Wrestling Terms

A-Show: A wrestling event where the marquee stars perform such as WWE RAW & Smackdown

A-Team: The wrestlers on an A-Show

Angle: Storyline or Events that lead to a feud between wrestlers

B-Show: A Wrestling event where the jobbers and mid carders wrestle such as WWE Superstars

B-Team: Group of wrestlers on a B-Show

Babyface: The good guy or the fan favorite

Backyard Wrestling: Wrestling performed by those who are usually untrained and do so for hobby rather than profession

Beat Down: When a wrestler or group of wrestlers attack a talent outside of a match, usually leaving the talent unable to compete

Blade: The practice of cutting ones forehead during a match to produce blood for effect

Blowoff: A match used to end a feud

Booker: The person in charge of organizing talent and putting together the card for a show as well as determining who wins and loses each match

Brand: Different shows owned by the same company. Ex. RAW or Smackdown

Broadway: A time limit draw ending for a match

Bump: a move in which a wrestler falls to the mat

Buyrate: A rating which indicates the number of PPVs that were purchased

Call a Match: To do play by play and commentary in the match like Jim Ross etc.

Canned Heat: boos and jeers pumped through the audio system or added in post-production

Card: The matches on a show

Carry: a wrestler who helps his opponent

Cheap Heat: When a wrestler wears rival jerseys of sports teams of the hometown or makes offensive comments or gestures designed to make the crowd boo

Cheap Pop: When a wrestler puts over the name of the town or the hometown sports team in order to make the crowd cheer

Cheapshot: A shot delivered to a wrestler from behind or when the referee isn’t looking in order to gain an unfair advantage

Clean Finish: A pin or submission in the ring that does not involve any sort of shenanigans, cheap shots or unethical practices

Countout: When a wrestler is outside of the ring for longer than a ten count during a standard match, the match ends and his opponent is the victor

Cut a Promo: To do an interview or come out and start talking

Dark Match: A match on a tv show that is not shown on TV and only seen by those in the arena

Disqualification: When a wrestler breaks the rules and the referee ends the match and awards the victory to the opposing wrestler

Draw: When neither wrestler wins or loses, such as a double pin or double count out

Dusty Finish: Generally when a face wins a match, but the decision is reversed to award the victory to the heel. The term is named for Dusty Rhodes who was known for booking such matches

Face: Short word for babyface; Good guy or fan favorite

Feud: Interaction between two or more specific wrestlers that lasts for a while

Finish: The way that the match is scripted to end

Finisher: The finishing move – Stunner, Tombstone, etc.

Foreign Object: An illegal object in the match like a chair or brass knuckles

Gimmick: The personality of the wrestler

Gimmick Match: A non-standard match. Ex: Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, TLC, etc.

Gold: Championship belt

Green: An inexperienced wrestler

Gusher: A wrestler who heavily bleeds

Hardcore: ECW style matches in which anything goes and weapons are often utilized

Hardway: When a wrestler bleeds from actual contact in a match instead of blading

Heat: When fans boo a wrestler, or a wrestler is in trouble with officials backstage

Heel: The bad guy

Hot Tag: When a face is tagged into the match and clears the ring after his partner has been beaten down

House: Number of fans in a building

House Show: A show that is not taped for TV

Hulk Up: When a wrestler no-sells attacks and turns the momentum in his favor, popularized by Hulk Hogan

Job: A planned loss

Jobber: A wrestler who loses in order to make another wrestler look good

Jabroni: Slang for the word jobber

Kayfabe: Comes from the carny word for “fake”. When wrestlers are practicing kayfabe they are completely in character

Kick Out: When a wrestler lifts his legs in the air in order to gain leverage to lift up his shoulders and escape a pinfall

Lucha Libre: A Mexican style of wrestling which typically includes fast paced action, masked wrestlers and midgets

Luchador: A participant in Lucha Libre wrestling

Main Event: The last match of the show which is typically the biggest drawing factor

Main Eventer: A wrestler that is in contention for the world title and usually wrestles in main events

Manager: A person who accompanies a wrestler to the ring and seeks to represent and gain advantages for their client. Ex. Jimmy Hart

Mark: A wrestling fan who believes everything in wrestling is real

Mark out: To become very excited when something happens in wrestling

Mid-Card: The matches that occur during the middle portion of a show

Mid-Carder: A wrestler that is not a main eventer, but not quite a jobber

No Show: When a wrestler doesn’t show up for a scheduled appearance

Over: To be popular with the audience

Oversell: When a wrestler exaggerates the impact of wrestling moves

Paper: When a promoter gives out free tickets in order to make the shows look full

Pay Per View: A wrestling event in which the customer must pay in order to watch

Pinfall: The end of a match that results from a wrestler’s shoulders being held on the mat for three seconds

Pop: When the fans cheer

Promo: A monologue delivered by a wrestler

Promoter: The person in charge of bringing in fans and raising awareness for shows

Push: When a wrestler wins a lot of matches to make him look good

Pyro: Explosions and fireworks used to accent wrestler entrances and the opening of shows

Ratings: A tool used to determine the number of viewers for a program. Nielsen Media Research is the predominate company that calculates these figures in the United States.

Ref Bump: When a referee is knocked out by contact from a wrestler

Ring Rust: When a wrestler has been away from the ring for a period of time and is not as fast or fluid as in the past

Rope Break: The act of grabbing the rope during a submission or pinfall in order to end the hold/count

Ropes: The steel wires around the ring which enclose the structure

Rub: When a veteran talent is in the ring with a younger talent and works to get them over

Rudo: The heel wrestler in Lucha Libre wrestling

Run In: When a wrestler not involved in a match and is not at ringside comes in to interfere

Selling: The act of making wrestling moves looking legitimate

Shoot: Something in wrestling that is real or not planned

Singlet: Ring gear that resembles the outfits of amateur wrestlers

Smark: Someone who believes that they know the inner workings of the business, but in reality has no experience in the business and is a fan

Spot: A move that is planned in advance

Spotfest: Several pre-planned moves that are executed in quick succession

Squash: When a wrestler is defeated in a short period of time

Stable: A group of wrestlers

Stiff: When a wrestler delivers moves and blows in a manner that causes them to hurt instead of delivering them in a safe manner

Strap: Championship belt

Submission: A match that ends as a result of a wrestler tapping out or being deemed unconscious

Submission Hold: A move that makes an opponent give up or tap out – Sharpshooter, Ankle Lock

Swerve: A twist in the storyline

Tag: When a wrestler slaps the hand or body of his partner to bring them into a tag match

Tag Rope: A piece of string in the corner whose length a wrestler cannot exceed when receiving a tag

Tap Out: When a wrestler slaps the mat while a submission move is applied to signify that they give up

Technico: a face wrestler in Lucha Libre

Turn: When a wrestler changes from a heel to a face, or from a face to a heel

Tweener: A wrestler who is neither completely face nor completely heel

Undercard: The matches that occur before the main event

Valet: Like a manager, but a usually a female

Vignette: A pre-taped backstage segment

Work: Something in wrestling that is planned

Worked Shoot: Something that is planned but is designed to look as though it is spontaneous

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