Glossary of professional wrestling terms

Professional wrestling has accrued a considerable amount of slang, in-references and jargon. Much of it stems from the industry's origins in the days of carnivals, and the slang itself is often referred to as 'carny talk'.

In recent years, widespread wrestling discussion on the Internet has corrupted and broadened some of these terms.

List of terms

Angle, a fictional storyline
Babyface, a good guy (compare "tweener" and "heel")
Blade, a sharpened object used for "blading"
Blading, the act of cutting oneself open in order to bleed, usually on the forehead (compare "juicing")
Blown Spot, see Botch
Booker, the person in charge of setting up matches
Booking, what a "booker" does
Botch, a scripted move that failed
Bump, when a wrestler hits the mat
Bury, when a wrestler loses popularity by forced losses (compare "push")
Card, the lineup of matches
Cheap Heat, when a wrestler (often a heel) incites a negative crowd reaction by insulting the crowd (for example, by insulting the city, or a local sports team) (compare "cheap pop")
Cheap Pop, when a wrestler (often a face) incites a positive crowd reaction by "kissing up" to the crowd (for example, mentioning the name of the city, or complimenting a local sports team) (compare "cheap heat")
Dark match, a non-televised match at a televised show (compare "house show")
Dirtsheet, a newsletter, magazine, or website that portrays wrestling as scripted entertainment, rather than portraying it as a sport.
Diva, a female involved in wrestling, either in a bit part or as a wrestler
Face, short for "babyface"
Feud, a battle between "faces" and "heels"
Finisher, a wrestler's trademark move
Gimmick, a unique trait that defines a wrestler's identity
Hard-Way Juicing, bleeding that is not self-inflicted (compare "blading" and "juicing")
Heat, a wrestler getting a crowd reaction (also "cheap heat", "canned heat", "dead heat")
Heel, a bad guy (also "monster heel", "egotistical heel", and "traitor heel"; compare "tweener" and "babyface")
House show, a non-televised show (compare "dark match")
Indy
Job, a scheduled loss (also "jobbing", "jobber", "jobroni", and "job cleanly"; compare "screwjob")
Juicing, bleeding (frequently, but not always, self-inflicted) (compare "blading" and "hard-way juicing")
Kayfabe, pretending that events are not staged
Mark, a fan who believes wrestling is real (compare "smark")
No-show, when a wrestler doesn't show up for a match
Over, popular
Promo, a promotional interview (also "cutting a promo")
Pop, a crowd reaction (also "name pop")
Push, when a wrestler gains popularity by forced wins (compare "bury")
Rib, a joke played on a wrestler by another wrestler
Run-in, when unscheduled wrestlers join a match
Screwjob, when a wrestler scheduled to win loses instead
Sell, making the action seem unstaged (also "oversell" and "no-seller")
Shoot, an unplanned event in the show
Smark, a fan who knows wrestling is staged but enjoys it anyway (compare "mark")
Smart, someone who has inside information on the wrestling business
Spot, planned set of moves, usually resulting in a climax
Squared circle, the ring in which matches are held
Squash, an extremely one-sided match
Stable, a group of wrestlers
Swerve, a surprise (and often unexplained) plot twist
Tag-team, a pair of wrestlers working together
Turn, when a wrestler develops a new "gimmick"
Tweener, a morally ambiguous wrestler (compare "babyface" and "heel")
Undercard, a match-up between less-popular wrestlers
Work, a staged event
Workrate, a wrestler's talent level
Wrestlecrap, a hall of shame website for professional wrestling

External links