Wrestling Terms

Term	Definition
angle	A wrestling storyline which may involve only one match or may continue over several matches for some time; the reason behind a feud or a turn.
blade	Cutting oneself (or being cut by another) with a part of a razor blade hidden in tights, hair, or wrappings in order to produce juice.
booker(s)	The person or persons who write the storylines that are used for the wrestling shows.
bump	Physical contact with someone besides your opponent or the act of getting hit or performing a stunt that is not the average hit.
draw	The act of attracting fans. The ability to bring in fans.
face	The proverbial “good guy”.
feud	A series of events between opponents where they bad mouth each other to create heat.
gate	The money brought in at a wrestling event. Sometimes the amount of money brought in from merchandise is added to this figure.
green	When a wrestler is younger or new to the business of pro-wrestling and they don’t have as much experience as the other people in the locker room.
heat	Not the WWE show! When a performer can garner a response from the fans.
heel	The proverbial bad guy.
house	The people who attend any given wrestling show.
house show	An un-televised wrestling event where if the ticket says “card subject to change”, then chances are that it will!
job	A staged loss.
jobber	An unpushed wrestler who usually loses every match that he is in.
kayfabe	Acting the part of your role in a storyline. The act of being a face or a heel in and out of the ring.
mark	Every wrestling fan is a mark. Nowadays, the term is applied to fans who go crazy over every twist and turn in a storyline, but the origins of this word’s meaning is simply to like wrestling.
paper	The act of giving out free tickets to a televised event in order to give it that “packed to capacity” feel.
pop	Sudden response from the crowd. Usually, this term is applied to a positive reaction to a performer’s words, entrance, or presence.
potato	To injure a wrestler by hitting him on the head or causing him to hit his head on something that leaves a bruise or a mark.
push	When a wrestler who has either not been in the spotlight or is new to a promotion is given a chance to show their skills moreso than often.
run-in	When a perfomer other than the ones in a particular match come out during the match and interfere.
screw-job	Made infamous by Vince McMahon at the 1997 Survivor Series. When a performer in a match is subjected to an ending that is not agreed upon by both performers prior to the match taking place.
sell	Acting hurt when a move has been applied.
shoot	The real thing. A match or interview or other part of the show that conveys reality. A real punch, a real kick, or a real insult, etc.
smark	A term created by the internet wrestling scene. This term describes a lot of the people on the internet. Basically, it is a person who thinks he/she knows everything there is to know about wrestling.
spot	If Vince McMahon made the screw-job famous, then Rob Van Dam made the spot famous! A spot is an event or sequence of events which makes a particular match distinctive. It usually is a high-point of the match.
squash	When one wrestler jobs to another wrestler in a fashion that makes the winning wrestler look like he/she is dominant over the losing wrestler.
stable	A group of performers united to form a powerful collection of men and women.
stiff	Used to describe the wrestler or the maneuvers that are performed by that wrestler when these maneuvers are performed without enough leniency.
turn	To change from being a face to a heel or vice-versa.
tweener	A common occurrence in the era of “attitude” in wrestling where a performer has both heel and face qualities.
work	An event that occurs that is made out to be real, but in actuality is nothing more than a complex storyline…oftentimes tricking people who actually work for the wrestling company itself.
workrate	A term that describes the performance of a performer in his or her match.