Professional Wrestling

I

Introduction

Professional Wrestling, form of entertainment in which wrestlers battle each other in matches that are scripted and rehearsed beforehand. To help give the fights dramatic tension, some professional wrestlers adopt stage names, wear costumes, and make grand entrances into the arena. Before and after the actual bouts, many wrestlers also taunt and challenge each other and the spectators.

Professional wrestling developed from amateur wrestling, but while the two sports resemble each other in some ways, they are not closely related. In most sports, professional competitors represent the sport’s best athletes—those with the ability to rise to the highest level of competition. Professional wrestlers are skilled athletes, but they perform as entertainers and not as competitors. The win-loss record of a professional wrestler, therefore, does not indicate how successful he or she is. Many professional wrestlers never win titles but nonetheless capture the imagination of fans and attract spectators and television viewers to the sport.

For more information on amateur wrestling, see Wrestling. For more information on types of wrestling that originated in Asia, see Martial Arts.

II

Wrestlers and Promoters

Most aspiring professional wrestlers—both men and women—attend special wrestling schools, where they learn wrestling and entertainment skills. Dozens of these schools operate throughout North America. Most are run by retired professional wrestlers such as Bill Anderson, Killer Kowalski, and Larry Sharpe. Many people enroll in professional wrestling schools, but only a few are skilled and determined enough to complete the course and become professional wrestlers.

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In school, a wrestler learns holds and moves such as a headlock, in which the wrestler grips the arm around the opponent’s head or neck. Because wrestling is so physically intense, the wrestler also learns how to decrease the danger of becoming injured while falling or being hit by another wrestler. And most importantly, a wrestler takes a stage name, adopts a character to use in bouts, and learns how to represent this character as a heel (villain) for the audience to boo, or as a babyface (hero) for it to cheer.

Wrestling matches are arranged by a team of writers and producers called bookers. Many bookers are retired wrestlers who want to stay in the business. The bookers write short-range, medium-range, and long-range scenarios for the wrestlers. The scripts plot out how the wrestler’s career will progress. The writers also plan how individual matches will be fought, although the scripts do not spell out every move. For example, the scenario of a match may tell the wrestlers how long a match should last and who should win with what move, but the wrestlers themselves improvise most of the match’s details.

Wrestling events are run by promoters. Some promoters—such as Vince McMahon, Jr., of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)—control or own an entire organization. Other promoters simply work for an organization. The promoters publicize events through television ads, magazines, and the Internet. In addition, the promoters arrange press interviews about their organizations or the wrestlers they employ. Top wrestlers appear on television entertainment shows or act in movies or television series. This publicity has helped make professional wrestling a part of American popular culture.

Another popular method of promotion is televised interviews and confrontations between wrestlers outside the ring. These elements showcase the wrestlers’ personalities, allowing them to enhance their personas in front of fans. With the proliferation of cable television channels and the availability of inexpensive video equipment, even small organizations can utilize this promotional strategy.

III

Typical Match

A typical wrestling match features a one-on-one battle. Matches are held in a wrestling ring—a square platform that is elevated above the arena floor and bounded by several sets of ropes. The wrestlers typically confront each other before the match, and once the actual bout has begun, they gloat and stalk around the wrestling ring when they are winning. They often yell at the referee or at audience members during the match, pretending to be distracted by activity outside the ring. Unlike boxing matches, there are no timed rounds in professional wrestling. Most matches are one-fall bouts, meaning that they go on until one wrestler scores a fall by pinning the opponent’s shoulders to the mat for a count of three.

Many professional wrestling matches are held in huge arenas that seat thousands of people, but others take place in small venues, such as high school gyms, bingo halls, and halls operated by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). In matches run by small organizations—often called indies—bouts tend to last 10 to 15 minutes. The large wrestling federations, such as WWE, present matches that typically last from 4 to 7 minutes.

The promoter or booker determines the winner of a match beforehand, having writers script the results to create fan interest. Because of this, winning and losing in professional wrestling do not carry the same weight as they do in traditional sports. The characters that the wrestlers portray are more important than their win-loss records. Some stars rarely win, but they continue to wrestle because they are so entertaining.

Each match has a referee, but the referee does not judge illegal acts in the ring. Instead, the referee serves as a coordinator, telling the wrestlers when to change the pace of the match, or mentioning to them what moves to execute next. The referee wears a listening device in the ear that allows the promoter to give instructions during the match. The referee then relays messages to the wrestlers as the match progresses.

A wrestler’s trademark is his or her finishing move, which usually has a colorful name. Finishing moves include the Stone Cold Stunner, the DDT, the Choke Slam, the Razor's Edge, the Tombstone Piledriver, and the Power Bomb. These finishing moves are designed to provide a dramatic ending to the match, but they are also designed not to hurt the wrestlers. For example, in the Stone Cold Stunner and the DDT, which are almost identical, the wrestler grabs the opponent's head and falls to the mat, making it appear that the opponent has smashed his or her head into the canvas and been knocked out. The move appears violent, but when making it, the winner uses the shoulder to cushion and protect the opponent's head. The result is a crowd-pleasing ending, but no serious injury. Wrestlers are specifically trained to perform these maneuvers, and they are extremely careful in executing them. If untrained wrestlers attempt these moves, they can cause serious injury.

Not all wrestling matches are one-on-one. The most popular variation is a tag-team match, in which two partners alternate being in the ring against members of another duo. In addition, there are six-person and eight-person tag-team matches in which three or four wrestlers join up and fight as a team. In a battle royal, 30 to 60 wrestlers compete against each other. A participant is eliminated when he or she is thrown out of the ring. The winner is the last wrestler in the ring.

IV

History

Professional wrestling became popular in North America in the early 20th century. Since then, its popularity has increased and decreased at different times, usually reflecting whether the sport receives wide coverage on television.

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