Pro Wrestling Terms

Angle
A wrestling “plot” which may involve only one match or may continue over several matches for some time; the reason behind a feud or a turn.

Anti-smark
Acting like a smark, but without the mindset.

A.D.D.-ers
When smarks chant “BORING!!!” 30 seconds into a bout.

Blade
[razor blade] The practice of cutting oneself or being cut with a part of a razor blade hidden in tights, hair or wrappings in order to produce juice.

Blow up
To become fatigued or exhausted. The Ultimate Warrior was said to be one of a number of wrestlers who blows up on the entry ramp.

Booker
The individual responsible for angles, finishes, hiring and firing in a promotion.

Botch 
A move that failed.

Bump
A fall or hit done as a spot (see spot) which takes the wrestler (or other participant, i.e. referee, manager) out of the ring or out of action.

Card
The series of matches in one location at one time.

Carry
The act of one wrestler doing most of the work (selling moves, calling spots) to make a match watchable.

Draw
To attract marks. n. the popularity of a wrestler, the ability to bring in marks.

DUD
A particularly bad and totally uninteresting match.

Face
[babyface] A good guy.

Fall
[pinfall] A referee’s count of three with the loser’s shoulders on the mat.

Feud
A series of matches between two wrestlers or two tag teams, usually face vs. heel though face feuds and heel feuds are not unknown.

Forlash
Turning on an idea before it even starts.

Finish
The event or sequence of events which leads to the ultimate outcome of a match.

Green
Not good due to inexperience.

Green Ant
A wrestler who becomes good.

Hardway juice
Real blood produced by means other than blading, i.e. the hard way. One of the possible outcomes of a shoot.

Heat
Enthusiasm, a positive response. The WWF uses a heat machine for its televised shows which make them somewhat of a work.

Heel
A bad guy, rule-breaker.

House
The wrestling audience in the building said to be composed of marks.

International object
Foreign object, something now allowed in the ring. Derived from an order not to use the world “foreign” by the Turner Broadcasting Company.

Job
A staged loss. A clean job is a staged loss by legal pinfall or submission without resort to illegalities. v.i. To do a job. Sometimes combined with a descriptive adjective (stretcher job, rope job, tights job.)

Jobber
An unpushed wrestler who does jobs for pushed wrestlers. Barry Horowitz is probably the best known of these. Sometimes known as fish, redshirts PLs (professional losers,) or ‘ham-and-eggers.’ Steve Lombardi (Brooklyn Brawler) is also a well known jobber.

Juice
To bleed, usually as a result of blading.

Kayfabe
Of or related to inside information about the business, especially by fans. Origin is carny jargon talk for “fake.”

Kill
Diminish or eliminate heat or drawing power. There are a variety of ways to do this, but mostly it is done by having a wrestler do too many jobs. A house can be killed by too many screw-job endings.

Lucha de Apuesta
Betting match; luchadores make public bets on the outcome of their match. Most commonly: mask vs. mask, hair vs. hair, and mask vs. hair.

Mark

A member of the audience, presumed gullible.

Paper
Complimentary tickets v.t. to give lots of complimentary tickets to make a house look good, particularly for a television taping.

Pop
Sudden heat from a house as a response to a wrestler’s entry or hot move.

Post
To run or be run into the ringpost.

Potato
To injure a wrestler by hitting him on the head or causing him to hit his head on something.

Plant
A wrestler who acts as a fan, he is the unknown wrestler. Usually seated in the front row at a show taking from an independent circuit. Used as a tool to get heat on heels.

Rudo
The lucha term for a heel.

Run-in
Interference by a non-participant in a match.

Sandbag
To not cooperate with a throw and to act as dead weight, which makes the moves the wrestler is attempting much harder, if not impossible to pull off. It’s usually done in protest to something that the wrestler performing the move has done incorrectly earlier in the match, such as not protecting his/her opponent or working stiff.

Save
A run-in to protect a wrestler from being beat up after a match is over.

Screw-job
A match or ending which is not clean (definite) due to factors outside the “rules” of wrestling.

Shoot
The real thing, i.e. a match where one participant is really attempting to hurt another. The opposite of work or fake.

Spot
An event or sequence of events which makes a particular match distinctive, a high-point of a match.

Squash
A totally passive job where one wrestler completely dominates another. v.t. to win a squash match.

Stiff
Chops, hits or moves which cause real injury (though perhaps not more than a welting up of the opponent.) Big Van Vader has a reputation as a stiff worker. Not a shoot, but almost.

Stretch
A form of shoot where one wrestler dominates rather than injures the other as a proof of personal superiority.

Technico
The lucha term for a face.

Turn
Change in orientation from heel to face or vice-versa.

Work
A deception or sham, the opposite of a shoot.

Workrate
The approximate ratio of good wrestling to rest holds in a match or in a wrestler’s performance.