Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Some Useful Wrestling Terms

Here are some examples of wrestling "slang":

Angle: A part of an ongoing plot or storyline. An angle is generally used to explain the reason why two wrestlers are fighting or have had a history of problems.

Booker: Someone who plans out all the matches and storylines for a wrestling show.

Babyface: A good guy. The babyface, or “face” for short, is fan-friendly and doesn’t break the rules in order to win a match. As a result, the crowd is supposed to always cheer the face to beat his opponent.

Heel: The bad guy or villain. The heel is designed to be hated by the crowd by disrespecting the fans and cheating to gain victories.

Tweener: A wrestler who is not a complete face or heel, someone in the grey area. This could be used to describe a wrestler who is fan-friendly but is still booed or for a wrestler who cheats but is still cheered.

Turn: When a wrestler changes their disposition from a face to a heel [heel turn] or visa versa [face turn].

Gimmick: The persona of the wrestler. This is used to distinguish one wrestler from the other. For example, one wrestler’s gimmick could be that he’s a superhero, another’s gimmick could be that he is anti-U.S. Gimmicks are usually dependent on whether a wrestler is face or heel. For example, a wrestler with a superhero gimmick is usually a face and a wrestler who constantly says they hate everything about the U.S. would be considered a heel [at least in America].

Pop: A positive crowd reaction [cheers]. The goal of the face is to get a large pop everytime they go to the ring.

Heat: A negative crowd reaction [boos]. The goal of the heel is to get a large amount of heat from the crowd through the match.

Spot: A pre-planned move or series of moves.

Sell: To react to an opponent’s physical offense [punches, kicks, etc.] to give the impression that they hurt. The believability of a match depends on how well wrestlers sell the moves.

No-sell: To ignore or not react to an opponent’s attacks.

Over-sell: To go overboard in the reaction to an opponent’s attacks.

Bump: When a wrestler is knocked down and hits the mat.

Botch: When a wrestler messes up a scripted or planned move. This can also be referred to as a “botched spot”.

Finisher: Also known as a signature or trademark move, this is the one move a wrestler does that is supposed to end a match. It could be something as simple as a legdrop or something a little more complex like the Canadian Destroyer.





Finish: The planned ending for the match [a pin, submission, DQ, etc]. This usually happens after one wrestler hits their finisher on the other.

Near-fall: A term used when a wrestler is being pinned but breaks the count just before the referee gets to 3.

The Pro Wrestling Torch, one of the oldest and most respected pro wrestling news publication, has a large glossary of terms here, if you want to know more.

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