Professional wrestling

[3] The staged nature of matches is an open secret: through a practice known as kayfabe, both wrestlers and spectators—as well commentators and journalists—maintain the pretense that the performances are bona fide competitions,[4] which is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction.

[3] Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain what is known in the industry as a "gimmick" — the persona, style and traits conveyed by distinctive attire, stage name, entrance theme music, and other distinguished characteristics and creative flourishes.

Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography, stunts, improvisation, and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement.

[1] Professional wrestling as a performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in the 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing.

As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance the spectacle.

Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on the independent circuit, to internationally broadcast events at major arenas.

It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture, with many terms and jargon, tropes, and concepts being referenced in everyday language and in film, music, television, and video games.

Numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international sports icons with recognition by the broader public, with some finding further fame and success through other performing arts, such as acting.

Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high.Wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated many fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin".

[33] Beginning in the 1960s, however, networks increasingly shifted to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped from primetime slots, if not altogether; the core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s.

Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real.

Although a countout can technically be considered a disqualification (as it is, for all intents and purposes, an automatic loss suffered as a result of violating a match rule), the two concepts are often distinct in wrestling.

A famous example of this happened on the December 8, 1997, episode of Raw is War, when Stone Cold Steve Austin handed the WWE Intercontinental Championship to The Rock after refusing to defend the title.

[81] A character can become so popular that it appears in other media (Hulk Hogan and El Santo) or even gives the performer enough visibility to enter politics (Antonio Inoki and Jesse Ventura).

Anything that can be used as an element of drama can exist in professional wrestling stories: romantic relationships (including love triangles and marriage), racism, classism, nepotism, favoritism, corporate corruption, family bonds, personal histories, grudges, theft, cheating, assault, betrayal, bribery, seduction, stalking, confidence tricks, extortion, blackmail, substance abuse, self-doubt, self-sacrifice; even kidnapping, sexual fetishism, necrophilia, misogyny, rape and death have been portrayed in wrestling.

Some promotions have included supernatural elements such as magic, curses, the undead and Satanic imagery (most notably the Undertaker and his Ministry of Darkness, a stable that regularly performed evil rituals and human sacrifice in Satanic-like worship of a hidden power figure).

It is typical for a wrestler to get their biggest crowd reaction (or "pop") for their ring entrance, rather than for anything they do in the wrestling match itself, especially if former main event stars are returning to a promotion after a long absence.

While invented long before, the practice of including music with the entrance gained rapid popularity during the 1980s, largely as a result of the huge success of Hulk Hogan and the WWF, and their Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection.

[91] Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disorder often caused by repeated concussions and head injury, may have been a factor in the 2007 double homicide committed by wrestler Chris Benoit.

In subsequent years, WWE insisted that its talent use "sports entertainment" rather than "pro wrestling" to describe its business, to the point that the term was sometimes used in other promotions to generate "heat" (fan reaction and engagement).

— William Gullo, Bleacher Report (Sep. 6, 2011)[104]Others retort that while professional wrestling is comparable in its physical and athletic requirements—including "shared values of resilience and excellence" and similar risks of bodily injury—its scripted nature preempts one of the purported defining characteristics of a sport: genuine competition over the outcome.

[106][107] The United States/Canada, northwest Europe (specifically the U.K, Germany/Austria and France), Japan, and Mexico are the four largest and most popular markets for professional wrestling and known for their distinctive styles and independent development.

Wrestlers often execute high flying moves characteristic of lucha libre by utilizing the wrestling ring's ropes to catapult themselves towards their opponents, using intricate combinations in rapid-fire succession, and applying complex submission holds.

In Germany and Austria, wrestling shows—particularly major trophy tournaments in Graz, Hamburg, Bremen, Vienna and other cities featuring visiting wrestlers from around the world—were a key part of the celebrations of various cultural festivals.

During the same period, professional wrestling in France moved to a more acrobatic style of action and colourful gimmick-led presentation, as exemplified by lead babyface Flesh Gordon (Gerard Hervé) who had learned his craft in 1970s Mexico.

[127][128] Each successive generation has produced a number of wrestlers who extend their careers into the realms of music, acting, writing, business, politics or public speaking, and are known to those who are unfamiliar with wrestling in general.

The 1950 film noir Night and the City, directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney, told the story of a promoter in London trying to make it big, and featured a match involving real professional wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko.

Many professional wrestlers have also become mainstream in their own right, including John Cena, Dave Bautista, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, mainly for acting in major films, as well as Chris Jericho and "Macho Man" Randy Savage for their musical ventures.

[140] While pro wrestling is often described simplistically as a "soap opera for males", it has also been cited as filling the role of past forms of literature and theater; a synthesis of classical heroics,[141] commedia dell'arte,[142] revenge tragedies,[143] morality plays,[143] and burlesque.

[146] The displays of masculinity are said to incorporate homoerotic elements and elements of pageantry that have been compared to drag or Ball culture;[147] some scholars posit that the homoerotic undertones target the desires of ostensibly heterosexual male viewers, "[allowing] them the vicarious pleasure of transgressing gender norms"[148] by identifying with "wrestlers who perform culturally transgressive notions of masculinity including flamboyance, attention to physical appearance, and ambiguous sexual identity".