Professional wrestling, often referred to as pro wrestling or simply wrestling, is a form of athletic theater centered around mock combat,
with the premise that its performers are competitive wrestlers.Eero Laine (2017). "Stadium-sized theatre: WWE and the world of professional wrestling". In Chow et al. (2017). Performance and Professional Wrestling, p. 39: "The business of professional wrestling is the business of theatre. Even if on the surface professional wrestling seems anathema to theatrical sensibilities, it is hard to deny the formal similarities. After all, professional wrestling is scripted entertainment performed live in front of an audience by actors portraying characters." The legitimate sport of wrestling has never been popular enough in the United States to sustain a professional scene because the action is considered too slow-paced. In the late 19th century, wrestlers dealt with this by quietly fixing their matches so that they could display more entertaining action. Through improvisation and choreography, they could perform more spectacular moves that rarely (if ever) occurred in a real wrestling match, and thus managed to draw sustainable audiences.Keith Corson. "The Death of Kayfabe: Looking Beyond the Curtain in Wrestling with Shadows" in Gender and Genre in Sports Documentaries, p. 150. "Professional wrestling as we know it dates back to the Gilded Age with the shift from legitimate matches to a predetermined and theatrical model (moving from 'shoots' to 'works' in wrestling lingo). The first reason for the change was that authentic grappling competitions were extremely long and boring, sometimes lasting for hours, with two men locked into unchanging positions on the mat, trying to break the other's will with a hold. Scripting the matches allowed wrestler to improvise various stunts and moves (performing 'spots') to make for a more entertaining display of athleticism that would be more likely to attract a paying audience."
Match fixing in sports was frowned upon then as much as it is now, so the wrestlers kept the practice a secret. Wrestling promoters scripted victories for their more charismatic wrestlers to please the fans. Since charisma mattered more than skill to a wrestler's success, wrestlers adopted personae and gimmicks to make themselves more entertaining. As promotions grew more sophisticated, they started writing dramatic stories for their wrestlers, pitting heroic "faces" against villainous "heels". Professional wrestlers were required to remain in character whenever they were in public, a practice known as "kayfabe". This requirement was relaxed in the 1990s as by then fans had not only become fully aware of the fakery, but had come to accept it. Despite a series of high-profile exposés, professional wrestling retained enough fans to remain viable.
Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various promotions, which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues. Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on the independent circuit to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential professional wrestling promotions are in the United States, Mexico, Japan, and Europe (particularly the United Kingdom, France, and Germany/Austria),Shoemaker (2013). Benjamin, p. 27: "... the people who were clued in were happy to play along to further their enjoyment." which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Many professional wrestlers also perform as freelancers and make appearances for different promotions.
Professional wrestling has developed a distinct culture and community, including its own glossary of terms. It has had a significant influence on popular culture, with wrestling phrases, tropes, and concepts appearing in everyday language and in film, television, music, and video games. Numerous professional wrestlers have achieved national or international recognition, with some gaining further prominence through careers in acting, music, and politics. Context In the United States, wrestling is generally practiced in an amateur context. There is no professional league for competitive wrestling in most Western countries,Cejudo (2012). Wrestling for Dummies. p. 32 mainly due to a lack of popularity.Archer & Svinth (2001). Martial Arts of the World. vol. 1. p. 743. "... there is still no easy way to explain why millions of people enjoy watching professional wrestling and yet dislike watching amateur wrestling."
In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, the New York Athletic Commission defines professional wrestling thus:
The state of Washington instead refers to professional wrestling as "theatrical wrestling".Revised Code of Washington 67.08.002: (21) "Theatrical wrestling" means the performance of sports entertainment in which: (a) Two or more participants work together in a performance of mock combat in a ring for the purpose of entertainment; and (b)(i) The outcome is predetermined; and/or (ii) The participants do not necessarily strive to win. ... (24) "Wrestling exhibition," "wrestling show," or "wrestling event" means a demonstration of theatrical wrestling presented to the public.
In other countries such as India and Mongolia, legitimate wrestling enjoys widespread popularity, and the phrase "professional wrestling" thus carries a more literal meaning in those places.Rudraneil Sengupta (2016). Enter the Dangal A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League, which governs competitive wrestling.
In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from a carnival term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. A fan who believes professional wrestling matches are real sport is referred to as a mark, whereas a fan who sees through the facade is a smart.Riesman. Ringmaster: "Like players of fixed carnival games, marks were those who believed wrestling was, on some level, a legitimate athletic competition. Smarts were the fans who knew wrestling was a fiction, yet still found it fascinating as an industry and an artform."
Many people have the misconception that wrestlers belong to the actors' committee, while they do not and are in fact independent contractors.
History in the United States
Wrestling in early America Wrestling in early America was typically a localized affair. Wrestlers would fight opponents from the same town or nearby towns within walking distance. Wrestlers sometimes competed for money but the winnings were usually small, not enough to live on. Because the winnings were small and the wrestlers were usually from the same community, the wrestling styles they practiced emphasized subduing opponents without inflicting injury, allowing the wrestlers to go back to their regular jobs the next day and avoid making enemies. The most common styles of wrestling during the early 19th century were Greco-Roman, collar-and-elbow, and catch-as-catch-can.Beekman. Ringside
Transition to theater Spectator sports grew increasingly popular in late 19th-century America due to rising income levels, urbanization, railroads, mass transit, and mass media.Steven A. Reiss (2015). Sports in America from Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century, p. 17 Before this time, sports were mostly a hobby, but now a star athlete could make a living touring the country and playing before large paying crowds.: "Sport was then just sport — nobody thought of it as a business. Nowadays in a normal year it runs a close fourth to slaughtering and meat packing, the iron and steel industry, and the lumber and timber industry, as America's leading industry in the matter of gross revenue." Wrestlers who attempted professional careers faced a problem: most spectators found wrestling boring. The wrestlers spent a lot of time on the mat grappling each other or locked in unchanging positions. Matches could drag on for hours if the wrestlers were evenly matched. Matches were typically decided when a wrestler placed his opponent in a submission hold. A submission hold is impossible to break and typically easy to establish if the opponent's defense is lax.Sport: Readings from a Sociological Perspective, p. 283:"More important, however, was the fact that, from the very outset, professional wrestling in America fixed on submission as the test of victory. This had two important consequences. First, if the sport was to involve seriously trying to wrestle an opponent into submission, it mean that the risk of injury would be great and that the career in wrestling was likely to be very short indeed. Secondly, since submission holds are relatively easy to establish and impossible to break, it would mean that the sport would involve long periods of inactivity and this would spell boredom for spectators. Therefore, Stone argues, it was in the interests of wrestlers and wrestling promoters to transform it from a sport into a type of farce. This would reduce the risk of injury, lengthen the active career of the wrestler and provide a means of evoking spectator interest and excitement." In wrestling, the most successful attacks are often counterattacks, where a wrestler takes advantage of his opponent's aggression to create openings for his own offense. This motivated the wrestlers to fight defensively, which resulted in matches with little activity.Patrick W. Reed. Kayfabe: "a skilled wrestler is often not a dynamic wrestler, and crowds began to find his matches either unsatisfactorily short against lesser opponents, or against a relative equal, they were, like William Muldoon at his most stubborn, drawn out, boring, and, in a world before time limits, overly long. This was in contrast to boxing, whose rules encouraged more dynamic and aggressive play.
To solve this problem, wrestlers experimented with different styles and rules, but eventually they settled on quietly staging their matches (or "working" them, as they say in the industry). Through choreography and improvisation, the wrestlers could perform more spectacular moves and stunts. A wrestler might allow his opponent to perform a spectacular throw on him and put him in a hold, and seconds later his opponent would allow him to make a spectacular escape. The action flowed at a pace that pleased the audience. Fixed matches could also be kept short, which audiences preferred. Short matches were also easier to schedule and allowed wrestlers to perform more frequently. Audiences hated above all matches that ended in a draw, but fixed matches always produced a winner. The "winner" had to be agreed upon in advance by the wrestlers. This was not unique to America. Spectators in the United Kingdom also found legitimate wrestling too boring, and British professional wrestlers likewise were forced to "work" their bouts.