in the 8 figures, while WCW's Road Wild pay-per-views and Bash at the Beach 1995 drew a $0 gate because they were held at the Sturgis motorcycle rally and an actual beach in Southern California, respectively, free for whoever wanted to show up.
• Get (My/Their) Shit In: A derogatory expression to describe a certain mentality wherein a wrestler has to get their repertoire of moves or gimmick in before the match concludes (and sometimes even after), regardless of whether the wrestler is going over or if it makes sense in Wrestling Psychology. This mentality can get serious heat with wrestlers and the audience if the "shit" in question comes at the expense of the match, believability, or safety of the other wrestlers. Wrestlers who want to get their shit in are often (but not always) Spot Monkeys.
• Gig marks: Deep scars on the forehead that stem from a wrestler blading too often in his career. Abdullah the Butcher was infamous for these ^note  To the point that he used to put items in his scars, but most wrestlers who were on top for a long period of time before the '90s would have them to some extent. They became less common among North American wrestlers during the '90s due to TV networks cracking down on the amount of blood and violence in wrestling, and WWE banning blading outright at various points in its history.
• Gimmick:
  • A character portrayed by a professional wrestler. This includes the character's moves, mannerisms, appearance, entrance music and promo style. Many wrestlers have several gimmicks throughout their careers until, if they're lucky, they find one that resonates and they stick with it through their career.
  • Also can refer to merchandise; often in the context of (in an independent promotion) merchandise directly sold by the wrestler or someone in his employ. "Gimmick table" refers to the merchandise stand (not to be confused with gimmicked table, that's the next entry.)
  • Can also, as a verb, be used in the context of altering a prop for visual effect. For example, gimmicking a table consists of sawing partially through it on the underside for a better breakage.^note Pre-cutting tables will often result in the table breaking before it's supposed to, which not only ruins the spot but also looks really fake. The proper way to gimmick a table is to simply remove the metal bracing from the underside, then do the spot with wrestlers that are actually big enough to break it. The custom WWE commentary tables are specifically designed to collapse in on themselves to make the bump as safe as possible (provided the monitors are removed), and helped along by removing most of the pins that hold the table together.
  • Can also be used to describe an object that a wrestler always carries with him (or has someone else carry for them) like The Undertaker's urn or Sting's black baseball bat.
• Gimmick Match: Basically any match that's not a standard one-on-one singles or two-on-two tag match with all basic rules being enforced (and some would even consider tag team matches to be gimmick matches.) At one point these were mainly done on pay-per-views or other shows meant to draw a bigger than normal crowd, and were always the main event, but the overuse of them starting in the Attitude Era (particularly in ECW^note Which basically had no rules outside of that a pinfall or submission would end the match, in other words nearly every match in ECW was a gimmick match. As Lance Storm put it, "ECW let us break all the rules. It also taught us why those rules existed in the first place") has severely reduced their drawing power. Cage matches, ladder matches, any sort of Garbage Wrestling, and the Royal Rumble are some examples. A pretty extensive list can be found here, and another one here.
• Give: To allow a lower-card or new wrestler more offense than one would expect given the gap in status between the wrestlers. Established wrestlers typically did this because they liked the new wrestler or saw potential in their future, but it was also sometimes done as a favor. Ex: "Terry Funk gave Eddie Guerrero a lot of offense because Terry was trying to help Eddie get a spot in WCW."
• Glom: A sneak attack from behind outside of a match. Usually refers to a heel or group of heels jumping a babyface backstage, if it happens in the ring it will often be called getting "Pearl Harbored".
• Go/Going Home: Enter the final sequence of the match (comeback or finish). Typically refers to being called as an audible, for an injury, a missed time cue, because the handful of muscle relaxers you took before the match just kicked in, or other sudden reason.
• Go-home show: A promotion's last televised show before a pay-per-view event. Promotions will typically not run house shows in the days immediately before a PPV, allowing the wrestlers to literally go home and rest up for the PPV. Usually consists of lots of talking and video packages but very little in-ring action, as no one wants to get injured a couple days before a big payoff. Contrast "Fallout Show", the first TV show after a PPV.
• Go/Going Over: To win a professional wrestling match. The opposite is to "put" someone over (see: Job).
• Go/Going Out On Their Back: A leaving or retiring wrestler losing their final match in the company (i.e. getting pinned while lying "on their back"). In pro-wrestling tradition (at least in North America), it is considered courteous to do this, especially to put over another, often younger wrestler who can use the win to build credibility.
• Going into Business (for Themselves):
  • A wrestler who, for real, decides to ignore the script or refuses to cooperate with their opponent and does their own thing (e.g. leaving a match halfway, intentionally hurting another wrestler, referee, or even a fan without provocation, performing a dangerous spot without conferring with their partner). This is regarded as the highest form of unprofessionalism in wrestling, as wrestlers need to be able to trust each other to be able to work together and protect each other. Wrestlers who go into business for themselves are often quickly, sometimes permanently ostracized by the industry.
  • "Going into business for yourself" can also refer to wrestlers airing real life grievances or otherwise going "off script" during promos, while this isn't quite as serious as doing it during a match it can still lead to backstage fights^note Like the AEW All Out 2022 fiasco, detailed over on the Troubled Production page and people being told they can go cut their shoot promos somewhere else from now on.^note Like Ric Flair, who was WCW's booker at the time, shitcanning Paul Heyman after Heyman cut a Worked Shoot promo (back before the "worked shoot" was even a thing) without authorization. Heyman would play the "My dad's a lawyer" card and was promptly re-hired.
• Going wide: Using the fixed-angle wide camera with no zoom for an extended period during a match. This is commonly due to an accidental cut or a wardrobe malfunction.
• Gold: See belt; specifically refers to a championship belt.
• Good hand: A wrestler regarded as skilled by other wrestlers. This isn't a synonym for "worker," as the emphasis isn't on action, but rather for being easy for other wrestlers to work with. This involves things such as not being too stiff, being in the right place for spots, and providing the right amount of assistance to the other wrestler. A particularly good hand can be referred to as a "night off." Can also be a form of damning with faint praise, as while other wrestlers may enjoy working with a good hand, a good hand may not have the necessary charisma or ringwork to be a star.
• Gorilla position: The area backstage immediately before the entrance ramp, or the senior agent placed there. The agent is responsible for cueing entrance music, and sending wrestlers out at the appropriate time, as well as ensuring they have any necessary props (weapons, championship belts, etc.) before hitting the ring. Named after the late Gorilla Monsoon, who fulfilled this role at many WWF TV tapings. Since communications technology was not readily available back then, the position also allowed Monsoon to signal the referees to wrap up a match by waggling his glasses. WCW called it the "Jody position", after Jody Hamilton, who often served in this role at its tapings; AEW calls it the "Dusty position" after Dusty Rhodes, late father of company cofounder Cody Rhodes.
• Goozle: To choke, grab, or attack another wrestler by the neck. Sometimes the setup to the chokeslam.
• Guarantee: Sometimes called a downside guarantee, this is the amount of money a wrestler or other talent has been promised by the promoter for a single appearance (or an entire year if signed to a contract), regardless of the amount of money the promoter actually makes. Downside guarantees have existed in wrestling since at least the 1980s, but in those days most wrestlers made more than their minimums because the minimums were deliberately low, thus incentivizing wrestlers to draw as many fans as possible to get paid on the houses. Nowadays, the guarantee is probably the amount the talent is going to make due the changes in wrestling pay structure. Note that many old-timers, such as Jim Cornette and Bill Watts, consider the modern guarantee the "death" of the wrestling business because it took away the incentive for a wrestler to care how well their promotion is doing financially, thereby reducing the importance of drawing money, getting over, working with people you don't like, etc.
• Gusher: A deep cut which bleeds heavily. Typically caused by botching a bladejob and cutting too deep, though it may be purposefully performed. A famous example would be Eddie Guerrero's bladejob at Judgement Day in 2004, which left the ring drenched in blood after he accidentally hit a blood vessel. Contrast "Pap Smear" below, which is when a wrestler goes the other way and doesn't cut deep enough.
• Guzzle: To completely dominate a match at the other wrestler's expense.
• Grab a Hold: An instruction used to get a match back on track if there's been a mistiming, botch, or a miscommunication. Grabbing a submission hold settles things down and gives both competitors time to get on the same page again and plan their next move.
• Green: Inexperienced, a rookie wrestler. Short for "greenhorn" and not exclusive to wrestling; it's a common term in many blue-collar jobs.
• Hanger On: Someone not in the wrestling business who tries to get in it by hanging around the arenas and offering to do side jobs, such as sell programs or set up the ring. Jim Cornette, Bobby Eaton, Paul Heyman, and Bobby Heenan all got their starts this way.
• Hardcam/Hardcamera: A fixed camera, typically positioned in the audience seats so that it can look down and capture the whole ring. Not only is this the most common view for home audiences, when wrestlers are delivering promos, they will often look directly at the hardcam. Floor cameras will generally be positioned on the same side of the ring as the hard camera, maintaining a consistent field of vision. Hardcams are also useful because a show can disguise an empty arena by having the live audience seated opposite the hardcam.
• Hardcore: A wrestling style emphasising brawling, the use of weapons (improvised or otherwise), and violence. See also garbage wrestling, a common synonym.
• Hardway: Drawing blood legitimately, without the use of a blade, either intentionally or by accident. When someone bleeds the "hardway" they typically had a cut or gash inflicted by a strike or a weapon and split open. Sometimes done intentionally, more often than not a mistake. Also used as a verb, to "hardway" someone is to strike them and draw blood. Brock Lesnar's forearm strike that split open Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 34 is a good example of someone being busted open hardway.^note It's also a good example of why wrestlers use the blade, as both Reigns and Randy Orton ended up concussed in the process of being intentionally hardway'd thanks to WWE's strict "No blading" (but not "No blood") policy. The hardway was considered to be "good for the business" back in the day because many felt it made professional wrestling look legitimate.
• Head drop: A move's receiver landing on top of their head, either due to a botch or on purpose; often results in a legit concussion or neck injury. While a number of finishers do this deliberately - such as the famous Burning Hammer - the extreme, inherent danger of such moves means they're very rarely brought out.
• Heat: Heat can simply refer to a wrestler's ability to get a reaction from the fans. However, heat is usually used to describe the ability of a Heel (see below) to make the crowd hate him or her, with other kinds of heat being given other names. This is not a bad thing. Far from it. The more heat a heel has, the more the fans dislike them and want to see the babyface beat them, and is basically how the heel draws money.
  • Babyface heat refers to a babyface's ability to get people to like them and react loudly to them.
  • Backstage heat refers to legitimate anger between two pro wrestlers, or between any of the myriad backstage personalities, performers, and executives behind the show (the last one will often be called "heat with the office"). This can lead to fights, disciplinary action such as de-pushes, suspensions, or even to people getting fired if the issue is detrimental enough.
  • A variant of Backstage Heat is Locker Room Heat, where wrestlers are unpopular with some or all of the other wrestlers in a promotion, but typically for things that wouldn't warrant disciplinary action (see The Miz being hazed in his rookie year for being a 'reality star' rather than a legitimate wrestler). In the past wrestlers with locker room heat would often be hauled in front of "Wrestler's Court", see below.
  • Canned heat is pre-recorded crowd noise edited into broadcasts or played over speakers.
  • Bad heat, sometimes referred to euphemistically as the wrong kind of heat, is when a match outcome or a character so offends the paying audience that they are effectively booing the product rather than the heel. This is exceptionally dangerous, as it can be mistaken for legitimate heel heat, and potentially damage a market if that heel returns in a leading role. For example, in the mid-90s when the Gangstas (a group of black wrestlers) debuted in Smoky Mountain Wrestling (a southern promotion with mostly white audiences), their racially charged promos drew loud boos, leading the promotion to think they were getting over as heels, but effectively killed live attendance in return meetings. If it gets really bad, sometimes to the point where the entire venue is about to riot and assault the wrestlers (see, again, the Gangstas), it's called Nuclear Heat.
  • A variant to bad heat that is so prevalent it has its own category is go-away heat, more famously known as X-Pac Heat, which is when a crowd legitimately hates a person on a wrestling show as opposed to hating the character a wrestler performs as and how it is presented in the context of the angle or match. This can happen for a variety of reasons:
    • Overexposure - this was how X-Pac became the Trope Namer, by regularly winning midcard and upper midcard matches against more interesting opponents without actually doing anything or evolving, despite being a talented performer.
    • A gap between push and the fans' perceived level of a wrestler's performance or entertainment value - this is the problem Roman Reigns faced for many years.
    • Involvement in hated storylines or matches. Sheamus spent most of the 2010s as one of the most despised men in wrestling thanks to being on the winning end of the "18 seconds" fiasco with Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania XXVIII, and there's still fans that will dive for the remote any time they see Seth Rollins because he was a featured player in the universally hated Authority angle as the most prominent of the three major heels used as their champions. It should be pointed out that both of these men were just doing what their booker told them to do.
    • A real-life incident causing the fans to choose a side and rally against the wrestler they think was wronged, such as the case when Lita cheated on Matt Hardy with Edge and the fans turned on Lita and Edge. Edge managed to turn this heat to his advantage to become a top-line star, while Lita's career tanked as a result of it.
    • Having matches that end with a predictable and repetitive finish, particularly if the finish is a screwjob.
  • Having no heat, as in getting no reaction from the fans at all, is the kiss of death in wrestling. Wrestlers that get silence from crowds are usually quickly repackaged or told that their services are no longer required.
  • Silent Heat, while not seen much these days, is the most dangerous form of heat. If a wrestler is getting heat on a babyface and the crowd goes from angry and making noise to silent, it means the fans are no longer interested in seeing the babyface overcome the heel and are instead looking for a way to reach the heel or searching for weapons to attack the heel with. It's the moment the crowd goes from "I want to see my favorite wrestler get that monster" to "Where's a brick? I'm going to bash his head in myself." John "Bradshaw" Layfield once experienced this when he wrestled Eddie Guerrero in Eddie's hometown of El Paso. As JBL went after Eddie's mom, the crowd went silent. Eddie told him to "get the fuck out of here," and JBL was quickly escorted out of the building and El Paso.
    • A much less dangerous form of silent heat can be called "That has no place on a wrestling show" heat, the most famous example being the (in)famous crucifixion angle in ECW. As Stevie Richards put it, "They didn't cheer, they didn't boo, they were just... silent." While this won't result in potential violence it's still very bad for business and can result in promising rookie wrestlers refusing to work for you.
• Heat machine: Recorded crowd noise (cheers, boos, or chants for particular wrestlers) piped into the arena's PA system, used to encourage similar reactions among the live attendants. Can also refer to similar effects added in post-production. Can often become a thing of derision; such as when at one WCW PPV, referees were attempting to clean debris from the ring with loud cheers occurring at regular intervals. Largely a thing of the past. Or at least it was until the COVID-19 Pandemic, when WWE was forced to run shows with no fans. In their defense the heat machine was also being used in regular sports around this time, for example the NFL (also running with no fans) was piping in the crowd noise from the Madden NFL series during games.
• Heat Magnet: A heel known for their ability to generate intense animosity from the fans. It can also be used in a shoot context to describe someone within the wrestling industry known for causing trouble and getting themselves significant backstage heat, or someone who gets a lot of backstage heat because of their public perception, whether it is deserved or not.
• Heat, The: Not to be confused with Heat, but related to it. The Heat is part of what is considered the classic four-part match structure: The shine, the heat, the comeback, the finish. The heat is the part of the match where the heel cheats to gain an advantage.
• Heel: The "bad guy" or "villain" in a professional wrestling match or angle.
• Heel–Face Turn: When a bad guy (heel) wrestler switches sides and becomes a good guy (babyface).
• Heel program: When two heels feud with each other. Generally discouraged, especially in the old days, because the fans have no one to get behind, which is an important element of Wrestling Psychology. Sometimes done to set up a Heel–Face Turn. Compare Evil Versus Evil. The term is used more to describe a business/creative dispute where everyone involved comes out of it looking pretty lousy (the Montreal Screwjob would be cited as an example by many) rather than anything seen on camera.
• Hey rube: A brawl. The term is antiquated but comes from the carny days when a wrestler or someone else involved in the carnival would get in a brawl with a mark and yell "hey rube" as a signal to others that they were brawling with a "rube" or mark.
• Highspot: Either a sequence of spots, a high risk move (legitimately and in Kayfabe), or a moment in a match where the crowd's reaction reaches its peak.
• Hijack: When the crowd turns on the show and begins chanting for their favorite wrestler(s), other promotions, or just stops reacting to the show as the booker intends generally. A relatively recent phenomenon,^note Though this can once again be traced back to ECW and the promotion's Smart Mark fans, who would come up with (often quite clever) crowd chants just to be part of the show. This eventually carried over to the bigger promotions, especially once the ECW guys started appearing in WWE. Probably the earliest example of it going from just having fun to hijacking was the infamous Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar match at WrestleMania XX, where everyone in the crowd knew both guys were leaving and completely shit all over the match, the match itself being terrible (to the point that guest referee "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was getting visibly irritated at the glacial pace of the match) really didn't help matters this is usually done due to bad booking or a wrestler the crowd hates getting an underserved push. An early example began around 2014 when Batista returned for a brief run and won the Royal Rumble over crowd favorite Daniel Bryan, who wasn't even in the match. The fans booed and subsequent crowds wouldn't let up, so the company finally relented and put Bryan in the main event of WrestleMania XXX. CM Punk departed the company around the same time, which led to fans hijacking shows for months afterward with random "CM Punk" chants breaking out in response to bad booking or even sometimes just boredom. Hijacking can be looked down upon, especially among people in the business, who sometimes accuse the crowd of trying to get themselves over at the cost of the show's quality.
• Hold Up: When a talent threatens to no show (see below) an advertised match unless the promoter agrees to pay a significant amount of money or agrees to some other condition. Jeff Jarrett famously did this when he refused to lose the WWF Intercontinental Championship to Chyna without receiving a six-figure guarantee (in Jarrett's defense his contract expired the day before and he wasn't under any legal obligation to do the match at all.) Jarett got his money but also ended up being blackballed from the company for nearly twenty years, which led to the creation of TNA.
• Homesteader: Used in the territory days to describe a wrestler who never left a particular territory. Since most wrestlers cycled through the territories at some point in their careers, a homesteader was usually a wrestler who could only work in a specific territory due to their history and relationship with the promotion's fans that would be hard to recreate anywhere else. Sometimes this resulted out of loyalty, steady use, or great pay. The closest modern equivalent would probably be The Undertaker since he remained with WWE for thirty years and obviously couldn't take the gimmick with him had he left.
• Hooker: An archaic term, and the title of early NWA champion Lou Thesz's autobiography. What shooters are to performing wrestlers, hookers were to shooters; not only could they wrestle, but they knew how to hurt or maim someone.
  • The term's meaning changes with the times. Before the National Wrestling Alliance and for sometime afterwards, all champions such as Thesz would be hookers, in case someone tried to go into business for themselves. As the NWA territories became established so did the "hooking" practice of baiting fans into lasting a certain amount of time in the ring with a wrestler for a cash prize. In this case the "hooker" would know at least one hold that could quickly subdue an unexpectedly tough challenger, to prevent the promoter from having to pay up while also having the theatrical skills to let the suckers think they stood a chance. Hooking more or less died with the territories, for obvious legal reasons, ^note  Even in the dying days of hooking, lawsuits occasionally happened and many promoters banned the practice but a similar concept is still occasionally used, albeit with plants and not real fans. With the collapse of the territories, hooker tends to refer to someone a promoter or booker puts someone they don't like in a match with specifically to get them hurt (see policeman below).
  • British wrestlers often used the similar term "ripper", which not only connoted an ability to harm opponents in the ring, but also a legitimate mean streak and willingness to hurt others. Arguably the most famous "ripper" would be AWA wrestler Billy Robinson.
• Hope Spot: Often used in a Face-In-Peril situation, this teases the Ricky Morton's attempt to get the hot tag and let his partner take over to kick ass, only for the attempt to be quashed by the heel team.
• Hoss: A large wrestler with a well-built body, but often with little technical wrestling ability, sluggish in-ring style and sometimes not much charisma. Can be used as both a positive and a negative term.
• Hot: Whether a promotion is popular with the audience, consistently draws large crowds, sells merchandise, gets wrestlers over, etc. It's often been said that a hot promotion can almost do nothing wrong, while a cold promotion can do almost nothing to get hot again. If the term is applied to a wrestler or tag team, it is synonymous with over. Because many consider the wrestling business to be cyclical, the entire business can be described as hot if every major promoter is doing well or cold if everyone is losing money. One of the most prominent “cold” eras was the mid-90s. Due to a series of scandals and roster changes, even the WWF lost money in the mid 90s.
• Hot shotting: Effectively, running the promotion in fast forward with rapid-fire can't miss angles, title changes, heel/face turns. While this can quickly burn out a booker, talent base, and paying audience, sometimes it's regarded as a necessary risk in order to build fan interest.
  • It can also refer to booking that is built at the spur of the moment and without a long-term plan. This can often lead to matches or angles that are developed out of nowhere and end just as quickly, leading to wrestlers who don't gain sustained pushes or satisfying payoffs (see Kofi Kingston's sudden push to the WWE Championship, and just as sudden loss).
  • Note that hot shot booking may not necessarily be bad. A wrestler may get injured or fall ill and derail an ongoing angle, perhaps even at the last minute before a show or pay-per-view, and something needs to be done to replace said wrestler.
  • Hot shotting was considered downright necessary in the territories if business fell in the toilet. A good booker, however, knew when to pull back so the hot shotting didn't burn out the fans and kill the territory's towns. Promoters also sometimes hot shotted to get a territory hot to sell it. This unscrupulous practice was done to make a territory look more profitable than it actually was and left the buyer holding the bag. The most unethical promoters would even buy the territory back at a reduced rate and then start the process again to sell it to yet another victim.
• Hot tag: The key moment in a tag team match. Typically, the heel team will isolate one wrestler from his partner, and then wear him out for an extended period of time. When the wrestler tags his fresh partner, typically this is the comeback for the babyface team.
  • A Cold tag or "iceberg tag" is when the crowd doesn't react to a "hot" tag because the heat hasn't been properly built up, or because the babyface doesn't know how to properly make a comeback. This will kill a tag match dead in its tracks and is a sign of a lack of training and/or poor agenting.
• House: The paid live attendance for an event. As wrestlers have almost always been paid a percentage of the gate receipts, the term carries significant usage.
• House show: A live event not aired for television. House shows were once the bread and butter for wrestling promotions, with TV acting as a loss leader and advertising medium. Nowadays, they take a back seat to pay-per-views and television revenue.
• Hulking Up: The exaggerated movements, no-selling, and expressions associated with a wrestler's comeback. Although it's associated with Hulk Hogan, many other wrestlers, such as Jerry Lawler, have had similar routines.
• Independent: Historically referred to wrestling promotions that weren't N.W.A members, but weren't considered "outlaw promotions" (see below) because they weren't encroaching on any NWA territory. Examples include the WWF, the AWA (both of whom were NWA members at one point), and Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling. Today independent, or "indies", refers to smaller promotions that for financial reasons are limited to a small geographic area and usually don't have any sort of TV deal.^note Exactly what is and isn't a "indie" can be somewhat debatable, Ring of Honor was considered one despite being owned by a billion dollar broadcast conglomerate and having a syndicated TV deal on the back of that; conversely, when ECW was in the same position as ROH in the late 90s, they were considered a national or even worldwide promotion even though they checked all the indie boxes — such as limited geographic reach and TV availability, and non-existent-to-small-at-best profits — outside of being on PPV. Most current wrestlers begin their career in one of these promotions.
• Insurance Policy: A wrestler or valet who serves a heel or faction to fulfil a specific purpose, or otherwise achieve a certain target. Big Show served as The Corporation's policy during the St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House PPV, being brought in to prevent Steve Austen from winning the match.
• Interference: Someone who isn't part of or involved in a match getting involved; typically this means distracting or attacking one of the participants, or the referee. Sometimes overlaps with a run-in, as demonstrated by the tendency of New World Order matches to end with a dozen heels appearing to beat the face down near the match's end. Other times, however, the interference may come from someone who is present at ringside during the match, such as a manager.
• Invasion: An angle where a promotion is "invaded" by wrestlers from another promotion. The best known is The InVasion Angle where the WWF was invaded by WCW and ECW after the two had been bought out by WWF in real life, but other such angles exist - either where one company has been bought out by another, or where both companies are still operating independently (such as the Ring of Honor vs Combat Zone Wrestling feud). The New World Order angle was an attempt to convince fans that the WWF was invading WCW, but Vince's lawyers quickly stepped in and both Scott Hall and Kevin Nash had to state on camera that they were no longer WWF employees.^note The famed interview that ends with Nash powerbombing Eric Bischoff through part of the stage at the 1996 Great American Bash begins with Bischoff asking Hall and Nash point-blank if they work for the WWF, and both simply answering "No".
• IWC: Internet Wrestling Community, the various websites, discussion boards, etc., where fans discuss wrestling. Exclusively the domain of (and pretty much synonymous with) the Smart Mark, see below.
• Japan tour: Professional wrestling in Japan doesn't run a consistent house show circuit, but rather "tours" of specific length, typically starting and ending in Tokyo. This allows for extended rest periods between tours for talent, shared travel and room accommodations, and allows rotation of talent between specific tours. Thus, many Western professional wrestlers will have made one or more of these tours, even if they don't otherwise work in Japan.
• Jerk The Curtain: To wrestle the first match of the card; wrestlers commonly booked in this manner are sometimes called "curtain jerkers." Largely archaic since most shows today open with a strong match to get the crowd invested early (in other words being in the opening match is no longer considered demeaning), though wrestling on the pre-show could be considered the modern equivalent.
• Job: A loss in a wrestling match. The act of losing can be referred to as "jobbing", "to do/doing the job", "doing the honors", "doing the favors" or "putting someone over".
• Jobber: Also referred to as "job guy", "carpenter", "enhancement talent", and "ham and egger" ^note  The amount of money they make being the equivalent of a plate of ham and eggs this is a pro wrestler whose primary purpose is to lose matches. These performers are important, as they are needed to build up new stars by giving them ring experience and someone to win matches against. Oftentimes Jobbers are some of the more experienced wrestlers in a promotion and work with young talent, sort of on the job training. The Brooklyn Brawler served in this role for a long time in WWE, and is still a trainer and agent behind the scenes. Although the term carries negative connotations today, professional jobbers were often highly respected within the industry. The term carpenter came from the expression "They can't draw you a house, but they can build one," emphasizing their importance in helping get other wrestlers over. Jobbers with unique skills, such as taking a specific bump or voluntarily dislocating the shoulder, were highly sought after and traveled from territory to territory to help get a wrestler or move over.
• Jobber to the Stars: Can mean two different things depending on who's using it.
  • Historically, it was used to refer to wrestlers who were so low on the totem pole they didn't always make it onto the shows, but who were still a step above the generic doughy no-entrance no-gimmick full jobbers. Unlike a normal jobber, who strictly worked television tapings, a jobber to the stars would work underneath on house show tours. They were usually given at least a little bit of time to shine in their matches, and might occasionally win matches against full jobbers or each other. The position was often given to young wrestlers seen as potential future superstars who needed more experience, and to veterans who the company didn't want to push anymore but who were valuable for their ability to make their opponents look good. The vast majority of jobbers to the stars would be considered babyfaces, as they would be used to build up the heel side of the roster in preparation for matches with higher-up babyfaces. Well known jobbers to the stars include Special Delivery Jones, Barry Horowitz, and The Gambler. This usage is falling off as the role itself isn't used much anymore, but as of 2021 AEW has a great example of one in Serpentico.
  • In more modern times, it's used to refer to wrestlers who always seem to be in or near the main event scene, but can't ever quite seem to win the big one. They may even be given a 'transitional' title reign, but in the long run they'll always come out looking inferior to the true superstars (The Rock, John Cena, etc...). Kane is a great example.
• Job Face: When a wrestler though facial expressions and body language makes it clear to the fans (prior to the finish) that they are not happy with the booking of their match. Considered very unprofessional, as no one wants to see the outcome spoiled during the entrances. Randy Orton and Sasha Banks have built a reputation for this (perhaps unfairly, as having a surly attitude would play into their respective characters), and there's been cases of John Cena having a major case of job face in matches that he was winning, as even he started to realize that his never-ending push was beginning to damage his standing with the fans.
• Job out: To lose a series of matches when on your way out of a company. Called the "time honored tradition" by Vince McMahon during the famous "Bret screwed Bret" interview. As there's really no point in investing time and resources in a wrestler that's leaving by pushing them the only sensible thing to do is use them to help get other talent over. Depending on the acrimony of the promoter-wrestler divorce these can range from simple clean losses in competitive matches to outright burials.
  • "Job(bed) out" can also refer to a wrestler losing most (or all) of his matches as punishment for some sort of infraction. Triple H's burial in 1996 as punishment for the "Curtain Call" incident is the most widely known example of this.
• Joshi puroresu (or simply joshi): Japanese women's wrestling. Japan differs from most of the rest of the world in that women traditionally work in separate promotions from men, although joshi promotions semi-regularly cooperate with their men's counterparts.^note Bushiroad, which has been the principal owner of NJPW since 2012, took said cooperation to the logical extreme by purchasing Stardom in 2019.
• Juice: Typically synonymous was blood, i.e. getting juice, but it can also allude to steroids, especially when prefixed with "the." (E.x.: "New Jack had a reputation for getting juice in matches" vs. "Scott Steiner was on the juice during much of his WCW run.")
• Kayfabe: The art of presenting professional wrestling as a legitimate athletic competition. Up until the 1980's kayfabe was kept at all times; wrestlers never appeared out of character or acknowledged their lives outside of the ring, and breaking kayfabe was punishable by anything from ostracization by other wrestlers to firing and blackballing from the industry. These days kayfabe refers more to the in-world context of specific parts of wrestling performance, e.g. someone suffering a "kayfabe" injured shoulder doesn't actually have an injured shoulder, they are pretending to for the purposes of a story line.
• Kick Out: To escape a pin by force, typically by kicking up the legs to lift one's shoulders off the mat (thereby breaking the pin.) Matches will usually feature several spots of a wrestler being hit with a move and pinned, only to kick out before the referee can perform a full count.
• Killing a town: An action or inaction that severely damages the houses in a particular town. This can include exposing the business in that town, poor booking, or a popular wrestler leaving. Note that some wrestlers used to kill a town on purpose, especially smaller towns, because they no longer wanted to work there. Can be instantaneous or stem from years of bad decisions. Ex: "The Sheik killed Detroit by staying on top for twenty years and refusing to do jobs."^note And getting himself banned from every TV station in the Midwest on account of going overboard with the garbage wrestling. A town or territory that had been killed off was referred to as having "gone dark". This can also happen due to events outside a promoter's control, New York went dark in the late 1930s after someone stooged to a newspaper and exposed the business, and didn't make a comeback until the elder Vince McMahon started running there in the 1960s.
• King's Road: A style of Japanese pro-wrestling that emerged from AJPW in the 90s. It took the in-ring fantastical storytelling of American pro-wrestling, and stripped it of all gimmicks, feuds, or angles, as well as elements such as blading and submission holds being discarded. Matches could only be won by pinfall, and the narratives typically involved sport-like 'fighting spirit' and surpassing one's limits. Unfortunately, this translated to an escalation of dangerous stunts to increasingly raise the stakes, with wrestlers constantly resorting to using moves that dropped their opponents on their heads and necks. After Mitsuharu Misawa, one of Japan's biggest wrestling stars, died in the ring likely due to prolonged use of this style, it has since been largely phased out. See also 'Strong Style', the competing style of Japanese wrestling at the time and has had greater longevity.
• Laying It In: To work stiff (see below) but still safely for the sake of realism. During pay-per-views or other big matches some wrestlers will put a little more bite on their strikes and a little more oomph into their bumps to make it look good, though doing this without the consent of the opponent or when it's not really warranted (like random TV matches or matches with spots so obviously fake that there's no point in making any of it look real) is considered unprofessional.
• Leader: The wrestler calling the match. Alternatively, an experienced veteran within a match. A match between two inexperienced wrestlers, which is very much discouraged, is said to have had no leader.
• Legit:
  • A synonym for shoot. Anything in or around wrestling that is real and not part of the show. "legit injury, legit firing, and legit retirement" are a few examples.
  • Alternatively, a wrestling with a genuine, non-kayfabe background in a combat sport or proven fighting skills.
• Light: Essentially, the opposite of stiff. A move that doesn't hit hard. Can be a negative quality in a wrestler though if the lightness makes the move look fake.
• Live-to-tape: For a TV production that isn't filmed all the way live, live-to-tape recording means that the show is recorded ahead of time, but it is recorded in order and with gaps for commercial breaks; the live audience is effectively seeing the same show that will air on TV later. The alternative is a "clip show."
• Loaded: An item (or a body part) that is said in Kayfabe to have a hidden weapon, which the heel can hit the babyface with to gain an unfair advantage. Many wrestlers in the old days used loaded weapons as part of their gimmick, while some even "loaded" shoes or other worn items. The heel would often make an exaggerated gesture as if they were "loading" the weapon from its hiding place, which would make the crowd furious. Note that since the death of Kayfabe, loading a weapon doesn't draw genuine heat anymore and is rarely presented straight nowadays.
• Locker room leader: A highly respected veteran, typically a main eventer, who holds enormous influence over the other boys in the locker room. Younger wrestlers often seek out a leader for advice regarding their careers or even general life advice. The Undertaker is the classic example for the WWE, to the point that Triple H, who was a veteran himself at that point, actually sought the Undertaker’s advice when he started dating Stephanie McMahon in real life.
• Locker room sellout: A match that the wrestlers themselves want to see and watch from the back, either because they know it's going to be great, terrible, or real life heat exists between the competitors. This is also known as "selling out the curtain".
• Lock up: Sometimes referred to as 'linking up'; refers to a portion at the start of the match where the wrestlers start to grapple with each other.
• Long Count: The opposite of a fast count, in which a referee takes significantly longer to perform a count for a pinfall. Typically done by a heel referee or as a way to screw over a face. Special guest referees, heel or face, typically do this because they’re feuding with the person in the match.
• Loose or Light: Opposite of "snug" or "stiff", a wrestler that doesn't hit with any force and doesn't crank down on holds. Appreciated by the opponent unless it looks really fake, which it usually does. Most of the Rock n' Wrestling Era guys (Hogan, Savage, Warrior) were pretty loose workers. ^note  Likely due to the fact that '80s WWF had a brutal road schedule, running multiple shows a night and some wrestlers working hundreds of times a year. Sid, despite his reputation as being difficult to work with, has been said to actually work very light and safe.
• Main event: The primary ticket or PPV-selling match of a wrestling card. Often the last match of the card; WWWF/WWF/WWE house shows have historically put the main event before the intermission, giving the top wrestlers a chance to get out of the building without being mobbed, as well as allowing the promotion to use the main event finish to sell tickets for the next month's event (i.e., if a top heel was counted out walking to the back, next month's event could be a steel cage match, preventing such an escape).
• Maintenance Show: A show designed to keep a promotion going without starting or continuing any major angles or other significant events. These are sometimes done when a new creative direction is being organized to give more time to get everything in place for a change. These can also be done to act as Filler while moving towards the big pay-per-view or live event.
• Manager: An individual who is assigned to work for a wrestler, frequently serving as their mouthpiece during promotional events. The role is almost always a heel role, and the manager will often be present at ringside to give their client an unfair advantage during matches, typically by interfering in some way or handing their client a weapon when the ref isn’t looking. Managers sometimes acted like an actual manager would in real life by booking rental cars or other transportation and making sure wrestlers actually got to the shows or even negotiating new contracts on behalf of their Kayfabe clients. This is because a manger’s career is often tired to the career(s) of the wrestler(s) they manage, which gives them incentive to make sure things stay on track. The most famous modern (2020's) example for most fans is Paul Heyman. Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Jim Cornette, and Paul Bearer are also classic examples.
• Manager Match: A comedy match involving one or more managers. If managers are booked against each other, it will likely be a gimmick match with lots of comedy spots. If a manger is booked against a wrestler, it will often see the manger get the upper hand with underhanded tactics until the babyface makes a comeback for a decisive win. These are typically short because managers usually aren't trained wrestlers, though they don't normally overlap with squash matches since the rule of thumb is that heel managers can't be beat too badly or they will lose their heat.
• Mark: (1) An older derisive term for a fan that still believes wrestling is real, or a much more neutral term for any fan that has no connection to the business besides buying a ticket. (2) An insult to describe a fan, wrestler, or promoter that doesn't understand how the wrestling business works^note To quote Dutch Mantel, "Wrestling was a lot better when the marks were in the seats and not in the ring". (3) To call yourself or someone else a fan of a particular wrestler, tag team, faction, or promotion; such as "I'm a Kevin Nash mark" or "He's an ECW mark."
• Mark Booking: When a promoter books angles and matches because he wants to see them as a fan, rather than for the purpose of actually making money. Usually consists of so-called "dream matches" featuring either the stars of yesterday being offered massive payoffs to come out of retirement or Japanese wrestlers that no one but the internet fans recognize. A signature move of the "Money Mark", see below. The term was pretty much simultaneously (though completely independent of one another) coined by Kevin Nash and Jim Cornette while talking about AEW on their respective podcasts. In a broader sense "mark booking" can also refer to catering to the tiny minority that is the ultra-hardcore segment of the Smart Mark fans instead of trying something that will appeal to a wider base.
• Mark for yourself: A derisive term for a wrestler who believes they're better in the ring or more over than they actually are, or cares about their image, matches, or the belts they win more than they care about making money. This often aggravates other performers because it can result in favoritism while simultaneously putting a ceiling on earnings for other performers. For example, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash called Bret Hart "the $450,000 champion" because in their eyes Hart cared more about winning matches and being the top babyface than agitating for higher payoffs. Related is the term "belt mark", which is pretty self-explanatory.
• Mark Out: To react in an extremely over-the-top and cartoonish manner to a particular wrestler or play, similar to what most people think of when they hear "fanboying."
• Marty Jannetty: A tag team wrestler who fails to succeed as a singles wrestler following a breakup. The eponymous wrestler was considered around the level of Shawn Michaels, but drug problems and injuries kept him from reaching the heights his former partner reached.^note Also not helping Marty's career was the Charles Austin lawsuit, where a Jobber botched his end of Jannetty's "Rocker Dropper" finisher and ended up paralyzed, but was still able to successfully sue the WWF for $26.7 million, though this was later reduced to $10 million. From that point on Vince was a lot more stringent on making sure his job guys were fully trained, so this sort of thing didn't happen again. Today, any former tag team member can be called a Marty Jannetty if they aren't as successful as their former partner. Compare Breakup Breakout.
• Matchmaker: The individual publicly identified by the promotion as the one responsible for signing matches since, logically, someone has to be organizing or approving matches. Before the modern era, Kayfabe was still highly protected, and promoters didn't want the public to know about the existence of a booker or who was actually responsible for organizing matches. Furthermore, bookers could also be active wrestlers in prominent positions, so calling them matchmakers would call into question the legitimacy of the results. Instead, promotions placed "matchmakers" on their programs, often some official within the company, to explain to the fans who assigned the matches without publicly acknowledging the existence of a booker.^note One example of this would be J.J. Dillion in WCW during the Monday Night Wars, who under various job titles was the on-camera representative of a fictitious "WCW Executive Committee". This may have been a bit of a wink-wink to the smart fans since WCW was booked by committee for most of its existence, and Dillion was part of said committee. The closest modern equivalent would be a "general manager" or other authority figure, but matchmakers need not be on-screen talent. They simply needed to fulfill the role in promotional material.
• Mid-carder: A wrestler who is over enough to be considered a popular wrestler, but is not over enough to consistently work main events. Mid-carders typically hold the majority of a promotion's secondary titles.
  • A related term is upper mid-carder, referring to a mid-carder who can transition to the occasional main-event programs, or even back again. Chris Jericho and The Miz famously spent most of their careers as upper mid-carders, even though they main-evented several major events^note Jericho main-evented WrestleMania X8 and lost to Triple H, Miz defeated John Cena in the main event of WrestleMania 27 and won the main titles before.
• Midget Wrestling: A subgenre of Professional Wrestling that peaked between the 1950s and 1970s. Wrestlers with dwarfism were often used as a "special attraction" and traveled the United States much in the same way women's wrestling was treated because there wasn't enough interest in "midget wrestling" to create its own division within a single promotion. WWE actually tried creating a "mini" division in the '90s near the start of the Attitude Era^note As part of a very short lived cross-promotional deal with AAA that saw several luchadores appear on the 1997 Royal Rumble card. This was a pretty transparent attempt to copy the cruiserweights in WCW (who were mainly from CMLL and New Japan Pro-Wrestling), but Vince killed it off after a couple weeks once he actually saw lucha libre in person and realized that it goes against everything he thinks wrestling should be (as in a bunch of guys under 6 feet and 200 lbs doing gymnastics that can't cut promos and are mostly wearing masks) and again in 2005 with a "juniors" division.^note  Both names stemmed from "midget" falling out of favor in the United States as a term to describe people with dwarfism. Both attempts were quietly abandoned within a year of launching. On the whole, "midget wrestling" has experienced a sharp decline in the United States since the 1970s, with these wrestlers filling comedic roles instead of being featured as legitimate wrestlers. Midget wrestling still has a following in Mexico (where it's called Mini-Estrella or simply "minis"), with many of the wrestlers being smaller Expies of popular luchadores.
• Milking: Drawing a move, angle, match, or spot out to maximize the reaction. Generally, bookers and wrestlers want the audience anticipation at its highest before executing something to get the biggest reactions and draw the most money.
• Monday Night Wars: A period of time when WCW's Monday Nitro went head-to-head with then WWF's Monday Night: RAW for ratings supremacy, starting in 1995 with the debut of Nitro. WWF started out strong, but lost ground as the nWo storyline took off. At one point WCW won the ratings battle for 83 weeks, before ultimately losing out and closing in 2001. The final episode of Monday Nitro aired on March 26, 2001.^note That final Nitro was also WCW's last wrestling card, with the majority of the WCW employees being let go two days later. However, that wasn't WCW's last broadcast, the final episode of WCW Worldwide (which was just a clip show with no matches shown in full) aired on April 1, 2001 and had commentator Scott Hudson wishing the fans goodbye. Regional sports network Turner South would also air a program called WCW Classics until July 2001.
  • In March 2010 TNA tried to start a second Monday night war when they moved Impact from Thursday to run head-to-head with Monday Night Raw. To say this was a bad idea would be a massive understatement, Impact slunk back to Thursday with its tail between its legs after 10 weeks after getting completely massacred in the ratings and a program that was able to draw 1.5 million viewers before the move was lucky to draw a third of that when they moved back. TNA never recovered and for a time went under a new name^note Though they would go back to the TNA name in 2024 basically as a Canadian indie promotion.
• Money mark: Usually an insult. An independent wrestling promoter who runs a promotion to get himself over as a wrestling star or player in the wrestling business, rather than as a legitimate promotion. It is widely, though not totally, accepted that this was Dixie Carter's reason for buying and operating TNA for many years. In the early years of AEW, it was a common criticism of Tony Khan; with the progression of time and increasing success of AEW, calling him this often exposes you to accusations of trolling or tribalism. Often used interchangeably with "Angel" (see above), though not all angels are money marks.
• Monster: A wrestler, typically a heel but sometimes a babyface, who is booked to win matches in a quick, decisive fashion to make them look intimidating and unbeatable. If a heel is a monster, often they'll go through the entire roster until the top babyface finally finds a weakness to exploit. If a babyface is a monster, they'll often go undefeated for a long period of time. Note that monster and hoss can sometimes overlap, but a monster need not be a hoss. It's more about the presentation.
• Mouthpiece: A manager or other on-air personality who does all of the promos for a wrestler due to their lack of promo skills.
• Muta Scale: An informal measure among some fans of the amount of blood shed in a match. The scale starts at 0 (no blood), with 1.0 Muta being equivalent to the blood loss of The Great Muta in an infamous 1992 NJPW match with Hiroshi Hase. A small handful of matches have been rated above 1.0.
• National Expansion: The era around the mid 1980s (roughly 1984-1988) when professional wrestling went from a series of regional companies called territories who didn’t directly compete with each other to national and sometimes international companies who expanded wherever they could get television. Vince McMahon is often credited (or blamed depending on who you ask) for kickstarting this expansion by buying up television in as many markets as possible. However, other promoters, such as Bill Watts and the Crockett family, tried to expand nationally as well, to varying degrees of success. The two major promotions left standing following the expansion and various mergers were WCW and the WWF, laying the groundwork for what would eventually become the Monday Night Wars.
• Near-fall: When a wrestler is pinned and the referee counts to two, only for the wrestler to escape the pin (by interference, kicking out, rope break, etc.) before they can count three. This sequence is typically repeated several times per match to build excitement, such as by having the face repeatedly near-pinned by the heel only to kick out before their loss. Contrast Hope Spot.
• New Generation: A shift in WWE (then-WWF) programming starting after the steroid trial in 1993. After Hulk Hogan left the company, WWF turned to wrestlers like Bret "Hit Man" Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Razor Ramon, Diesel, Lex Luger, and Yokozuna to become its top stars. The New Generation era focused on smaller, more athletic wrestlers and moving from the cartoonish gimmicks of The '80s "Rock and Wrestling" era to gimmicks where wrestlers had to take a second job^note Among them a wrestling country singer, a wrestling stock car racer, and a wrestling IRS agent. Jim Cornette (who was on the creative team for most of this) refers to this period as the Occupation Gimmick Era, and several undercard wrestlers have said in interviews (some jokingly, some not) that the payoffs were so bad that they actually needed a second job to pay the bills.. The New Generation Era is considered to be from 1993-1997, before WWF transitioned to the Attitude Era, and is considered a low point in WWF history both financially (the WWF posted a net loss for FY's 1994 and 1995) and creatively.
• New York: WWE/WWF. Historically, the WWWF and later WWF centered its territory around New York City and Madison Square Garden. Many wrestlers refer to the promotion itself as "New York" or simply "up north." Even though the corporate headquarters are in Stamford, Connecticut, this nomenclature is still used as something of an Artifact Name.
  • Other companies are sometimes referred to by the locations of their corporate HQ. Atlanta (or simply "down south") was WCW, Philadelphia was ECW, Orlando formerly referred to TNA^note Which was renamed Impact Wrestling when the Canadian-owned Anthem Sports bought the company, or more accurately took control of the company when TNA ran out of money and Anthem was their largest creditor. Anthem would later purchase AXS TV, giving Impact a permanent TV home and ending the constant Channel Hop that was the main cause of the company going broke in the first place. Also of note is that TNA/Impact has always had its corporate HQ in Nashville, even in the era it ran mainly from Orlando. but now refers to NXT and the WWE Performance Center (fans might remark that an obviously green wrestler "needs to be sent back to Orlando"), and Jacksonville is AEW. Historically, Memphis referred either to the Nick Gulas/Roy Welch promotion or Jerry Jarrett's CWA (or later USWA), Dallas referred to WCCW, Charlotte referred to the Crockett promotion (JCP) that eventually became the aforementioned WCW, and Portland referred to Pacific Northwest Wrestling, etc.
• Night off: When a wrestler works with very skilled wrestler who can carry them or works light; alternatively, working with someone like Hulk Hogan who isn't going to do much above the bare minimum, is going to work a very safe style, and isn't likely to have a very long match.
• No-Sell: Not reacting to an opponent's move, as if it didn't hurt them at all. Unplanned No Selling is considered a major dick move for making the other guy look weak and/or undermining kayfabe^note Though it can also be done to preserve kayfabe, like no-selling something that even Stevie Wonder could see missed by two feet, but it can be used legitimately to convey that a wrestler is just that tough.
• No-Show: When a wrestler or other employee deliberately misses a show or other event. Usually happens due to contract, pay, or creative disputes. ^note  It can also be done in protest, such as when Mick Foley no-showed a RAW following the Montreal Screwjob. Occasionally can happen just because someone is too wasted or strung out to work, Jake Roberts built up a reputation for doing this (among others, it's a common theme among ECW alumni) and Kevin Nash has claimed he no-showed Starrcade 97 because he ate too many cannabis edibles and got so stoned he thought he was having a heart attack. No-showing a scheduled appearance could get a wrestler or other figure fired if the stakes were high enough, while talent who no-showed sometimes did so in lieu of giving notice. (see below)
• Notice: Similar to two weeks' notice in other professions. When a wrestler informs the booker or promoter that you intend to leave the promotion. Promoters typically wanted a minimum of thirty days to finish up a wrestler, but even more notice was preferred if possible. Note that this could go both ways, with a booker or promoter giving a wrestler notice so the talent could find a spot elsewhere. Failure to give notice was potentially worthy of being blackballed. This is less common in modern professional wrestling since most talent are signed to lengthy contacts.
• Office, The: (1) The promotion, promoter, booker, or non-wrestling staff in general. Contrast "The Boys" above. (2) A squeeze of a wrestler's or referee's forearm by a wrestler (also often called "the Iggy"); can be used as a signal to signify the wrestler is selling and not legitimately hurt after a rough move, tell another wrestler to lighten up on a hold, or various other meanings.
• Out: An explanation for a wrestler's loss so that said wrestler doesn't appear weak for losing. Typically done to continue a feud or to move a wrestler on to a different feud if the "out" in question is outside interference from a third party. Ex: Edge attacked John Cena during his match with RVD to give Cena an out. Compare Worf Had the Flu for a similar concept outside of wrestling.
• Outlaw promotion: An archaic term for a specific kind of independent promotion. In the days of the territories, professional wrestling was essentially a series of regional monopolies. Outlaws tried to break those monopolies by running against the established promoters, who were often affiliated with the NWA. "Outlaw" shows generally featured weaker talent and wackier characters and angles. This is partly because wrestlers who worked for outlaw promotions could be blackballed and partly because outlaw promotions were even more notorious for having No Budget than the territories. The term "outlaw" is also used as a catch-all insult (mainly by Jim Cornette) towards anyone or any promotion deemed unprofessional, more or less the wrestling equivalent of "bush league".
• Over: How popular a performer, angle, move, or match is with the crowd.
• Overbooked: Too much stuff going on in a wrestling match. Either too many gimmicks or stipulations in the match, or too many people involved in the match. This isn't always a bad thing, matches with older wrestlers or celebrity "wrestlers" will often be overbooked to hell to hide the fact that they really can't work a straight match (or at least have a good one), an example being the Sting vs. Triple H match at WrestleMania 31 that saw all of D-Generation X and the entire original New World Order make a run-in^note Why the nWo was making a run in on behalf of their sworn enemy Sting, especially when everyone knows Hall and Nash are best buddies with Triple H in Real Life, wasn't ever really explained. But the crowd loved it.
• Oversell: When a wrestler sells a move in an unrealistic and exaggerated way. Heels typically do this when a babyface makes a comeback to get the crowd even more excited, but the most famous example comes from the infamous Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan match wherein Michaels oversold Hogan's offense to get back at Hogan for refusing to have more than one match by putting Michaels over.
• Over the rail: When a fan or fans leave the seating area and try to attack the wrestlers or get in the ring. This used to stem from a heel having a ton of heat but eventually became more about getting on television than actually trying to hurt anybody. A fan who went over the rail was considered “fair game” for violent retaliation but companies discourage this now to avoid lawsuits^note Though keep in mind that any moron doing this will still get smacked around by security (just not beaten to a pulp) and handed over to the police, where upon said moron will be charged with criminal trespassing at minimum. In other words it's still a very bad idea to try this. The “rail” in question refers to a guardrail, but the term is still used when no guardrail is present, or a barricade is used instead, such as in WWE.
• Paid Show: A show where the promoter, instead of collecting money through ticket revenue, is paid a flat fee in advance for putting on the show. Whoever is paying (usually the owner of the building the show is in) collects the gate and concession revenue. Largely done by smaller promotions^note often as a fundraising effort, for instance a high school will run one in their gym to raise money for the football team and are usually spot shows, though WWE also runs paid shows with the "Crown Jewel" events in Saudi Arabia.
• Paper: Complimentary tickets (hence the term "comped") to televised shows, allowing for the appearance of a larger crowd than would pay to see such an event. Historically, nearly all TV shows gave tickets away free of charge (although many would have long waiting lists for such events), as TV events were shot in small venues and would feature multiple tapings per one attendance with few "marquee" matches. WCW was notorious for doing this even for bigger shows during their down period in the early 90s, leading their PPVs to be mockingly referred to as "Paper-views" by smarks^note And it still didn't really work, even with free tickets and the entire crowd herded over to the hard camera side tons of empty seats can be seen. The WWF was also papering some PPVs during the New Generation era, of the 60,000 people at 1997 Royal Rumble (held at the Alamodome in San Antonio, TX) somewhere in the neighborhood of a staggering 18,000 were comped, and most of the paid tickets were heavily discounted. With weekly traveling TV productions, promotions such as WWE are typically able to charge full freight for live attendance to their programs, though usually a small amount of comps are handed out to VIPs and charity/community groups.
• Pap Smear: An attempt at blading that draws very little visible blood. Usually caused by an inexperienced swordsman understandably not being fully committed to slicing their forehead open. Lex Luger famously got one of these during his match with Ric Flair in the main event of the 1988 Great American Bash PPV, unfortunately the finish was the match being stopped by the referee due to blood despite said blood being barely visible on camera,^note And since they were in Maryland, where the state athletic commission will stop a match if there's any blood, changing the finish on the fly wasn't an option. The idea was that if the law was on the books anyway they might as well use it to add some extra realism, but it backfired thus kicking off Luger's career-long trend (both in and out of kayfabe) of choking in big moments.
• Parts Unknown: An abstract, vague, or fictional location. Frequently applied to masked wrestlers in the territory days, and to Wrestling Monsters with the intent of giving them an intriguing Mysterious Past or contributing to their overall mystique. Less used since the death of kayfabe, though variations of it are still employed for less serious characters such as Stardust.
• Paying Your Dues: To work minor or menial tasks early in one's career, such as "doing the job", helping put up and take down ring equipment, and generally enduring ribs from the veterans. This is typically cited as necessary to gain experience before being let near more important matches or angles, along with teaching the newbies locker room etiquette and instilling the right attitude toward their role. One of the most noted examples of paying one's dues would be The Miz's early career in WWE. Paul Wight notably complained about wrestlers not doing this despite not doing it himself - he beat Hulk Hogan for the WCW world title in his first professional match^note In a really screwy finish that caused the title to be vacated a short time later, but still... and was used as a main event guy from the start - which didn't go over too well with fans or other people in the WWE locker room.
• Payoff: The amount of money one receives for working a single show. This used to be determined primarily by the house, but now wrestlers in larger promotions are paid on a contractual basis. A payoff can also refer to the conclusion of a feud and usually sees the babyface go over.
• Pearl Harbor: A sneak attack carried out by one wrestler on another wrestler, typically from behind. Named for the attack that brought the United States into World War II, the phrase hasn't been used as often since the 1980s. Also called "Pearl Harbored" or a "Pearl Harbor job"
• People, The: Pretty much synonymous with fans, but it's less derogatory than mark and is thus used in a wider context. Traditionally, "the people" refers to your paying live audience or viewing audience at home. Wrestling is unique in that's there's really no Fourth Wall, the audience is not only acknowledged but wrestlers will speak directly to it, and commentary teams are hired specifically for this purpose. The people are an important element in wrestling since they can make or break a match, determine who is over, and theoretically, though not always, determine who gets pushed.
• Pencil: Archaic slang for the booker, a wrestler looking to get booked somewhere might ask another wrestler that's worked there "Who has the pencil in that territory?" Comes from the fact that long term plans always get screwed up because of injuries, legal issues, people getting fired, people quitting, people refusing to job, new talent suddenly becoming available, etc..., so the actual book would always be written in pencil and not ink.
• Phantom Bump: A bump taken for no logical reason because the person taking the bump was never hit by anything^note For example, Batista staggering back after a shove from Mark Henry, then taking a bump onto his back ...several seconds after the initial shove. Usually the result of a misunderstanding, miscommunication, or mistiming.
• Phantom Match: A match that is entered into a promotion's continuity despite never actually taking place, usually for the purpose of creating a title, or moving a title from one wrestler to another. Common in the territory days, since the internet and "wrestling news" didn't exist there was really no way for fans to disprove (or even question) whether a supposed match actually happened. The most enduring example of this today is the WWE Intercontinental Championship, created in 1979 when WWF North American Champion Pat Patterson defeated an unnamed South American Champion in Rio de Janeiro to unify the titles. In reality no such match ever took place and the South American Championship never existed.
• Piece, A: When a wrestler has a stake in a promotion or a town. Wrestlers in the territories who became essential to the business of a town could negotiate for a percentage of a town's gate or even a percentage of the territory. Notable examples include Jerry Lawler for Memphis, Bruno Sammartino and Gorilla Monsoon for the WWWF, and the Briscos for Georgia. A piece of the promotion could also be sold outright, much like a company sells stock. This was the highest success most wrestlers strived to achieve since owning a piece of a successful town or territory paid much better than simply being on a card. Moreover, wrestlers could buy a piece of a town, the promotion rights to a town, or a promotion in its entirety, but this was usually only when a town or promotion was nearly dead. Also sometimes called having "points" in a town or promotion.
• Pier Six: A chaotic brawl in the ring with several wrestlers, most commonly refers to the standard formula tag match finish (usually right after a Hot Tag has been made) when the ref loses control of the action and all four wrestlers are fighting in the ring. The term originally comes from boxing, and like a few entries on this page was introduced to the wrestling fandom by longtime announcer Gordon Solie.
• Pillmanize: To "break" a wrestler's ankle, arm, or neck by placing it between the seat and headrest of a steel chair, and then stepping or jumping on the chair. Named for Brian Pillman, whose real-life ankle injury in a 1996 auto accident was sold for storyline purposes as the result of an attack of this type by "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, which led to the famous "Pillman's Got a Gun" moment.
• Plant: A wrestler, stagehand, or actor, usually seated in the front row, who poses as a fan. Sometimes the subject of an attack by a heel; also occasionally "randomly selected" from the crowd to take part in a match or storyline. For example, on the April 16, 2007 episode of Raw from Milan, Italy, Santino Marella was a fan who Vince McMahon selected as a Challenger for Umaga's Intercontinental Championship. The unknown Marella scored a surprising upset and won the WWE Intercontinental Championship with an assist from Bobby Lashley. But in reality, Marella had been wrestling since 2002 and had been in WWE's development system since 2005. Note that sometimes large numbers of "fans" can actually be plants. WCW in the '90s would hire models to sit at their television, which gave the impression that attractive people liked their product and reduced the number of black children appearing on their television. ^note  Since WCW taped in the middle of Atlanta, many local kids, predominantly black, regularly attended tapings, much to the dismay of executives. The wrestlers loved it though, as the kids would usually boo and cheer who they were supposed to and were really loud. Plant can also refer to a wrestler (always someone unknown to the crowd) pretending to be something other than a wrestler; for example, any "security guard" or camera-man who gets involved in any physicality is, for liability reasons, often actually a trainee or local independent talent^note The security you see in the crowd right near the barricade (usually in a bright windbreaker with something like "EVENT STAFF" written on it) is legitimate, hired by the arena at the promotion's expense.
• Plunder: The assortment of weapons and paraphernalia wrestlers can/will use in a match, including but not limited to tables, chairs, trash cans, kendo sticks, chains, fire extinguishers, bags of flour, barbed wire, and thumbtacks. Many of these weapons are either found around or underneath the ring, and are almost always gimmicked (unless some production crew screws up).
• Poaching: To lure away talent from one company to another, typically by offering better pay or hotter material. Due to the obvious gap in resources, larger companies such as WWE and WCW typically poach talent from smaller promotions, sometimes but not always with the deliberate intent of weakening the target by taking away their main drawers. Several wrestlers being poached in a short space of time is often called raiding; again, WCW and WWE (in)famously raided ECW's talent roster once the latter promotion started running into financial trouble,^note WCW had been using ECW like their own personal farm team since late 1994, many of the (better) non-luchador cruiserweights were brought in after Bischoff spotted them in ECW, and in 1997 (when ECW was arguably at their peak) he stole Raven, Stevie Richards, and Perry Saturn. It's long been rumored that ECW founder/on-screen president Tod Gordon was acting as a "mole" for Bischoff to help WCW steal ECW's talent, though neither of them nor Paul Heyman have ever confirmed this, and "mole for WCW" can also be interpreted as "helping young talented wrestlers get a job on national TV that they can actually live off of and where their checks do not bounce" and WWE's strip-mining of the AWA's roster (from their top star to their managers all the way down to their announcers) not only put the AWA in a hole they'd never come close to climbing out of, but gave Vince more than enough star power to dominate pro wrestling for the next decade.
• Policeman: A tough wrestler who can physically punish an opponent in the ring for slights against the promoter or locker room. In the earliest days of professional wrestling, a policeman effectively acted as a bodyguard for the champion to protect him from hostile challengers. As the number one contender, the policeman would have to be beat before the challenger could take on the champion, with such matches actually constituting "shoots."
• Politician: A wrestler known for getting themselves or their friends top positions on the card and keeping those positions by influencing the promoter and/or booker. Politicians are also sometimes responsible for getting bookers to bury talent. Despite this, politicians often remain popular among the other wrestlers in the locker room due to their ability to play both sides. (In)famous politicians include Hulk Hogan and The Kliq. Also called a locker room politician or backstage politician.
• Pop: A sudden loud cheer from the crowd, usually for a babyface wrestler making an appearance, a comeback or scoring a win. When it gets cranked up to eleven, it's called a Road Warrior Pop.
• Pop A Rating: Giving away a match on TV to increase a television rating. This can overlap with hotshotting, but the “pop” in question is just one match. Hot shotting refers to the build itself and can be one match or the entire promotion. In the era of pay-per-view, this was highly discouraged because the promoter effectively gave up any revenue the match would have made on pay-per-view for whatever minimal gains result from a one-time bump in ratings. Vince Russo was often criticized for this, but both companies were guilty during the Monday Night Wars.^note Russo was only following the lead of Eric Bischoff, who was by far the worst offender, the most notorious example being giving away the Hulk Hogan-Goldberg title change away on Nitro and completely pissing away what would have been an unfathomable PPV buyrate. Both Russo and Bischoff have defended this sort of booking by saying that their job was only to get TV ratings, while that point of view is somewhat defendable for Russo (who's sole job was to write the TV shows) Bischoff was running the whole promotion, and this is one of the many examples of his boneheaded business decisions that ended up killing it.
• Post/Posted: A spot where a wrestler is hurled into the ring post—either through their own momentum when missing an attack or because someone else threw them.
• Potato: A stiff or painful punch or other attack, such as a chair shot, delivered intentionally or accidentally. Also sometimes called a “live round.”
• Popcorn match: Historically, the match after the intermission in an arena show. This would typically be a slowly-worked match with no key gimmick or top star, encouraging the fans to take their time at the concession and merchandise tables. Can be something of a rehab assignment, giving an injured wrestler an easy night's work. Crudely referred to as the "piss break match" these days and has basically replaced the intermission. In WWE these were almost exclusively women's matches starting towards the end of the Attitude Era, but this practice largely ended in 2015 when WWE ditched the "Divas" moniker and began treating women's wrestling as legitimate competition and not just Fanservice.
• Powder/Powdering Out/Take a Powder: A wrestler escaping a ring, often after sustaining attacks from an opponent.
• Pre-show: A free TV program aired before the start of a pay-per-view event, also known as a kickoff show. Usually shown either via streaming on the promotion's website or social media outlets, or on a promotion's normal TV outlet. Serves the same purpose as a pre-game show for televised sports, and often features preliminary matches.
• Program: An extended feud with multiple meetings, designed to reach a desired conclusion and set the wrestlers up for new programs with other wrestlers.
• Promo: An interview, skit or monologue delivered by a wrestler in-ring, backstage, or in a vignette. Delivering or performing a promo is known as "cutting a promo". If the promo has a specific target, that person is said to have had the promo cut "on" them by the wrestler who delivered it. Ex: "The Rock cut an epic promo on Billy Gunn." Can also be used in a behind-the-scenes context if a wrestler yells at another. Ex: "Dusty Rhodes cut a promo on Bubba Rogers for dropping a jobber on his head."^note Specifically getting in his face and yelling "Do NOT do shit you don't know how to do!" (Bubba dropped the jobber trying a move he had never attempted before.) This has become informally known by fans as the "Dusty Rule", and when wrestlers don't follow it the results are usually not pretty, see "Botch" above.
• Promoter: The head of a wrestling company or federation. The boss. The man in charge. The equivalent of a film/television Executive Producer. The most famous example of a Promoter would be Vince McMahon, former owner of WWE.
  • The term promoter can also refer to live event promoters, responsible for booking house shows and TV arena shows in the buildings under their control. These individuals arrange the times and dates with the building managers, and arrange local advertising in exchange for a piece of the gate. For example, WrestleMania III at the Pontiac Silverdome was promoted by Zane Bresloff, who would later promote live events for WCW. In territory days, some promoters (in this sense of the term), such as Paul Boesch in Houston and the Tunneys in Toronto, had their own local specialized TV, and would often feature wrestlers not associated with the talent office they were aligned with.
• Protect the Business: The mentality that Kayfabe must be protected at all costs. Did somebody call wrestling fake? Beat that guy up. Two wrestlers got into a legitimate fight? Don't go to the cops. They might ask too many questions. Do you have to go to court? Commit perjury if you have to, but don't acknowledge that wrestling is a work. This extended into being very selective about who was smartened up as to the intricacies of the business or let into it. Wrestlers even used to maintain the illusion of Kayfabe injuries in front of their own children to protect the business. It was thought that exposing the business (see above) in any way would destroy it, thus protecting the business was the number one rule of anyone in it. Needless to say, this softened considerably starting in the 80s when wrestling executives began exposing the business themselves.
• Protected: Anything (can be a person, particular weapon, spot, or wrestling move) that is considered effectively sacrosanct by the booker and/or promoter. A protected wrestler doesn't lose often, a protected move wins matches very frequently, protected officials aren't touched by wrestlers.
• Pullapart: Two or more brawling wrestlers being pulled apart and/or held back by a crowd of 'security guards' or referees. Typically done outside of matches during a storyline segment.
• Puroresu:^note Referring here to its usage in English-language media and commentary. In Japanese, puroresu (プロレス) refers to all professional wrestling, regardless of promotion or nationality.
  • In the strict sense, a style of wrestling developed and popularized by NJPW.
  • In a broader sense, all Japanese wrestling. In western usage it's usually shortened to "puro", simply because it's easier to pronounce and type.
• Push: Putting a wrestler in a position to succeed and draw money. This is typically done by having the wrestler win matches, putting them in favorable angles where they look good, and giving them high profile matches against quality opponents in highly visible settings. Typically means to have the pushed wrestler win the world title. A "push" can be earned through talent, but it can also be the result of nepotism. Thus, while fans have a huge say in whether a talent gets pushed and that push is continued, some promoters have continued to push talent despite indifference or hostility from the fans. Historical examples of this include George Gulas ^note  The son of wrestling promoter Nick Gulas, Erik Watts ^note  The son of wrestling promoter Bill Watts, and Roman Reigns ^note  Member of the famous and influential Anoa'i family before 2018 or so.
• Push/Pushed to the Moon/Rocket Push: When a performer is pushed very suddenly and very quickly to a prominent spot on the card. Possibly even the world championship. Same as Strapping the Rocketship (see below) to a performer. Sometimes this is done to a new character or a newly-signed free agent to establish them as a major player. The phrase "pushed to the moon" is often used derisively in hindsight when this happens to a character but they failed to get over.
  • Example: In spring 2017, Jinder Mahal was pushed to the moon, receiving a WWE Title reign that lasted until November of that year. (Long by 2017 standards.) This was largely because WWE had a major tour of India planned, and wanted to have a champion of Indian descent holding the belt. Once the tour was over, Mahal lost the title and has slipped back into midcard obscurity, as he failed to get over with fans. His reign was marked by lackluster or offensive promos, mediocre matches, a failure to win matches cleanly (all but one of the matches he had during his push were won as a result of interference), and the perception that he had been elevated beyond his abilities.
• Put Over: To lose a match to someone. Alternatively, to make another wrestler look good, even if the person putting over the other wrestler comes out on top, to the point that fans see the wrestler being put over as an equal after the match or angle.
  • Related to this is the term "Showing Ass", which is to do things that will make your opponent look like a legitimate threat regardless of if the opponent is winning (and especially if he's losing), and can be said to be the difference between just doing a job and actually putting someone over. Contrast most of the matches between The Undertaker and Mick Foley (which were mainly Foley beating the hell out of Taker until Taker used his "supernatural powers" to make a comeback and gut out the win) to the matches between Hulk Hogan and Billy Kidman (which were Hogan beating the hell out of Kidman until Kidman won with a fluke pin, at which point Hogan just went right back to beating on him.) The term usually only comes up in conversation when complaining about wrestlers that don't do it; Hogan^note Perhaps an even better example of Hogan not showing ass was completely no-selling a powerbomb from 450 lb. Big Van Vader during the build-up to their match at Superbrawl V. This made the outcome of the Hogan-Vader match a forgone conclusion (as if it wasn't obvious already), and the poor PPV buyrate for Superbrawl reflected this, in addition to completely turning the crowd against supposed heroic babyface Hogan, though this would actually come in handy when Hogan turned heel about a year later, Triple H, Jeff Jarrett during the early years of TNA, and to a lesser extent John Cena and Brock Lesnar^note The most blatant example being his match with Dean Ambrose at WrestleMania 32, where he refused to do any of Ambrose's spots and basically treated him like a jobber. While this is somewhat understandable on Lesnar's part (especially considering some of the things that Ambrose has done now that he doesn't have Vince telling him "no") the match came off looking really unprofessional and the WWE braintrust would have been much better off booking both guys with someone they were more comfortable working with were/are the most frequent targets for those complaints.
  • "Put over" can also refer to speaking about someone or something in a complimentary manner. During promos a wrestler will often start with putting their upcoming opponent over by praising their skills and noting their past accomplishments, then getting into the meat of the promo with the boasting or insults. This establishes that the opponent is someone worth beating, and more importantly someone worth paying to see.
• Ran Off: Historically, to discourage a trainee from joining the wrestling business by putting them through nightmarish training. This was done to protect Kayfabe by guaranteeing that the only people smartened up were serious and dedicated. A booker or promoter can also run a talent off that they know longer wish to use but are still paying in the more modern era of guaranteed contract pay, with the goal of getting them to quit. This can include jobbing someone out; leaving them off TV for months or years, a tactic that can leave a wrestler without the necessary exposure to further their career; or booking them on every show in hopes of getting them to resign out of fatigue. Note that this doesn’t work if a wrestler is only in it for the check, such as when WCW tried to run off The Iron Sheik who was making six figures to do very little. Sheik, who was nearly at the end of his career by this point, couldn’t care less about doing jobs as long as he got paid. Brian Pillman famously told WCW booker Ole Anderson that he was fine with being "the highest paid curtain-jerker in wrestling history" since he had two young daughters - and a guaranteed contract.
• Rat: A female fan who attends the matches to sleep with the wrestlers. Also called a "ring rat" or “Arena Rat”. Rats are less common now as the wrestling fanbase becomes more dominated by 18-49 year old men, but they were prevalent within the industry before the 2000s. See "Blowjob" above for a wrestler booked specifically to draw in these women.
• Receipt:
  • A stiff or shoot punch delivered in response to the same, or to an insult. May or may not be authorised by a promotion's higher-ups^note For instance, JBL being knocked senseless by a shoot chairshot from Stevie Richards over the former taking liberties with the Blue Meanie was done with the blessings of management. An important aspect of a receipt is that it be proportional to the offense since Disproportionate Retribution is a taboo in wrestling.
  • An insult or promo delivered in response to an insult.
• Ref bump: When a referee is knocked over during a match, usually by accident, and often leaving them unconscious for several long minutes. With the ref out, the heel can use underhanded tactics without consequence, and the face can't win the match legitimately.
• Ref stoppage: When the referee stops a match because one or more combatants can't continue. Outside of Kayfabe, this is usually done to prevent a wrestler from having to do a job or get someone over as a monster. Note that ref stoppages can also be shoots if someone is legitimately injured, and a referee can actually get heat from the promotion or from smart fans for failing to do this when appropriate.
  • On this same topic, referees are expected to treat every pin count like the match is 100% legitimate. That is, if one of the wrestlers forgets to kick out or is KO'd the ref should still count to 3 and end the match, even if the ref is well aware that's not supposed to be the finish. A ref just stopping their count at two for no reason at all, unless it’s part of the spots and the ref is a heel, is possibly the most business exposing thing you can do in a wrestling ring, and should be avoided at all cost.
• Repackage: To take a wrestler off house shows and TV for several weeks and bring them back with a new gimmick, name, or both. This may need be done multiple times, Glenn Jacobs went from evil dentist Issac Yankeem, D.D.S. (which didn't get over) to Fake Diesel (which really didn't get over) to Kane (this one stuck), all in the span of about two years. Wrestlers will often be repackaged when going from one promotion to another, either because their previous employer owns their old name and gimmick or the wrestler simply wanting to try something else that might get them over better.
• Resthold: A hold, such as a side headlock or reverse chinlock, that can be applied with little effort, and has little context in the match's storyline. Restholds are used when wrestlers need a moment to catch their breath, or can't think of what to do next. Frequent use of restholds are a sign of a poor worker.
  • "Resthold" also used to be a derisive term for long, drawn out holds applied very loosely by unathletic and/or lazy wrestlers. Yokozuna was notorious for these, his near 10 minute "nerve hold" on Lex Luger at WrestleMania X being one of the more famous examples^note In fairness Yokozuna still had to work the main event with Bret Hart later on and needed to conserve his strength, and no one really cared about the Yoko-Luger match to begin with. As these types of wrestlers have long since disappeared from the business this use of the term has fallen by the wayside.
  • It should be noted that resthold began as a derisive term among smart fans (Dave Meltzer is believed to have coined the word), and many old-timers, such as Al Snow and Jim Cornette, don't recognize the term as legitimate wrestling terminology.
• Rib: A practical joke played by one wrestler on another. A frequent occurrence on the road and in the locker room. Although any wrestler can be a victim of a rib, they are even more commonly played on new wrestlers to test them. Wrestlers who commit ribs are called "ribbers". Infamous ribbers include Mr. Fuji, Curt Hennig, and Owen Hart.
• Ribbing on the square: A practical joke meant to make a point; a wrestler on the receiving end of one of these has typically offended the wrestler playing the prank or the rest of the locker room in some manner.
• Ring General: Not to be mistaken for a Four-Star Badass, a ring general is a very skilled, very experienced, and very respected worker, and are often locker room leaders. Ring generals are known for their professionalism and reliability to produce quality matches while keeping their opponents safe, and even though they may not be main eventers or title holders, they will often be the ones calling the shots and setting the pace in a match against younger, more popular wrestlers. Famous ring generals include The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, Ric Flair, and Bret Hart. Less famous but no less respected ones include Christian, Dustin Rhodes, and Christopher Daniels.
• Ring Rust: An expression used to describe when a wrestler hasn't wrestled in a long time, either due to a major injury or semi-retirement, and has to get used to performing again. In real life, overcoming ring rust is typically done through getting in "ring shape" and participating either in dark matches, house shows, or on the independent scene.
• Road Warrior Pop: A crowd reaction named for The Road Warriors. An extremely loud pop, usually louder than the typical pop for even the top babyface. The Road Warriors were usually tremendously popular wherever they went, and would almost always generate the loudest pop, or crowd reaction, of the night with their entrance.
• Rock and Wrestling: Basically, The '80s. Wrestling exploded with the proliferation of cable and pay-per-view. Regional promotions (territories) began to vanish as WWF and NWA/WCW quickly emerged as the two largest promotions in the country, fighting for dominance. WWF took the lead with stars like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, André the Giant, The Ultimate Warrior, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, Roddy Piper, and Jake Roberts. WCW built around established, primarily southern stars like Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes; as well as developing new talent such as Magnum TA (whose career was cut short in a horrific car accident) and Sting. Staple events WrestleMania and Starrcade were both created during this time, as were secondary events Survivor Series and The Great American Bash.
  
  WWF aggressively bought out many territories during this time, such as Calgary Stampede, Maple Leaf Wrestling, Houston Wrestling and World Class Championship Wrestling. WCW (based mostly off of Mid Atlantic Wrestling) consumed Georgia Championship Wrestling, Mid South Wrestling, and Championship Wrestling from Florida. The only other major promotion was Verne Gagne's AWA which managed to limp into the next decade, until finally dying in 1991 after losing most of its top-tier talent to WWF. Both companies entered an Audience-Alienating Era following the boom, and wouldn't truly emerge until the Attitude Era.
• Rope Break: A spot where the referee has to break a pin or hold because the wrestler's hands or feet are put on or under the ring's ropes; as this is considered to be 'outside' the ring. For rope breaks on submission holds the wrestler applying the hold has until the count of 5 to release the hold, or they can be disqualified.
• Rub: Putting a new or lower card wrestler with a more popular wrestler in hopes of getting the less popular wrestler over. A common way of doing this before the internet was to claim that a new wrestler was a relative of an established wrestler, thus creating a Wrestling Family. Notable examples of this include the Graham family, the Anderson family, and the disaster that was Lance Von Erich ^note  Because he was a local wrestler, fans figured out that Lance wasn’t really a Von Erich. This hurt the credibility of the promotion and the family. . Another method is to simply put a lower card wrestler in an alliance with a main event wrestler. EX: "Brutus Beefcake was given the rub by putting him with Hulk Hogan." "Giving them the rub" also refers to an established wrestler losing to a young wrestler or a newcomer to the promotion to give them credibility and hopefully boost their drawing power. This will often be built up into a big match in a Passing the Torch moment, though it can sometimes backfire, numerous attempts to give Roman Reigns the rub only made the fans hate him even more, and it took a complete change in his character for the fans to accept him.
• Run-in: Any time a wrestler who is not announced to be in the match appears, typically to interfere and help a wrestler who is participating. It’s not just exclusive to wrestlers, though- managers can do it, and there have been occasions when a celebrity does it. Some wrestlers have even made their debut this way, such as Kane, Big Show, and The Shield. It's been said that bookers in the old days knew they were booking too many run-ins if the crowd stopped watching the match and turned their attention to the entrance due to expecting outside interference.
• Running opposition: When one wrestling promotion runs house shows, television, or pay-per-view against another to hurt the competitor’s show or revenue. All "outlaw" promotions did this by design, but even larger promotions, such as WWE, can do this to try to hurt competitors. Sometimes leads to a war (see below), which is why established promoters rarely ran opposition against each other before the era of national expansion.
• Rushed Finish: A match finish occurring earlier and often differently than was planned, typically due to a botch affecting the match's intended plotline, a real-life injury suffered by one or more participants, or a segment running over. See also audible.
• Ruthless Aggression Era: Typically seen as lasting from 2002-2008, this era of WWE programming followed the Attitude Era. It is marked by the decision to split the enormous WWE roster into two separate brands (Raw and SmackDown). The SmackDown Six emerged on the "blue" brand led by Paul Heyman creatively. Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Edge, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero became the brand's centerpieces. This era also saw the emergence of the famed Ohio Valley Wrestling (then a WWE developmental territory/school) Class of 2002. Headlined by John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, and Batista; most of this group would go on to become major main event players for the company for the next decade-plus. Those four, alongside Triple H, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, and Edge, were considered the headliners of the era, with Kane, Big Show, Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, and John "Bradshaw" Layfield generally making up the second tier.
• Safe: Whether a wrestler, move, or weapon has a high risk of hurting someone. Any move can potentially cause injury if not performed correctly, but certatin moves and wrestlers develop a reputation for causing an alarming rate of injuries. Because wrestlers used to be paid per appearance, unsafe workers and moves used to be blackballed or banned from the industry. Most technical workers would be considered safe, but even guys like Hulk Hogan had a strong reputation for working a safe style due to their need to avoid injury. The modern style has often been accused of not being safe due to a high injury rate for significantly fewer matches per year. Many veteran wrestlers often warn and criticize younger ones who work a more dangerous style, and this often causes tensions between the two camps, in addition to dividing the fans. Note that stiff and safe are not mutually exclusive. Wrestlers who work a stiff style may still be considered safe due to the term "hitting hard in safe places," meaning the wrestler taking the move might be bruised or banged up but is unlikely to be hospitalized or miss shows.
• Sandbag: Not providing the necessary assistance for a "lifting" move such as a bodyslam or a suplex. Can be done unintentionally out of inexperience or a mistime, or if intentional, it's a spot, a rib, or deliberate non-cooperation (which is extremely unprofessional, when done on purpose it's sometimes called "lead ass").
• Schmoz: A chaotic brawl between a crowd of wrestlers, usually to close out a show and leave it as a cliffhanger for the next episode or Pay-Per-View.
• Scrambled Eggs: A match that completely fell apart terms of execution. This can be due to bad timing, unwillingness to work together, greennness, or a variety of other issues. A good example would be the Hulk Hogan versus Ultimate Warrior match at Halloween Havoc 1998. Hogan was supposed to launch a fireball in Warrior's face but couldn't get the paper to light correctly and only managed to singe his own face.
• Screwjob:
  • An unfair ending to a match, often involving cheating and/or an authority figure to cause some distraction that costs a wrestler (often a babyface) the win. Done right, it can keep heat on a program for a bigger rematch. Done poorly, or done too often, can kill interest in the feud or promotion. Also called a "fuck finish."
  • It can also be a shoot (real life), where a change to the finish of the match is made between the promoter and one of the participating wrestlers without telling the other - originally known as a Double Cross, before events redefined the term. Considered incredibly unscrupulous and unprofessional, the most famous example would be the Montreal Screwjob; a lesser known and earlier example would be the "Original Screwjob" match between Wendi Richter and The Fabulous Moolah, where Richter was screwed out of a finish and her Women's Championship^note The abridged version is that Moolah (wrestling with a mask on under the identity of 'The Spider') broke from the match plan and pinned Richter's shoulders to the mat in a small package pin, with the referee (who was in on it) delivering a fast three-count despite Richter kicking out at one. because she refused to sign an extension to her contract unless she was properly compensated (she was being paid far less than some of her male counterparts despite being almost as big a draw).
• Scripted: For a long time, something of a dirty word in the wrestling business. In the past, both matches and promos were largely improvised by the talent, with broad direction given by the booker. Beginning in the 1980's, some wrestlers such as Randy Savage would begin planning matches move-for-move, and even rehearse them with their opponents ahead of time. Nowadays, nearly all matches and promos are planned in such a manner, in order to meet tight time restrictions on the television product.
• Shine, The: Part of what is considered the classic four-part match structure: The shine, the heat, the comeback, the finish. The shine is where the face comes out to gain an early advantage and demonstrate that they are the superior competitor, thus establishing the heel's need to cheat and employ underhanded tactics.
• Sell: Pretending to be hurt to make a wrestling move look painful, or to convince the audience that a performer is suffering an injury where none exists.
  • Sell can also refer to a reaction generally. If a wrestler doesn't react to a rib, he or she is said to have not sold it. This can extend to botches, mishaps, or even bullying, where a wrestler is expected to remain calm and not break character.
  • Sell Like Death: To sell the effects of an attack for an unusually prolonged period of time. Often used in the negative, such as “He took a single dropkick and sold like death.” Note that this is distinct from overselling because overselling requires exaggeration: if a wrestler flies across the ring from a single punch, that’s overselling. If a wrestler collapses from a single punch and doesn’t move, that’s selling like death. Wrestlers usually sell like death simply by pretending to be unconscious. When a referee does this, it's a Glass Jaw Referee.
• Seven-Year Rule:: Coined by Jim Cornette to describe the amount of time before it's acceptable to reuse an angle or gimmick, with the thought being that enough of the audience has changed and enough time has passed to have not seen or forgotten the previous use of that angle or gimmick.^note  Cornette has since stated he was being somewhat facetious with this and never meant it as a hard and fast rule. The actual time depends on what is being reused and whether enough context has changed to warrant its reuse.
• Shoot: Broadly, any event that happens to be 'real' (not written into the script for a match or promo) which occurs in or out of the ring. A general rule of thumb is that anything where a pro wrestler publicly breaks kayfabe, including positive things, such as an interview where Jimmy Jacobs praises his hated enemy Delirious is a shoot. Polar opposite of a work; compare Worked Shoot. More specific meanings include:
  • To fight for real with real attacks and holds. This can be done intentionally, such as a performer throwing "shoot" punches to try and inflict believable damage for the purposes of the performance (such as getting color the hardway, see multiple above). It can also be done when two wrestlers have a personal issue, which may escalate into going into business for yourself. It can be done by mistake, a wrestler not pulling their punches, or an opponent not preparing to take a move or blow correctly.
  • Also to use personal or real life issues in a promo or interview either for humor or to make the content more vicious. Such as when AJ Lee told the Bella Twins that it was unfortunate that talent wasn't "sexually transmitted", as the Bellas were dating John Cena and Daniel Bryan at the time^note Brie eventually married Bryan and were not perceived to be great wrestlers in their own right.
  • A Shoot Interview is as the name implies an interview with a wrestler where he or she talks about all the behind the scenes parts of their career, these first sprang up in the late 90s with the majority of them produced by Rob Feinstein's RF Video or Sean Oliver's Kayfabe Commentaries. This differs from the sort of "expose" interviews (like Eddie Mansfield going on 20/20 and blading) in that they're meant to educate and entertain people that are already fans rather than damage wrestling's reputation, and were marketed and sold to the smart fans that already knew the whole thing is a work.^note The shoot interview market really took off after WCW and ECW closed (mainly because a lot of people in wrestling were out of a job and needed a payoff), WWE figured that if the market was there they might as well grab a slice and created a show called WWE Confidential, a totally unbiased behind the scenes look at WWE events past and present. The show is probably best remembered for being where Shawn Michaels first publicly admitted that he was in on the Montreal Screwjob. 83 episodes were made, 63 of them are on the WWE Network and Peacock They're also much longer, running at least 90 minutes and some lasting several hours. The shoot interview was made obsolete by podcasts in the mid 2010s (Oliver now co-hosts one called Kliq This with Kevin Nash), though excerpts and some full interviews can be found on YouTube and other websites.
• Shooter: Someone who has a legitimate fighting background. Shooters are revered even amongst wrestlers as tough guys as someone that even they don't want to fight in Real Life. In the old days most pro wrestlers were legitimate amateur wrestlers, some with impressive pedigrees. Verne Gagne was a two-sport All-American for example. Brock Lesnar was an NCAA and UFC Heavyweight Champion. Kurt Angle won an Olympic Gold Medal (with a broken freakin' neck). Some guys were just tougher than nails and nobody wanted to fight them, most notably Haku/Meng, who was one of the few people André the Giant was legitimately afraid of.
• Shoot-Style/Shoot Wrestling: A Japanese style of professional wrestling developed in Universal Wrestling Federation that became very popular in the 1980's and early 90s^note A UWFI pay-per-view aired in the US, only one month before the first UFC. Under various rulesets, and names, these promotions eschewed virtually all "cooperative" professional wrestling moves in favor of something appearing much more competitive and "real" looking, such as simple strikes, realistic submissions, and martial arts techniques. Largely came out of New Japan's "Strong-Style", with stars such as Akira Maeda, Satoru Sayama, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara having been recruited by Antonio Inoki from legitimate combat sport backgrounds. Many of these promotions, such as Pancrase and RINGS, would later forego fixed outcomes entirely and become part of the first generation of Japanese MMA. One lasting impact of shoot-style was that the popularity of their "all clean finish" format more or less permanently eliminated "brawl to the back" finishes that the major promotions used to use to protect top stars.
• Shortcut: A term used to describe ways to kill time in a match without actually having to demonstrate wrestling ability. This can include Garbage Wrestling but is often used to describe brawling on the floor or in the crowd instead of wrestling in the ring. Wrestlers who do this too often are looked down upon by old-timers and some smart fans.
• Shot: A scheduled appearance for a promotion. Typically used in the context of a single or limited number of appearances in exchange for good pay or as a favor to the promoter. Ex: "Jim Cornette agreed to make a shot for Paul Heyman in exchange for an apology for Heyman's handling of the NWA tournament."^note Heyman was actually supposed to apologize to then-NWA President Dennis Coralluzzo, who was made to look like a fool when Heyman double-crossed him. According to Cornette the apology was never given, which is why you never saw him in ECW again, though he notes that he was paid $750 cash (despite saying he didn't want money, just the apology) and that Heyman paid for a steak dinner for Cornette and Coralluzzo and a limo ride from New York City to Philadelphia and back.
• Sickness, The: Refers to the multitude of drug addictions and premature deaths (particularly of prescription drug overdose and/or heart attacks due to steroid-induced left ventricular enlargement). For a "fake" sport, professional wrestling has a very real and very horrifying body count.
• Sloppy: A match with a lot of botches, miscues, near-injuries (or just injuries), etc... or a wrestler known for having such matches. Most rookie wrestlers are this by default, because they're rookies and haven't been around long enough to get any good yet.
• Smart: Knowing that professional wrestling is a work and having at least a rudimentary knowledge of how it's worked. "Talking smart" meant using wrestling terminology or acknowledging wrestling is a work in front of others.
• Smarten Up: To educate someone as to how the wrestling business works. Not just that it's predetermined but exactly how it operates either in the ring, behind the scenes, or both. To smarten someone up can also mean to let someone in on a secret generally. Note that almost no one was smartened up before the 1980s. Even if someone outside of the wrestling business knew it wasn't legitimate, the exact details were still a closely guarded secret. Wrestlers often refused to smarten up their own family members, especially children, for fear that they would let the secret out and hurt the business. Even trainees weren't smartened up until their trainer felt that they could be trusted, so early "training" often consisted of trainees getting beat up instead of learning how to work.
• Smart Mark or Smark: A fan that understands the finer points of wrestling and keeps up with the business aspect of the sport (see "Dirt Sheet" above) as much as they do with the in-ring action and storylines, but doesn't have any actual connection to the industry. Though once quite rare (and almost unheard of outside of the Northeast) the overwhelming majority of wrestling fans today can be considered smarks thanks to the death of kayfabe, the internet, and many popular wrestling personalities doing podcasts and shoot interviews that expose the business. Because of this "smart mark" is mainly used today as an insult to describe the really hardcore internet wrestling fans that prioritize match quality over actually making money.
• Snug: If being 'stiff' is to deliver legitimate strikes, then being 'snug' is to put on legitimate submission holds. Notably used in conjunction with stretching by a number of old-school wrestlers like Stu Hart, as a means of training.
• Sports Entertainment: A term used by Vince McMahon to distinguish WWE from professional wrestling. Although sports writers used similar language to describe wrestling decades ago, Vince coined and popularized the term to get out of taxes and other regulations. Moreover, Vince always wanted to be seen as part of the entertainment business and not professional wrestling, which always had a stigma attached to it in Vince's mind. The term has been widely mocked and parodied in other promotions and is sometimes used by heels to generate heat. One of the few wrestlers to get the term over was The Rock because he's The Rock. WWE has slowly moved away from the term since Vince's departure and once again allows its wrestlers to call themselves wrestlers and use wrestling terminology, which Vince always wanted to avoid.
• Spot: A move predetermined to happen in a match, including the reaction by the opponent. While the outcomes of pro wrestling matches are decided in advance, most of the action is improvised, with the exception of spots at key moments.
  • A Spot can also be a wrestler's position on the card, which is highly sought after and protected. Alternatively, it can refer to a having a job in a promotion. Ex: “Plowboy Frazier got a spot in Memphis.”
• Spotfest: A derisive term for a match that emphasizes spots and highspots over Wrestling Psychology, often completely ignoring the classic four-part match structure. Pretty much exclusively the domain of cruiserweights/high flyers thanks to the influence of Mexican Lucha Libre (which by design completely throws psychology out the window in favor of intricate gymnastics), though most multi-man matches like the "Fatal 4 Way" and Money in the Bank (and its AEW Expy "Casino Ladder Match") will devolve into a spotfest before long because it's all but impossible to plan out anything logical for a match that's basically being advertised as a total free-for-all.
• Spot Monkey: A derisive term for a wrestler whose matches consist of highspots instead of psychology and often refuses to sell moves, usually thanks to poor training (or no training). Whether a wrestler counts as a spot monkey can be very controversial in fan circles, though basically everyone can agree that Sabu is the Trope Codifier and the template used by guys that think doing stunts and pro wrestling are the same thing.
• Spot show: A house show performed in a location that is not a regularly scheduled town. Typically involves (or involved, the term is more or less synonymous with "house show" nowadays) a subset of a touring crew working a shorter card. Historically, these often overlapped with paid shows.
• Squash Match: A quick and overwhelming victory where one wrestler (usually a star or someone being pushed) dominates their opponent (usually a jobber.) The vast majority of matches involving jobbers are squash matches, since they serve as a quick and cheap way to build up a wrestler as a monster or a rising star; Goldberg famously got over in WCW by having a constant stream of jobbers and undercarders fed to him in such matches.
• Stable: A group of three to four or more wrestlers who form an alliance. Differs from a faction in the sense that a stable shares a common leader who speaks for the group, while factions tend to be less formalised and lack figureheads. Famous examples include The Four Horsemen, the New World Order, Evolution, and the Bullet Club, among others.
• Stadium Show: A show held in an outdoor or indoor stadium as opposed to an arena. Stadiums usually have much larger capacities than arenas do since stadiums are designed for outdoor sports. Because of the larger size, wrestling promotions often reserve stadiums for once a year events, such as WrestleMania. Stadium shows can also be used for "once in a lifetime" match ups. The best example of this can be seen with the famous Hulk Hogan vs André the Giant main event at WrestleMania III. Even the bigger promotions can also go years without running a stadium during "cold" periods.
• Stealing a House: Getting a one-time bump in business by using a wrestler who has no chance at longevity. A promoter might come across a local celebrity, sports star, or a person with a unique quality who wants to be used in the wrestling business, though the person in question has no talent. The promoter will utilize their top wrestlers or best workers to help build a match with the subject. If done correctly, the promotion will see a temporary increase in business because of that match, but the match can only be done once per town (or once nationally) since the fans will see the attraction lacks talent and won't want to see it again.
  • Sid Eudy (a.k.a. Sid Vicious, Sid Justice, Sycho Sid, or just Sid) was the king of this. He had an incredible look and a freakish charisma that certainly attracted attention at first, the problem is that Sid is very limited once the bell rings, both in terms of agility and wrestling skill, meaning any subsequent matches are going to get diminishing returns if people know he'll stink out the joint. But since Sid never really stuck around more than a few months anyway, either because he refused to work during softball season^note Sid absolutely loves playing softball and it usually took priority over his wrestling career. In 1989 he was offered a guaranteed contract from WCW that would have gave him a world title run and more money than anyone else not named Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair. He turned it down because they wouldn't give him softball season off. If you ever hear people call him "Softball Sid", this is why or because he just refused to do business (or because he got fired for nearly murdering one of his fellow wrestlers with a pair of scissors), nobody really got sick of him and he could consistently be brought in for an easy (but brief) revenue spike.
• Stick: Antiquated carny-ish slang for a microphone. Usually used when describing someone's ability to cut promos, like "CM Punk is really good on the stick."
• Stiff: A punch or move that hurts more than it should for being performance. Someone whose moves are this way is said to "work stiff" or be a "stiff worker", either as a deliberate choice to enhance the danger and seriousness of the fighter, or just by accident. Stan Hansen was a notoriously stiff worker, mostly because he was so blind without his glasses that he couldn't see his opponent to pull his punches. Compare snug.
  • "Stiff" (or usually "big stiff") can also refer to a wrestler that has a lot of muscle but very little agility, making them pretty hard to move around the ring. Sid, Ultimate Warrior, and Kevin Nash in the latter half of his career are examples. Ironically most big stiffs aren't stiff workers.
  • "Stiff" can also refer to a mean-spirited remark or rib considered beyond the acceptable boundaries of locker room etiquette. These actions or remarks can often be the basis of legitimate heat (animosity) between wrestlers.
• Stooge:
  • A wrestler, manager, or road agent who acts as a "spy" for the promoter, informing them of any indiscretions committed by the wrestlers on the road. Longtime WWF manager Mr. Fuji, who was very much one of these, was often called "Fuj the Stooge" on WWF TV by opposing babyfaces, and former road agents Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson would become the on-air "stooges" during the Attitude Era.
  • A stooge can also refer to a wrestler who repeatedly does interference and run-ins to help another wrestler, usually a champion.
• Strap: A championship belt; typically interchangeable with belt, gold, title and other synonyms.
• Strap the Rocket Ship to (Performer): To give a performer a huge push, typically involving a World Title win and lengthy reign. This is usually only used in reference to a young wrestler's first big main event push. Once this process is complete a performer will either have proven themselves as a main event draw; or they will return to the midcard to regroup and have their character adjusted.
• Stretcher job: When a wrestler is injured badly and carried out on a stretcher. Used to get another wrestler, angle, gimmick, or move over due to the gravitas of the situation.
• Stretching: The act of physically harming aspiring wrestlers in the ring, both to drive off uncommitted wannabes and humble future trainees. Usually by way of holds meant to strain or other cause discomfort. Not done so much anymore, out of legal fears and the fact that many wrestlers nowadays are not trained shooters. Stretching can also be somewhat synonymous with shooting, though stretching is exclusively applied to former amateur wrestlers who can legitimately hurt opponents with holds. Ex: "Lou Thesz could have stretched most of the locker room if he wanted to."
• Strike:
  • Any contact between one wrestler and an opponent, typically referring to punches, kicks, chops, etc. rather than specific holds or moves.
  • A breach of the WWE's Wellness Policy.
• Strong Style: A style of wrestling that incorporated realistic/stiff kicks, suplexes and submission holds while eschewing the high-flying, bombastic moves. Originating in the 90s from Japan's NJPW, whose wrestlers often came from legitimate martial arts backgrounds, the style has influenced and permeated throughout the wrestling world. See also "King's Road/Royal Road", a style from NJPW's rival company AJPW, and "Shootwrestling", which grew out of "Strong Style". New Japan's dominant role in the Japanese professional wrestling scene since the early 1980's, and the numerous successor promotions created by its stable of volatile personalities, "strong style" tends to be frequently misapplied to New Japan-adjacent movements such as "shootwrestling" or all Japanese wrestling.
• Studio Show: A television taping held at a local studio instead of an arena. Because wrestling was very popular and drew high ratings, many local television studios allowed promotions to film in their local studio in exchange for airing the shows. This saved promoters money since the cost of running a studio taping was negligible compared to an arena. It also allowed promotions to increase their visibility in a local market and draw bigger crowds to their house shows.^note For this reason the wrestlers were paid very little if any money to do TV tapings, the promoters saw booking people on studio shows as doing them a favor by giving them TV time to get over and draw money. Even WCW would only pay $50 for TV tapings, as Dusty Rhodes would often tell people "You know how much [x] minutes of national TV costs? We're giving that to you, go out there and get yourself over!" Tickets were given away instead of sold since the prevailing wisdom at the time was no one would pay to see a wrestling show they could see for free on TV. Matches were typically squash matches, though major stars sometimes faced off without a clear winner. With the death of the territories, the studio show more or less died, though TNA's tapings at Universal Studios in the 2000s and the NWA's revival in the late 2010s could be seen as modern equivalents.
• Stunt Granny: An ironic term sarcasitically used as a synynonym for plant. The term originated from the documentary Exposed! Pro Wrestling's Greatest Secrets, which falsely claimed grandmas are regularly used as plants and described one as a "stunt granny." The term was widely mocked and became a meme within the wrestling community. Although older family members are sometimes used as plants, it's a rare occurance due to the high risk of injury from taking a bump.
• Super Finisher: A rarely-used but exceptionally potent Finishing Move that almost always ends a match. Typically even more protected than a standard finisher to maintain the impact of such a move, with kicking out occurring very rarely (if ever.) One of the most famous examples would be the Burning Hammer, a move used only seven times throughout its creator's 25-year long career; in every case, it put the opponent out for the count without fail.
• Sweeten: To pipe in artificial noise to make wrestlers appear more popular or more hated than they actually are with the live crowd. Promotions with large budgets have historically and are guilty of this because a silent crowd is considered "death" in professional wrestling, and sweetening can potentially help foster the Intended Audience Reaction, though it can also backfire^note WCW, which showed credits at the end of PPVs and Clash of the Champions shows, were so shameless about messing with the crowd noise that they had an "audio sweetening" guy listed in the credits. Speaking of those credits, the booking committee and all the agents were also listed under their real names, and if you really know your territory wrestling history you'll probably recognize all of those names. Note that some promotions will even edit previously aired footage to change the crowd noise, in the past "sweeten" meant to add crowd noise in post-production (or mute it during live shows) while "piping in" meant adding noise live in the building (see "Heat Machine" above), but since the end result is the same the two terms are used interchangeably. Compare Laugh Track for a similar concept used in works outside of the wrestling industry.
• Swerve: Originally meant to con someone, but has since come to reflect a style of booking where an unexpected event occurs in the opposite direction of where the angle seemed to be heading. The term is heavily associated with Vince Russo. Let's say, for example, that a company had an angle building that implied Bob was turning on Steve. A swerve would have Steve turn on Bob. A swerve could also have a completely unrelated talent turn on Bob for no adequately explained reason. Compare Ass Pull.
• Sword: Synonymous with a blade. The instrument one uses to cut oneself. The main difference between the two words is that sword is always a noun, while blade can be either a noun or verb depending on the context.
• Tag Rope: A small length of rope roughly 2 feet long tied around the top of the ringpost in the corners of each team during a tag team match, the wrestler on the apron must have hold of the tag rope to be tagged in. This prevents a wrestler from getting tagged in from halfway down to the other corner, while also giving the heel team a convenient tool to choke their opponent when the ref isn't looking. Somewhat archaic and not universally used to begin with^note And even when the tag rope is used the announcers often won't say anything about it, so fans might not even notice it's there unless they're looking for it (WWE for the most part hasn't used them), when a tag rope isn't being used a wrestler will have to have one hand on the ringpost or turnbuckle to be tagged in.
• Take care of: This can mean different things in different contexts, but it's usually used to describe when a wrestler looks out for another wrestler in a match due to inexperience or injury so the other wrestler doesn't get hurt or hurt worse. Generally, it's the opposite of taking liberties. This might involve calling an audible or working light if there's an injury or giving more guidance in a match than normal for an inexperienced opponent. “Protected” can be synonymous with taking care of, in addition to the definition provided above.
  • It can also mean to pay very well, especially if a wrestler is injured or otherwise unable to perform.
  • Another, rarer meaning is to be able to handle yourself in a shoot. Someone who can take care of themselves can handle themselves in a real fight. Can be used in conjunction with shooter, but a wrestler can take of themselves without being a shooter, especially if their opponent isn't a shooter, either.
• Take liberties: To shoot, or inflict actual pain on someone during a match in a manner that was not agreed upon beforehand. This is not the same as working stiff or working strong, or a botch that causes injury. This is to beat up the other performer and hurt them legitimately for no reason, typically while limiting or negating their ability to fight back. This is considered a dick move of the highest order. When John Layfield beat up The Blue Meanie at the ECW One Night Stand pay per view in 2005, he took liberties with the Blue Meanie^note A couple nights later (with the blessings of WWE management) Stevie Richards knocked Layfield out cold with a shoot chairshot during a match, see "Receipt" above. This is still a step below "going into business for yourself" which also involves going against the previously decided finish. Note that a key element in taking liberties is a power or experience disparity between the person taking liberties and the person on the receiving end. An experienced wrestler in a position of power is unlikely to face this situation because the person taking liberties is likely to be fired, receive "receipts" from the other wrestler, or both. A good example of this is when Hardcore Holly took liberties with Matt Cappotelli during an episode of Tough Enough. Holly got away with this but certainly would've been fired if he had pulled that with someone on his level or higher.
  • Taking liberties can also refer to particularly mean spirited (and often destructive) ribs done without any justification, usually to non-wrestlers that are much smaller and/or older than the wrestlers. The late Howard Finkel was said to be a frequent victim of these.
• Technical Wrestling: A style of wrestling focused on holds, takedowns, submissions, and grappling as opposed to brawling or flashy throws. A wrestler known for employing this wrestling style is often referred to as a technician. Famous technicians include Bret Hart and his youngest brother Owen Hart, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and Lance Storm - you may have noticed a common theme with that group, this style is heavily associated with Canadian wrestlers thanks to the Hart Dungeon in Calgary, with Bret and Owen's father Stu Hart training dozens of technicians.
• Territory system: Refers to the system of promoting professional wrestling in the United States until the rise of national wrestling promotions. This was a de facto monopoly in which each promoter held exclusive rights to promote wrestling in a given area of the country. With the exception of the AWA and the WWWF (from 1963 to 1971), these promotions recognized the NWA World Champion.^note While the territories are long dead the NWA title still exists, the assets of the National Wrestling Alliance were purchased by Smashing Pumpkins frontman (and longtime wrestling fan) Billy Corgan in 2017, shortly after his failed attempt to purchase TNA. The NWA is now just a single promotion rather than an alliance of many that has a show on FITE TV and YouTube; as of October 2023, EC3 is the champion.
• Time: The approximate length of a match, promo, or segment and how much wrestlers are supposed to spend before going to the finish or ending the promo. For television specifically, time needs to be more or less precise, so wrestlers need to get the appropriate amount of time in, or the show will go too short or too long. This is a huge deal to both promoters and television station personnel since if a match goes short, it has to be filled with something else (an improvised promo or extending another match are the most common solutions). If a match goes long, something else has to be cut. Failure to get the right amount of time in can get serious heat on a wrestler if it results from something under their control. Pay-Per-View matches are also given time, and a pay-per-view going long can end up costing the promoter money.^note The most famous example being Halloween Havoc 1998 where the main event began around the time people started losing their feeds, which resulted in WCW airing the match on free television as a mea culpa. ECW's first PPV Barely Legal nearly had the same thing happen (though here it was a little more forgivable since this was the first time ECW had broadcasted anything live), several matches on the card went long and the main event had to be severely truncated, and they just barely got the finish of the main event in before the PPV feed cut off. Untelevised matches are also allotted specific amounts of time, but the stakes aren't nearly as high if those matches go long or short.
• Time Count: An announcement to the fans of the elapsed/remaining time in a match, for example 5 minutes into a 20 minute match the ring announcer will tell the crowd something like "Five minutes, fifteen minutes remaining!", and they will start counting down as the match approaches the time limit ("Two minutes left! One minute!" and so on.) This was done partly to add legitimacy but mostly to build drama around time limit draws (see "Broadway" above) and matches that end just before the time limit expires. Archaic and mainly used in territories under the N.W.A banner, outside of ironman matches time counts haven't been seen on national TV since WCW stopped using them shortly after Turner bought the company, and since time limits are rarely a factor in matches today they aren't really needed in modern pro wrestling.
• Trans: The amount of money one wrestler agrees to pay to another to cover the cost of transportation, food, and lodging to a particular show. Historically, promoters didn't cover transportation or lodging costs, so wrestlers would often ride together in groups to save money. In the days of Kayfabe, heels rode with heels and babyfaces rode with babyfaces. The amount of "trans" paid to the driver ^note  driving was typically split between the group on longer trips or owner of the car varied but was usually based on the number of miles between the shows. An old joke in the wrestling business if a wrestler worked particularly stiff is that the victim owed the stiff worker trans.
• Transitional Champion: Someone who wins a title from one performer to pass it to another who couldn't beat the old champion for whatever reason. Usually because they were both babyfaces. Sometimes because a champion had a looming injury or suspension and there wasn't time to build a match with the other performer, so they drop the title to their current opponent. Bill Goldberg's 2017 WWE Universal Title win is an example; there wasn't time or interest in building a feud between then-champion Kevin Owens and Brock Lesnar, so Goldberg beat Owens and lost the title to Lesnar a month later at WrestleMania 33. The most famous example would probably be The Iron Sheik's 4 week run with the WWF belt in 1984 to create a gap between the multi-year title reigns of Bob Backlund and Hulk Hogan.
• The Triple H Era: A period of wrestling beginning in 2024, but the seeds were sewn when Endeavor, the parent company of UFC, bought the WWE in September of 2023 for $9.3 billion and merged the WWE and UFC into an entity called TKO Group Holdings. Paul "Triple H" Levesque was named "Chief Content Officer" by TKO bosses Nick Khan and Ari Emmanuel. Fans began to notice a shift in the creative direction of the company shortly thereafter. News articles began to come out that Vince McMahon had no impact on the creative direction of the product, much to the billionaire's dismay.
  
  Then in January of 2024 the news broke that former WWE paralegal Jenel Grant was planning to file a massive lawsuit against McMahon for sexual abuse and trafficking. A series of graphic texts accompanied the filing which detailed the extent of Grant's allegations. On January 26, 2024 Vince McMahon resigned from the board of TKO and began liquidating his shares of TKO stock over the next several months. TKO COO Mark Shapiro issued a statement in March 2024 that, "Vince McMahon has no role in (TKO's) operation and never will again." This cemented Triple H's standing as the sole head of WWE's creative direction. The term "Triple H Era" began circulating from WWE's official media, and the "Triple H Era" was proclaimed by Vince's own daughter (and Triple H's wife) Stephanie McMahon at Wrestlemania 40. In May, 2024 the Department of Justice asked Ms. Grant to pause her lawsuit so they could begin their own investigation into Vince McMahon, which Grant did.
  
  The Triple H era has been hallmarked by a return to more "traditional" wrestling angles and storytelling, but maintains a lot of the WWE style presentation. Longtime head producer Kevin Dunn retired from the company and producer Lee Fitting came in to change the way the product was shot and presented visually, eliminating a lot of Dunn's rapid disorienting cuts and dramatic television stylings in favor of a more sports-like feel along the lines of ESPN (where Fitting worked for many years). Heel authority figures vanished; replaced by Raw General Manager Adam Pearce and SmackDown General Manger Nick Aldis; two respected former wrestlers who play no-nonsense babyfaces in charge of their respective brands.
• Tryout Match: A match given to a wrestler to gauge potential so the promoter or booker can decide whether or not they want to use them. Often a dark match but sometimes airs on "B" or "C" shows.
• Turned by the Crowd: When the audience's reaction forces a change in face/heel alignment. For example, in the Becky Lynch vs Charlotte feud, Charlotte was initially booked as the face and Lynch as the heel, but the audience insisted on cheering Becky and booing Charlotte. Another great example can be seen when The Rock wrestled Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania. Hogan had come into the company as a heel, but still received massive cheers from the Toronto crowd because Toronto had historically been one of Hogan’s hottest cities, and it was Hogan’s first WrestleMania match in 9 years. Hogan and the Rock went with it, with Rock heeling on Hogan for much of the match. The match is still considered one of the best examples of a crowd influencing a match.
• Tweener: Short for In-betweener. Refers to a wrestler who is neither a strict heel nor a strict babyface. Compare Anti-Hero. The bulk of tweeners can be considered heels by any real definition (they cheat, use weapons, jump people from behind backstage, etc...), but get cheered either because they attack heels the crowd really hates (see "Stone Cold" Steve Austin) or they have enough charisma that people just start liking them (see Austin again, along with the New World Order and The Four Horsemen.) Note that a babyface getting booed because people are sick of them is not the same thing, that's X-Pac Heat, which is explained in more detail at the bottom of this page.
• Underneath: The bottom half of a wrestling card, typically working matches before the intermission. Wrestlers working underneath are the lowest full-time wrestlers in a promotion, typically only ranking above part-time TV jobbers. In the territory days, underneath matches would have shorter time limits and restrictions from the booker (no two men on the floor at the same time, no color) in order to not eclipse the top wrestlers.
• Valet: An attractive woman that accompanies a male wrestler to the ring. This is not the same thing as a female manager, a valet will not interfere in matches or cut promos, they are there purely for eye candy and occasionally to act as a Damsel in Distress, so most valets are in a babyface role. Often the valet will be in a Real Life relationship with her wrestler, Miss Elizabeth, Kimberly, and Sable were married to Randy Savage, Diamond Dallas Page, and Marc Mero, respectively; though in other cases they were just local models. Sable completely overshadowing Mero (who was on what was at the time a very high-priced contract) and basically burying him was pretty much the Trend Killer for the valet, and it's rarely seen in the modern era.
• Vanilla Midget: A term popularized by Kevin Nash to describe a small wrestler who lacks personality.
• Virgin crowd: A crowd that has never been exposed to live professional wrestling or hasn't experienced it in a long time. Considered very easy to work back in the day because they reacted to everything more than other crowds. Sometimes the result of returning to a "killed" town after a prolonged absence of several years. Also called a virgin territory.
• Visual Pinfall: A pinfall that is seen by the crowd and commentators, but not the ref, so it doesn't count (see "Ref Bump" above). Usually done so a losing babyface isn't just jobbing flat and can legitimately say he got screwed over ("I had you beat and everyone saw it, but you took out the ref!"), making a rematch an easy sell to fans, provided they care about the guys to begin with. A "visual tap-out" is the same thing, but with a submission hold.
• VTR: Production shorthand for a pre-taped segment. Actually stands for Video Tape Recorder, though nowadays it's just someone clicking a mouse.
• War: When two wrestling promotions are heavily competing against each other and trying to drive the other out of business. Historical wars include The Sheik's territory vs Dick the Bruiser's, Ann Gunkel's war with the Georgia territory, Jerry Jarrett's war with Nick Gulas, Jim Crockett Promotions vs the WWF ^note  Which led to, among other things, the creation of Clash at the Champions and the Royal Rumble, and the WWF vs WCW in the Monday Night Wars. Can result from running opposition. Often leads to a brief boom period for one or both promotions^note But not always, TNA tried running head-to-head with Monday Night Raw and got absolutely slaughtered, not only failing to put a dent in Raw's ratings (which actually went up thanks to counter-programming with stuff like the first face-to-face meeting of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels since the Montreal Screwjob 12 years earlier) but losing over 50% of their own viewers in the process and never getting them back, followed by a decline, which is why the territory promoters tried to avoid them.
• Wednesday Night Wars: The period when AEW's Dynamite went head-to-head with WWE's NXT for ratings supremacy, starting in October 2019 with the debut of Dynamite. The "war" proved to be one-sided, with AEW winning the ratings battle almost every week, both in total viewership and in the key 18–49 demographic^note Though keep in mind that Dynamite was beating WWE's developmental sub-promotion, not the shows that the wrestlers you'll see at the "Premium Live Events" (aka PPVs) appear on. Monday Night Raw gets one and a half times the viewers Dynamite does at minimum, Smackdown (which has the benefit of being on network TV) does anywhere between double and triple the ratings AEW pulls. The war ended with WWE moving NXT to Tuesday nights starting April 13, 2021.
• Wellnessed: Fan-speak for a wrestler getting suspended for failing a drug test, the name comes from WWE's Wellness Policy, which includes their testing program. If someone is suspended the press release will be something along the lines of "[Wrestler] has been suspended for [X] days for a violation of the WWE Wellness Policy."
• Wind Up: To mess with someone by intentionally trying to make them angry at someone or something else. This can range from good-natured ribs to trying to get a wrestler to hurt their standing in the company by making them believe they are due more than they are. If a wrestler is unpopular in the locker room, for example, other wrestlers might convince them that they're due more money, a title, or a bigger push to get them fired up at the promoter, which could lead to the wrestler getting heat on themselves. One wrestler might also try to harm another wrestler's personal relationships by making false claims. Younger wrestlers, especially arrogant ones, tend to be subjected to winding up. The idea is that wrestler doesn't know someone is winding them up, which can sometimes require inexperience on the part of the victim.
• Work: The opposite of a shoot. The art of constructing believable storylines and matches to further the fictional story told in pro wrestling.
  • Work is also a wrestler's ability to perform in the ring, though fans often a have a very different (and opposing) view of what "perform in the ring" means compared to how people people within the business see it. To fans it usually means the ability to perform moves and keep a fast pace (called "workrate" by smarks), to most wrestlers it means one thing and one thing only: the ability to draw money. Of course the two aren't mutually exclusive, as any fan of Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, or Bryan Danielson will tell you.
  • Additionally, any move, attack, or hold not legitimately executed or applied is called a "worked" move. The vast majority of moves performed in front of fans are worked, though potatoes and botches (see above) sometimes happen.
• Worked Shoot: An angle or promo designed and executed in such a way as to attempt to convince the viewers it was real, spontaneous or unplanned. CM Punk most famously delivered a worked shoot promo (the "pipe bomb") on Raw on June 27, 2011 about the state of WWE and why he was planning to leave it.
• Worker: A wrestler's ability to get the audience invested in themselves and/or their opponents. This can apply to knowing what moves to use and when to use them or knowing what to say to get the reaction you want. Note that a great worker isn't necessarily a great wrestler and vice versa. A classic example of a worker vs wrestler would be Dean Malenko, who could outwrestle 95% of any roster but never managed to connect with the audience at the level of anyone above a mid-carder. Meanwhile, Jerry Lawler could hardly outwrestle anyone in real life, yet Memphis wrestling fans came to see him for decades because of his ability to connect with them.
  • A related term is Technical worker. This describes someone's ability to perform moves well, safe, and believably. A good technical worker would be someone like the aforementioned Malenko. A technical worker doesn't necessarily draw money or connect with the fans, however.
• Working Boots: An expression for when a wrestler goes above and beyond their standard match to showcase their skills in order to prove a point to either the promoter, booker, the boys, or fans. A wrestler may also do this as a favor to another wrestler to put on the best match possible and make the other wrestler look good.
• Working Hurt: When a wrestler continues to wrestle despite nagging injuries that should keep them from wrestling. This mentality emerged during the territory days when a wrestler might lose their spot for taking time off. Not quite as prevalent as it used to be, partly thanks to contacts, but WCW was often criticized for encouraging this by docking the pay of wrestlers who took time off for injuries, and this is thought to have contributed to the pain pill dependency many former WCW wrestlers ended up having.
• Working the Boys: A type of worked shoot designed not just to fool the fans into thinking it's real, but also to fool the other wrestlers in the locker room. These are quite rare, mainly due to their tendency to go from a worked shoot to just a shoot, often causing problems off-camera^note To give two examples, the real-life hostilities between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels and the hostilities between Jim Cornette and Paul Heyman started off as total works designed to fool the locker room (and by extension the dirt sheets). This sort of angle also gave birth to the real life love triangle between Kevin Sullivan, Chris Benoit, and Nancy Toffoloni.
• Working the hold: Either attempting to make it look like a submission hold is legitimately being applied, selling the result of the hold, or keeping the fans' interest through movements and facial expressions. Failure to do this adequately results in a loss of interest from the fans and gave rise to the term "resthold" (see above).
• Wrasslin': A term used to denote wrestling in parts of the southern United States. Often employed more violence, blood, and personal feuds than territories further north. This style developed because smaller territories in the South had to draw from smaller population centers, so the promoters and bookers would keep people coming back with grudges and blood. Also called "Rasslin" or "Memphis style".
• Wrestler's Court: A Kangaroo Court proceeding backstage, with respected veteran wrestlers as "judge", "jury", and "prosecutor". Wrestler's court was used to mediate disputes between wrestlers or punish behavior considered unruly to the locker room, usually by some sort of compensation in terms of gifts and/or favors. Wrestler's court is now considered very controversial, as many feel it was often used as a tool to haze younger wrestlers, and has largely been phased out since around the beginning of the PG Era in the late 2000s.^note It's believed that Vince McMahon hated "Wrestler's Court" because he felt it undermined his authority, and only tolerated it because The Undertaker was in charge of it (which gives you an idea of the influence Taker has, see "locker room leader" above.) Once Taker's career starting winding down and he wasn't regularly at TV anymore Vince put his foot down and ended it.
• Wrestling Bear: A bear specfically trained to work with a professional wrestler as part of a match. Wrestling bears were common as attractions throughout the territories, but they were sometimes viewed as lowbrow by wrestlers within the indstry due to their carnival-like nature. Lou Thesz, for example, refused to work on cards that featured bears, midgets, or women due to the percerption that they called the legitimacy of professional wrestling into question. The wrestling bear more or less ended by the '80s due to several incidents, including the mauling of bear trainer Dave McKigney's girlfriend and his unrelated death from a car accident, and mutiple states banning the practice. Occasionally, other animals were used in place of a bear, though these tended to be one-off matches instead of animals specfically trained for recurring matches.
• Wrestling Psychology: In-ring acting ability, which includes both portraying a consistent attack strategy, and ability to sell the other guy's blows. Good psychology is what make a match look more like a believable competition, and less like two guys taking turns hitting each other until one of them suddenly loses. Psychology also involves knowing what to say and what to do to get the Intended Audience Reaction. Moreover, a wrestler with good psychology can be considered a good worker, but a good wrestler with bad psychology could not.
• Wrestling School: A school designed to train professional wrestlers. These are typically run by a retired or semi-retired wrestler. Classes can range from in-ring basics to cutting a promo, wrestling history, and Wrestling Psychology. Wrestling schools basically didn't exist before the 1980s. A prospective wrestler who didn't know someone in the business had to find a wrestler willing to train them and then hope the wrestler didn't take their money and leave town. ^note  The Undertaker's first experience in the wrestling business was paying Buzz Sawyer to train him, and Sawyer skipped town without teaching him anything except some amateur holds. Notable wrestling schools have included Killer Kowalski's school ^note  responsible for, among others, Triple H and Chyna and OVW. ^note  which trained or helped train John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, and Batista. WWE uses their own "Performance Center," which, combined with NXT, acts as their wrestling school.
  • Japanese wrestling schools are called Dojos, even those that are based in the west, like the New Japan Los Angeles dojo. The old ROH training academy was also called a dojo.
• Write Off (of TV): To create an angle (or modify an existing one) or air some sort of other segment that gives a Kayfabe explanation for a wrestler's absence. This can take on many different forms, for example an injured wrestler may get a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by some heels to explain the injury, and then be given an elaborate revenge storyline when he comes back, while a wrestler that just got fired will likely get a brief "[X] has been indefinitely suspended" from the announcers before never being mentioned on camera again. Compare Put on a Bus, a similar concept used in episodic TV shows. Also see "Job Out" above, a wrestler on an expiring contract will usually be written off TV with an angle that ends with them losing some sort of "Loser Leaves Town" match.
• X-Pac Heat: Refers to genuine hatred/dislike of a wrestler, not because that wrestler is a heel but because the fans don't want to see that wrestler anymore. Also called "go away heat", "go home heat", or simply "the wrong kind of heat".
• X Sign: Also called the X signal, this is a common signal referees use to alert the back that someone is legitimately hurt and may possibly need medical attention. A referee giving this signal will raise their arms up and make a giant X by crossing them. Can be “waved off” if the wrestler determines they can continue the match. Since smart fans and even casual fans have picked up on the meaning of this signal, it is sometimes used as part of worked shoot angle or Kayfabe injury.
• Young Boy: In Japanese wrestling, a new wrestler in training or rookie who does all of the grunt work in order to earn respect. It's typical for a young boy to carry bags, pick up and drive around older, established wrestlers, help set up the ring, and other odd jobs which are usually done by ring announcers, jobbers, and referees in the United States. In New Japan, rookies are called Young Lions.