In professional wrestling, a feud is a staged rivalry between multiple wrestlers or groups of wrestlers. They are integrated into ongoing storylines, particularly in events which are televised. Feuds may last for months or even years; conversely, they may be resolved with implausible speed, perhaps during a single match. [1]
Feuds are often the result of the friction that is created between faces (the heroic figures) and heels (the malevolent, "evil" participants). Common causes of feuds are a purported slight or insult, although they can be based on many other things, including conflicting moral codes or simple professional one-upmanship such as the pursuit of a championship. Some of the more popular feuds with audiences involve pitting former allies, particularly tag team partners, against each other. Depending on how popular and entertaining the feud may be, it is usually common practice for a feud to continue on for weeks, usually building toward a match in a supercard.
Due to the complexity of modern wrestling storylines, some feuds lack the traditional ‘face vs. heel’ narrative. Many feuds take place between two faces, while some involve characters that don’t fit either traditional role, often called tweeners. Feuds between two heels are rare, but may take place, especially if one or more of the wrestlers in the feud are particularly popular with fans.
One of the longest feuds of all time was the feud between Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat, estimated by Flair to comprise more than 2,000 matches, though he admits that most of those matches were "confined to those in the arena". [2]
Traditionally, most promoters wanted to "protect the business" by having wrestlers act in character in public, and thus further convince the live audience that the feuding wrestlers really did hate each other and were looking to outdo each other. During the days when wrestling territories were more regionally based, some feuds lasted for years, and if the feuding wrestlers were shown to really be friends, or were associating as friends in public, it would break the illusion of their feud, and undo all the work to promote it up to that point.
Professional wrestling is a form of athletic theater centered around mock combat and based on the premise that performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling is distinguished from sports wrestling by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and storytelling over genuine competition. The staged nature of matches is an open secret: Through a practice known as kayfabe, both wrestlers and spectators maintain the pretense that the performances are bona fide competitions, while commentators calling the action also allude to the action being real, or kayfabe, and call the match as if it were a legitmate competition, which is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction.
Stacy Ann-Marie Keibler is an American retired professional wrestler, cheerleader, dancer, and model. She is best known for her tenure with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
In professional wrestling, a heel is a wrestler who portrays a villain, "bad guy", "baddie", "evil-doer", or "rulebreaker", and acts as an antagonist to the faces, who are the heroic protagonist or "good guy" characters. Not everything a heel wrestler does must be villainous: heels need only to be booed or jeered by the audience to be effective characters, although most truly successful heels embrace other aspects of their devious personalities, such as cheating to win or using foreign objects. "The role of a heel is to get 'heat,' which means spurring the crowd to obstreperous hatred, and generally involves cheating and any other manner of socially unacceptable behavior."
In professional wrestling, a face (babyface) is a heroic, "good guy", "good-doer", or "fan favorite" wrestler, booked (scripted) by the promotion with the aim of being cheered by fans. They are portrayed as heroes relative to the heel wrestlers, who are analogous to villains. Traditionally, face characters wrestle within the rules and avoid cheating while behaving positively towards the referee and the audience. Such characters are also referred to as blue-eyes in British wrestling and técnicos in lucha libre. Not everything a face wrestler does must be heroic: faces need only to be clapped or cheered by the audience to be effective characters. When the magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated went into circulation in the late 1970s, the magazine referred to face wrestlers as "fan favorites" or "scientific wrestlers", while heels were referred to as simply "rulebreakers".
In professional wrestling slang, a job is a losing performance in a wrestling match. It is derived from "doing one's job,” a euphemism to hide kayfabe-related information. When a wrestler is booked to lose a match, it is described as "a job". The act itself is jobbing, whereas the act of booking to job is called jobbing out. To lose a match fairly is to job cleanly. Wrestlers who routinely lose matches are known as jobbers or "dummy wrestlers". A wrestler skilled at enhancing the matches they lose, as opposed to a jobber, is called a carpenter. In the post-kayfabe era the term has taken on a negative connotation, leading to the use of the neutral term enhancement talent.
A house show is a professional wrestling event produced by a major promotion that is not televised, though they can be recorded. Promotions use house shows mainly to cash in on the exposure that they and their wrestlers receive during televised events, as well as to test reactions to matches, wrestlers, and gimmicks that are being considered for the main televised programming and upcoming pay-per-views. As house shows are not televised, all matches are technically dark matches, though that term is usually reserved for non-televised matches at otherwise televised events.
Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of established teams who wrestle regularly as a unit and have a team name and identity.
The Four Horsemen is an American professional wrestling stable that originally consisted of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, and Tully Blanchard.
WrestleMania X8 was the 18th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on St Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2002, at the SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the second WrestleMania at that venue after WrestleMania VI in April 1990. The event marked the final WrestleMania event held under the WWF name and the Attitude Era, as the company entered the Ruthless Aggression Era in April and renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) a month later. It was also the last WrestleMania held before the introduction of the brand extension just a week after the event. The record-breaking attendance for the SkyDome of 68,237 grossed approximately $6.1 million CAD. WrestleMania weekend also included WWF Fan Axxess at the Canadian National Exhibition's Automotive Building. The stadium, now renamed Rogers Centre, won't see a major event until 2025 when Elimination Chamber: Toronto will be held.
In professional wrestling, a manager is a supporting character paired with a wrestler for a variety of reasons. A woman accompanying, or "seconding", a male wrestler to a match is sometimes referred to as a valet.
BattleBowl was a one-time professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The show took place on November 20, 1993, at the Pensacola Civic Center in Pensacola, Florida. The event featured only the "BattleBowl Tournament", where the first round consisted of eight tag team matches where the teams were drawn at random in a "Lethal Lottery". Members of the winning teams would advance to the BattleBowl battle royal main event. Big Van Vader, who was already the WCW World Heavyweight Champion at the time of the show, received a ring for winning the tournament.
This Tuesday in Texas was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on December 3, 1991, at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas. The event was an attempt by the WWF to establish Tuesday as a secondary pay-per-view night. Lukewarm reaction and a disappointing 1.0 buyrate rendered the experiment a failure, and the company shelved its plans until October 2004, when it held Taboo Tuesday.
Professional wrestling has accrued a considerable amount of jargon throughout its existence. Much of it stems from the industry's origins in the days of carnivals and circuses. In the past, professional wrestlers used such terms in the presence of fans so as not to reveal the worked nature of the business. Into the 21st century, widespread discussion on the Internet has popularized these terms. Many of the terms refer to the financial aspects of professional wrestling in addition to in-ring terms.
The 2005 Survivor Series was the 19th annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. The event took place on November 27, 2005, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan and consisted of six professional wrestling matches. This was the third Survivor Series to take place in Detroit after the 1991 and 1999 events.
In professional wrestling, kayfabe is the portrayal of staged events within the industry as "real" or "true", specifically the portrayal of competition, rivalries, and relationships between participants as being genuine and not staged. The term kayfabe has evolved to also become a code word of sorts for maintaining this "reality" within the direct or indirect presence of the general public.
The 2005 Taboo Tuesday was the second annual Taboo Tuesday/Cyber Sunday professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw brand division. The event took place on November 1, 2005, at the iPayOne Center in San Diego, California. The theme of the event was that fans were given the chance to vote on stipulations for the matches. The voting for the event started on October 24, 2005, and ended during the event. It was also the final event titled Taboo Tuesday, as the following year, the event was moved to the traditional Sunday nights for PPVs and was renamed as Cyber Sunday.
The 2004 Taboo Tuesday was the inaugural Taboo Tuesday/Cyber Sunday professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw brand division. The event took place on October 19, 2004, at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It marked the first time in which the fans were given the chance to vote on stipulations for the matches. The voting for the event started on October 18, 2004, and ended during the event. In 2006, the event was moved to the traditional Sunday nights for PPVs and was renamed Cyber Sunday.
The 2003 Bad Blood was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the second Bad Blood and took place on June 15, 2003, at the Compaq Center in Houston, Texas. The event was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw brand division.
The 2002 Unforgiven was the fifth annual Unforgiven professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. The event took place on September 22, 2002, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. It was the first Unforgiven held under the WWE name, after the promotion was renamed from World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to WWE earlier that year in May, as well as the first Unforgiven held during the first brand extension that began in March.
The Monday Night War or the Monday Night Wars, was an era of mainstream televised American professional wrestling, from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001, in which the World Wrestling Federation's Monday Night Raw and World Championship Wrestling's (WCW) Monday Nitro were broadcast opposite each other in a battle for Nielsen ratings each week. It largely overlapped with the Attitude Era, a period in which the WWF used the term "WWF Attitude" to describe its programming from November 9, 1997 to May 6, 2002.