Nearby Words

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling, or pro wrestling, is a non-competitive professional sport, where all matches are scripted by the promotion's booking staff, and is also considered an athletic performing art, containing strong elements of catch wrestling, mock combat and theatre. It has origins in carnival sideshows in the late 19th century as part of displays of athletics and strength. Modern professional wrestling usually features striking and grappling techniques, which are modeled after diverse sets of wrestling and pugilistic styles from around the world.

Professional wrestling has become a pervasive form of entertainment especially in Japan and North American countries. High-profile figures in the sport often become cultural icons in their native or adopted home countries, such as Ric Flair, André the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and The Rock in the United States; Rikidozan, Antonio Inoki, Giant Baba and The Crush Gals (Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka) in Japan; El Santo, Blue Demon and Mil Máscaras in Mexico; and Bret Hart in Canada. Leading universities have developed courses of study on the cultural significance of professional wrestling.

Professional wrestling is a billion-dollar industry, drawing revenue from ticket sales, television broadcasts, branded merchandise and home video. It was instrumental in making pay-per-view a viable method of content delivery. Annual shows such as WrestleMania are among the highest-selling pay-per-view programming.

Currently, the dominant professional wrestling company worldwide is the United States-based World Wrestling Entertainment, which absorbed many smaller regional companies in the late twentieth century, as well as its primary competitor, World Championship Wrestling. In Mexico, the top promotion is Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre; in Japan, it is New Japan Pro Wrestling; and in South Africa, it is World Wrestling Professionals.

Several documentaries have been produced looking at professional wrestling, most notably, Beyond the Mat, Wrestling with Shadows, and Bloodstained Memoirs.


There are many different styles and approaches in presenting professional wrestling, varying from country to country and region to region, and often promotions specialize in a particular genre or style.

Sports entertainment style -- combines colorful characters and dramatic storylines, with less focus on the sporting aspects. This is the style of product produced by World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and is arguably the most popular form of professional wrestling. Despite its popularity, it is decried by some critics as over the top, due to frequent usage of gratuitous violence, and crude comedy.

Southern style -- colloquially (sometimes mockingly) known as "'rasslin'" -- puts equal emphasis on theatrics and athleticism, and tends to favor traditional roles of hero and villain. It was wildly popular in the American South throughout the twentieth century, where it was produced by the National Wrestling Alliance, Jim Crockett Promotions, and early World Championship Wrestling.

Puroresu -- Another type, finding new popularity in North America, is strong style wrestling, which forgoes elaborate characterizations in favor of athletic prowess. This is very popular in Japan as the fighters use martial arts strikes and dangerous submission holds similar to mixed martial arts. Promotions of this style include Pro Wrestling NOAH and Universal Wrestling Federation.

King's Road -- is a variant of Japanese puroresu which features long matches filled with dramatic tension built up from the physical struggles. This style was pioneered by All Japan Pro Wrestling.

Hardcore -- is a style which emphasizes high levels of brutality, focusing on use of weapons and unusual environment elements for heightened violence, it is also known as extreme, garbage or ultra-violent wrestling. The most famous promotion to use this style was Extreme Championship Wrestling. Other promotions known for the hardcore style are IWA Mid-South and CZW in the United States and FMW and Big Japan Pro Wrestling in Japan.

Lucha Libre -- (Spanish for "free fight") is a Mexican style that is characterized by rapid sequences of holds and moves as well as spectacular aerial maneuvers and colorful theatrics (most notably Masks). Lucha libre has elements of sports entertainment (masks and midget wrestlers) but also emphasizes on a wrestler's athletic prowess and matches can often have dire results, match stipulations include loss of hair or masks for the losing opponent. Lucha libre enjoyed a surge of popularity and critical acclaim internationally during the 1990s, and has greatly influenced wrestlers from other countries such as the United States, Japan and Canada. Rey Mysterio Jr. and Último Dragón are notable foreign born lucha-style wrestlers who have found much success in their home countries.

While some promotions specialize in one specific style, others produce events with a more diverse array that appeals to varied tastes. Extreme Championship Wrestling, for instance, is commonly known as a pioneer of the hardcore style, but its product is best described as Southern style with less emphasis on the hero/villain dichotomy.


The nature of professional wrestling is only one of the many differences it has with traditional wrestling. There is no governing authority for professional wrestling rules, although there is a general standard which has developed. Each promotion has their own variation, but all are similar enough to avoid confusion. Any rule described here is simply a standard, and may or may not correspond exactly with any given promotion's ruleset.

General structure



  • pinning the opponent's shoulders to the mat for three seconds (or sometimes five, though this is rarely used today),
  • knocking out or otherwise incapacitating the opponent,
  • forcing the opponent to submit,
  • a forfeit via a disqualified opponent,
  • or the opponent remaining outside the ring for too long (count-out).

These are each explained in greater detail below. Typically, falls must occur within the ring area.

Most wrestling matches last for a set number of falls, with the first side to achieve that number of pinfalls, submissions, or countouts being the winner. Historically, matches were wrestled to 3 falls ("best 2 out of 3") or 5 falls ("best 3 out of 5"). The standard for modern matches is one fall. These matches are given a time limit; if not enough falls are scored by the end of the time limit, the match is declared a draw. Modern matches are generally given a 10- to 30- minute time limit for standard matches; title matches can go for up to one hour.



Many modern specialty matches have been devised, with unique winning conditions. See Professional wrestling match types.

Each match is assigned a referee, who is the final arbitrator. (In multi-man lucha libre matches, two referees are used, one inside the ring and one outside.) Generally an action must be seen by a referee to be declared for a fall or disqualification. This is commonly exploited to great dramatic effect. Referees are expected to be fair, neutral and unbiased, although special guest referees may be used from time to time, who usually display personal favoritism and heavily influence the outcome of the match.

Matches are held within a wrestling ring, an elevated square canvas mat with posts on each corner. A cloth apron hangs over the edges of the ring. Three horizontal ropes or cables surround the ring, suspended with turnbuckles which are connected to the posts. For safety, the ropes are padded at the turnbuckles and cushioned mats surround the floor outside the ring (though in kayfabe, the mats do not offer much protection. Jerry "the King" Lawler once mentioned at Royal Rumble 2005 "Those mats are more to protect the floor than they are the wrestlers that are out there."). Guardrails or a similar barrier enclose this area from the audience. Wrestlers are generally expected to stay within the confines of the ring, though matches sometimes end up outside the ring, and even in the audience, to add excitement.

Tag rules

In some team matches, only one entrant from each team may be designated as the 'legal' or 'active' wrestler at any given moment. Two wrestlers must make physical contact (typically palm-to-palm) in order to transfer this legal status. This is known as a tag, with the participants tagging out and tagging in.





Wrestlers may grab, hold, twist, or strike any part of an opponent's body, except the throat, groin, or eye. An opponent's hair or clothing may not be grabbed.

Wrestlers may strike an opponent using any part of their own limbs, head or body, with the following exceptions: a wrestler may not punch his or her opponent with a closed fist nor kick his or her opponent with the toe of their boot. Biting is not allowed, nor is spitting in the eyes.

Wrestlers may lift an opponent and throw them, drop them, or otherwise force them to the mat. Such techniques which land an opponent on the head or neck, such as the piledriver, may be disallowed by some promotions.



Ways to Win


In order to score by pinfall, a wrestler must pin both his opponent's shoulders against the mat while the referee slaps the mat three times. This is the most common form of defeat. If a wrestler's shoulders are down (both shoulders touching the mat) and any part of the opponent's body is lying over the opponent, it is completely legal for the three count to be made. Illegal pinning methods include using the ropes for leverage and hooking the opponent's clothing, therefore they are popular cheating methods for heels, unless certain stipulations make such an advantage legal. Such pins as these are rarely seen by the referee and are subsequently often used by heels and on occasion by cheating faces to win matches.

Occasionally, there are instances where a pinfall is made where both wrestlers' shoulders were on the mat for the three count. This situation will most likely lead to a draw, and in some cases a continuation of the match or a future match to determine the winner.


To score by submission, the wrestler must make his opponent give up, usually, but not necessarily, by putting him in a submission hold (i.e., figure four leg-lock, arm-lock, sleeper-hold etc.).


A wrestler may voluntarily submit by verbally informing the referee. Also, a wrestler can indicate a voluntary submission by "tapping out, that is, tapping a free hand against the mat or against an opponent. Submission was initially a large factor in professional wrestling, but following the decline of the submission-oriented catch-as-catch-can style from mainstream professional wrestling, the submission largely faded. Despite this, some wrestlers, such as Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Ken Shamrock, Chris Benoit and Bret Hart, became famous for winning matches via submission. A wrestler with a signature submission technique is portrayed as better at applying the hold, making it more painful or more difficult to get out of than others who use it.


A countout (alternatively "count-out" or "count out") happens when a wrestler is out of the ring long enough for the referee to count to ten (or twenty), and thus disqualified. The count is broken and re-started when a wrestler in the ring exits the ring. If one wrestler is counted down for a count (usually 10 seconds) it is considered a pinfall for the other wrestler as long as they are on their feet at the end of the count.


Disqualification from a match is called for a number of reasons:

  • Striking an opponent with a foreign object (unless the rules of the match specifically allow this).
  • Throwing your opponent over the top rope (this was once illegal in the National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling, but few promotions use this rule now).
  • In a Royal Rumble, it is illegal to enter the ring before your due entrance.

In practice, the rules of the fight are often violated without disqualification due to the referee being distracted and not seeing the offense, or the referee seeing the offense but allowing the match to continue. In WWE, a referee must see the violation with his own eyes to rule that the match end in a disqualification and the referee's ruling is almost always final. It is not uncommon for the referees themselves to get knocked out during a match, which is commonly referred to by the term "ref bump". While the referee remains "unconscious", rules are often violated at will. In some cases, a referee might disqualify a person under the presumption that it was that wrestler who knocked him out; most referee knockouts are arranged to allow a wrestler, usually a heel, to gain an advantage. For example, a wrestler may get whipped into a referee at a slower speed, knocking the ref down for short amount of time; during that interim period, one wrestler may pin his opponent for a three-count and would have won the match but for the referee being down. Also, the referee rarely disqualifies the wrestler who knocked him down when the referee recovers.


In most wrestling promotions, a championship cannot change hands as a result of a disqualification, often referred to as the "champion's advantage." Playing into this, some heel wrestlers will attempt to "get themselves disqualified" to "protect" their championships.


  • Tables, Ladders, and Chairs (a ladder match where all three items may be used as a weapon against an opponent).



No Contest

A wrestling match may be declared a No Contest if the winning conditions are unable to occur. This can be due to excessive interference, loss of referee's control over the match, one or more participants sustaining debilitating injury not caused by the opponent, or the inability of a scheduled match to even begin. A No Contest is a state separate and distinct from a draw -- a draw indicates winning conditions were met. Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably in practice, this usage is technically incorrect.

Dramatic elements



In Latin America and English-speaking countries, most wrestlers (and other on-stage performers) portray character roles, sometimes with personalities wildly different from their own. These personalities are a gimmick intended to heighten interest in a wrestler without regard to athletic ability. Some can be unrealistic and cartoon-like, while others carry more verisimilitude. In lucha libre, many characters wear masks, adopting a secret identity akin to a super hero, a near-sacred tradition.

An individual wrestler may keep one persona for his entire career, or may change from time to time to better suit the demands of the audience or company. Sometimes a character is owned and trademarked by the company, forcing the wrestler to find a new one when he leaves, and sometimes a character is owned by the wrestler. Many wrestlers are strongly identified with their character, even responding to the name in public or between friends. A professional wrestling character's popularity can grow to the point that it makes appearances in other media (see Hulk Hogan, El Santo) or even give the performer enough visibility to enter politics (Antonio Inoki and Jesse Ventura, among others).

Typically, matches are staged between a protagonist (historically an audience favorite, known as a face, or "the good guy") and an antagonist (historically a villain with arrogance, a tendency to break rules, or other unlikable qualities, called a heel). In recent years, however, anti-heroes have also become prominent in professional wrestling. There is also a less common role of a "tweener", who is neither fully face nor fully heel yet able to play either role effectively.


As with personas in general, a character's face or heel alignment may change with time, or remain constant over its lifetime.




Other stories result from a natural rivalry between two or more characters. Outside of performance, these are referred to as feuds. A feud can exist between any number of participants and can last for a few days up to multiple decades. The feud between Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat lasted from the late 70's into early 90's. The career-spanning history between characters Mike Awesome and Masato Tanaka is another example of a long-running feud.


Since the advent of television, many other elements have been utilized to tell story within a professional wrestling setting: pre- and post-match interviews, "backstage" skits, positions of authority, division rankings (typically the #1-contendership spot), contracts, lotteries, and even news stories on promotion websites.

Also, anything that can be used as an element of drama can exist in professional wrestling stories: romantic relationships (including love triangles and marriage), racism, classism, nepotism, favoritism, family bonds, personal histories, grudges, theft, cheating, assault, betrayal, bribery, seduction, stalking, confidence tricks, extortion, blackmail, substance abuse, self-doubt, self-sacrifice; even kidnapping, paedophilia, sexual fetishism, misogyny, rape and death have been portrayed in wrestling. Some promotions have included supernatural elements such as magic, curses, the undead and satanic imagery.


Championship titles

Professional wrestling mimics the structure of title match combat sports. Participants compete for a championship title, and must defend it after winning it. These titles are represented physically by a belt that can be worn by the champion. In the case of team wrestling, there is a belt for each member of the team.

Almost all professional wrestling promotions have one major title, and some have more. Titles are designated by divisions of weight, height, gender, wrestling style and other qualifications.

Typically, each promotion only recognizes the 'legitimacy' of their own titles, although cross-promotion does happen. Also, when one promotion absorbs or purchases another, the titles from the defunct promotion may continue to be defended in the new promotion.

Behind the scenes, the decision makers in a company will decide to give a title to the most accomplished performer, or the one with the most popular or exciting character. Lesser titles may also be awarded to those performers who show potential, thus allowing them greater exposure to the audience. Sometimes, though, a title will be given to a performer out of necessity, nepotism, politics, a desire for controversy, or other unmerited circumstance. A combination of a championship's lineage, the caliber of performers as champion, and the frequency and manner of title changes, dictates the audience's perception of the title's quality, significance and reputation.

A wrestler's championship accomplishments can be central to their career, becoming a measure of their performance ability and drawing power. The most decorated wrestlers tend to be revered as legends. American wrestler Ric Flair has had multiple world title reigns spanning over three decades. Japanese wrestler Último Dragón once held and defended a record 10 titles simultaneously.

Non-standard matches


Perhaps the most well-known non-standard match is the cage match, in which the ring is surrounded by a fence or similar metal structure, with the express intention of preventing escape or outside interference -- and with the added bonus of the cage being a potentially brutal weapon or platform for launching attacks.

Another example is the WWE's Royal Rumble match, which involves thirty participants in a random and unknown order. The Rumble match is itself a spectacle in that it is a once-yearly event with multiple participants, including individuals who might not interact otherwise. But it also serves as a catalyst for the company's ongoing feuds, as well as a springboard for new storylines -- most importantly determining the main event at the following WrestleMania.

Ring entrance

While the wrestling matches themselves are the primary focus of professional wrestling, a key dramatic element of the business can be entrances of the wrestlers to the arena and ring. It is typical for a wrestler to get their biggest crowd reaction (or 'pop') for their ring entrance, rather than for anything they do in the wrestling match itself.


Other dramatic elements of a ring entrance can include:

  • a distinct sound or opening note in the music (used to elicit a Pavlovian response from the crowd)
  • pyrotechnics or smoke
  • darkening of the arena, often accompanied by mood lighting or strobe lighting, such as in The Undertaker's dramatic entrance
  • driving a motor vehicle into the arena
  • talking to the crowd using a distinctive patter
  • coming through the audience, such as The Sandman's beer drinking and can smashing entrance, or Diamond Dallas Page's exit through the crowd.
  • accompaniment by a ringside crew or personal security

Another method of entry involves descending from the ceiling with a zip line or rappel line and stunt harness. This has been done by Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XII, and gained some controversy over its role in the death of wrestler Owen Hart.

Some of the bigger stars in the industry, such as Triple H, The Undertaker, and The Sandman, can perform ring entrances lasting up to three minutes or more. It is not uncommon for ring entrances to sometimes last longer than the match itself, especially in matches involving a mismatch.

Special ring entrances are also developed for big occasions, most notably the WrestleMania event. WrestleMania III for example saw all wrestlers enter the arena on motorized miniature wrestling rings. Live bands are sometimes hired to perform live entrance music at special events.


Men's wrestling

The vast majority of professional wrestlers are men, especially in the North American WWE, where they are usually large in size, often to extremes. Notable examples include André the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Paul "Big Show" Wight, The Undertaker, Yokozuna, Giant Gonzales, The Great Khali, and Kane. Usually, competitions or divisions are set up for men of similar wrestling styles, such as technical, brawling, high flying, lucha and hardcore. However, matches involving different weight divisions are often created and are never referred to as unusual or against any rules, despite large differences in height or strength. On rare occasions, men and women will wrestle each other.

Women's wrestling

The women’s division of professional wrestling has maintained a recognized world champion since 1937, when Mildred Burke won the original World Women's title. She then formed the World Women's Wrestling Association in the early 1950s and recognized herself as the first champion, although the championship would be vacated upon her retirement in 1956. A new women's world championship was then recognized later that same year, when The Fabulous Moolah was crowned the first ever NWA World Women's Championship (the predecessor to the WWE Women's Championship) upon her victory in a tournament. Traditionally, women’s matches were lower on the card and rarely considered main event material in the United States. Through the 1980s and into the mid 1990's, women’s wrestling in the US was presented as a serious sport on the same level as men’s wrestling, although it had considerably less popularity with short-lived revivals in both the major promotions of the time, World Wrestling Entertainment and World Championship Wrestling. It was not until the late 1990s that WWE began to present their women’s division with a focus on the women as "Divas" and eye-candy rather than athletes; many of these women acted as managers and valets, and had little training in wrestling ability. There was a brief period in the early-2000's, where the women's division on WWE's flagship show RAW was once again promoted as a serious sport with Trish Stratus and Lita as its top stars, and both women even headlined an edition of Raw in a main event match for the Women's Championship; as is Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's ongoing women's division upon the inception of its Women's Championship in October 2007. Matches and segments involving the Knockouts, a term used by TNA to refer to its female talent, have contributed to drawing some of the better ratings of Impact shows.

In Japan, women’s wrestling or joshi puroresu has a long established history, with an all female promotion founded as early as 1955 (the predecessor to All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling or AJW), and has always been presented as a serious, highly athletic sport on the same level as their male counterparts. The WWWA World Heavyweight Championship, which was directly descended from Burke's original World Women's title, was revived by AJW in 1970 and recognized as its top singles championship ever since. From the late 1970s until the dawn of the new millennium, women's wrestling experienced a wave of mainstream popularity in Japan unheard of anywhere else in the world, where the phenomenal success of the Crush Gals tag team was often compared to Hulk Hogan's Hulkamania during the same time period in the USA. While female wrestling in Japan is traditionally handled by promotions that specialize in joshi puroresu, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, a male-dominated promotion known for its "hardcore wrestling", also had a small women's division featuring female performers such as ”Combat” Toyoda and Megumi Kudo. Toyoda and Kudo would go on and headline one of FMW’s largest cards in an "Exploding No Rope Barbed Wire Deathmatch." By 2005, both all-female major federations (AJW and GAEA Japan) had closed, but female wrestlers still compete in various other smaller, independent promotions.

There are several other promotions where women’s wrestling is still presented and promoted as a serious sport. In the US, SHIMMER Women Athletes is an all-female pro-wrestling promotion affiliated with notable independent promotion Ring of Honor, and considered on par with male wrestling. In Mexico, though rarely as prominent as their American, Canadian or Japanese counterparts, female wrestlers or luchadoras have always been popular and highly respected, and many went on to compete overseas. In Europe, ChickFight and Queens of Chaos are the leading companies for women's professional wrestling in the United Kingdom and France respectively, again considered on par if not superior to male wrestling.

Midget wrestling

Midget wrestling can be traced to professional wrestling's carnival and vaudeville origins. In recent years, the popularity and prevalence of midgets in wrestling has greatly decreased due to wrestling companies depriving midget divisions of storyline and/or feud. However, WWE's has made a few attempts to enter this market with their "mini's" in the 90's & the "junior's league" ar recent as 2006. It is still a popular form of entertainment in Mexican wrestling, mostly as a "sideshow."

Some wrestlers may have their own specific "mini me", like Mascarita Sagrada and his midget counterpart Mark Sloan, Alebrije has Quije, etc. There are also cases in which midgets can become valets for a wrestler, and even get physically involved in matches, like Alushe, who often accompanies Tinieblas, or Kemonito, who is portrayed as Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre's mascot and is also a valet for Mistico. World Wrestling Entertainment's Dave Finlay is often aided in his matches by a midget known mainly as Hornswoggle, who hides under the ring and gives a shillelagh to Finlay to use on his opponent. Finlay also occasionally throws him at his opponent(s). Hornswoggle has also been given a run with the Cruiserweight Championship, and it has since been revealed that he is the (kayfabe) son of Dave Finlay.

Intergender wrestling


In the 1980s, mixed tag team matches began to take place, with a male and female on each team and a rule that stated only the males and females could attack each other. If a tag was made, the other team had to automatically switch their legal wrestler too. Despite these restrictions, many mixed tag matches do feature some physical interaction between participants of different genders. For example, a heel may take a cheapshot at the female wrestler of the opposing team to draw a negative crowd reaction.

Intergender singles bouts were first fought on a national level in the 1990s. This began with Luna Vachon, who faced men (and usually defeated them) in both ECW and WWF. Later, Chyna became the first female to hold a heavyweight belt that was not exclusive to women when she won the WWF Intercontinental Championship .

Independent wrestlers

Unlike most other sports, the essence of Pro Wrestling's roots can still be seen all over the country. Independent Wrestling Circuits (or Leagues, Federations, or Promotions) can be found in almost any community in the United States, with some cities having numerous leagues using many of the same wrestlers as other nearby leagues. Many promotions have events at National Guard Armories, Recreation Centers, secondary schools, flea markets, churches, bars, and shopping center parking lots. Production values are almost always low, promotion is done by word of mouth, flyers, cable access television, and the internet. Wrestlers on the independent wrestling scene take a role more closely defined as independent contractors, working for multiple wrestling promotions and are generally paid per appearance. The majority of mainstream wrestlers begin on the independent circuit, including recent World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk WWE's RAW brand.

Select active wrestling federations and promotions

Major American Organizations

Independent Promotions


Lucha Libre



Those involved in producing professional wrestling have developed a kind of global fraternity, with familial bonds, shared language and passed-down traditions. New performers are expected to "pay their dues" for a few years by working in lower-profile promotions before working their way upward. The permanent rosters of most promotions develop a backstage pecking order, with veterans mediating conflicts and mentoring younger wrestlers. For many decades (and still to a lesser extent today) performers were expected to keep the illusions of wrestling's legitimacy alive even while not performing, essentially acting in character any time they were in public. Some veterans speak of a "sickness" among wrestling performers, an inexplicable pull to remain active in the wrestling world despite the devastating effects the job can have on one's life and health.

Fans of professional wrestling have their own subculture, comparable to those of anime, science fiction, video games or comic books. Those who are interested in the backstage occurrences, future storylines and reasonings behind company decisions read newsletters written by journalists with inside ties to the wrestling industry. These "rags" or "dirt sheets" have expanded into the internet, where their information can be dispensed on an up-to-the-minute basis. Some have expanded into radio shows.

Some fans enjoy a pastime of collecting tapes of wrestling shows from specific companies, of certain wrestlers, or of specific genres. The internet has given fans exposure to worldwide variations of wrestling they would be unable to see otherwise. Since the 1990s, many companies have been founded which deal primarily in wrestling footage.

Like other mainstream sports, fantasy leagues have developed around professional wrestling. Some take this concept further by creating E-feds (electronic federations), where a user can create their own fictional wrestling character, and roleplay storylines with other users, leading to scheduled "shows" where match results are determined by the organizers, usually based on a combination of the characters' statistics and the players' roleplaying aptitude, sometimes with audience voting.


Professional wrestling in mainstream culture




Some terminology originating in professional wrestling has found its way into the common vernacular. Concepts such as "cage match", "body slam", "sleeper hold" and "tag team" are used even by those who do not watch professional wrestling. The term "smackdown", which originated in the late 90s in the World Wrestling Federation, is now listed in Webster's Dictionary as of 2007.

Many television shows and films have been produced which portray in-character professional wrestlers as protagonists, such as Mucha Lucha, Nacho Libre, and the Santo film series.


Critical study and analysis of professional wrestling


But this was not always the case; in the early 20th century, once it became apparent that the "sport" was worked, pro wrestling was looked down on as a cheap entertainment for the uneducated working class -- an attitude that still exists to varying degrees today. The French theorist Roland Barthes was among the first to propose that wrestling was worthy of deeper analysis, in his essay "The World of Wrestling" from his book Mythologies, first published in 1957. Barthes argued that it should be looked at not as a scamming of the ignorant, but as spectacle; a mode of theatric performance for a willing, if bloodthirsty, audience. This work is considered a foundation of all later study.

While pro wrestling is often described simplistically as a "soap opera for males", it has also been cited as filling the role of past forms of literature and theatre; a synthesis of classical heroics, commedia dell'arte, revenge tragedies, morality plays and burlesque. The characters and storylines portrayed by a successful promotion are seen to reflect the current mood, attitudes, and concerns of that promotion's society (and can, in turn, influence those same things). Wrestling's high levels of violence and masculinity make it a vicarious outlet for aggression during peacetime.

Documentary filmmakers have studied the lives of wrestlers and the effects the profession has on themselves and their families. The 1999 theatrical documentary Beyond The Mat focused on Terry Funk, a wrestler nearing retirement; Mick Foley, a wrestler within his prime; Jake Roberts, a former star fallen from grace; and a school of wrestling students trying to break into the business. The 2005 release Lipstick and Dynamite chronicled the development of women's wrestling throughout the twentieth century. Pro wrestling has been featured several times on HBO's Real Sports. MTV's documentary series True Life featured two episodes titled "I'm a Professional Wrestler" and "I Want to Be a Professional Wrestler". Other documentaries have been produced by The Learning Channel (The Secret World of Professional Wrestling) and A&E Network (Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows).

See also


Professional wrestling worldwide

Lists of wrestlers

Types of professional wrestling

Fantasy professional wrestling

Radio programs

In fiction


External links

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