Several variants of fantasy wrestling exist which may be differentiated by the way they are transmitted (through websites, message boards, e-mail, postal mail, face-to-face, etc.
As technology progressed and the internet evolved, fantasy wrestling enthusiasts took advantage, using websites and newsgroups to connect and build broader communities for gameplay.
The role-playing aspect was significant and the fast turn-around of email allowed for collaboration in the creation of "promos" and the formation of tag-teams and "stables" made up of multiple players.
The term e-wrestling was coined about this time, probably by Scott Baxter, since there were enough federations active to require a collective noun.
[4] Fantasy wrestling expanded in the early 1990s with the rise of nationwide message boards based on PRODIGY, AOL and Compuserve.
Many stat-based systems found ways to integrate roleplay as a factor into determining match winners, paralleling similar developments in some of the Internet email federations.
The first websites featuring fantasy wrestling began to pop up as the World Wide Web started to develop.
The various federations, which had been exclusively text-based, or nearly so, began to integrate Poser images of created wrestlers, animated videos, audio shows, and vlogs.
There are also federations based around angles and booking, there are turn-based sites that allow you and an opponent to alternate between different parts of the match until a moderator decides who wins.
Stat or dice based federations continue to thrive, as well, sometimes deliberately harkening back to the earlier days of the hobby.
Another method of fantasy wrestling currently used is called "E-Fedding" (a slang term for E-Federations, internet groups that identify as fictional companies).
Feds are not necessarily part of a community but many of them are organized on websites, forums or, more loosely, in Discord servers and other social media platforms.
Production values can range from only footage of the game used, with no alterations, to more elaborate presentations featuring commentary as well as promos or other segments.