Professional wrestling is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama, under the premise that the performers are competitive wrestlers. Although it entails elements of amateur wrestling and martial arts, including genuine displays of athleticism and physicality before a live audience, professional wrestling is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship. The staged nature of matches is an open secret, with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions; this is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction, known in the industry as the aforementioned kayfabe.
In professional wrestling slang, a job is a losing performance in a wrestling match. It is derived from the euphemism "doing one's job", which was employed to protect information related to kayfabe from being revealed. The term can be used a number of ways. When a wrestler is booked to lose a match, it is described as "a job". The act itself is described with the verb jobbing, while 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.
The NWA World's Heavyweight Championship is a men's professional wrestling world heavyweight championship owned and promoted by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), an American professional wrestling promotion.
A championship or title in professional wrestling is a recognition promoted by professional wrestling organizations. Championship reigns are determined by professional wrestling matches, in which competitors are involved in predetermined rivalries. These narratives create feuds between the various competitors, which cast them as villains and heroes. The bookers in a company will place the title on the most accomplished performer, or whom they believe will generate fan interest in terms of event attendance and television viewership.
Paul Worden Taylor III is an American retired professional wrestler better known by his ring name Terry Taylor and for his time as an in-ring performer in National Wrestling Alliance, World Championship Wrestling, and World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment. From 2003 until 2011, he worked as a road agent, trainer, interviewer and the director of talent relations in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Since 2012, Taylor has worked as a trainer in WWE's developmental territory, NXT.
Greed was the final professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). It took place on March 18, 2001 from the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum in Jacksonville, Florida. Greed replaced the promotion's March PPV event Uncensored which was held from 1995 to 2000. The pay-per-view event took place three days before the final episode of Thunder and eight days before the final episode of Monday Nitro.
The Fabulous Freebirds were a professional wrestling tag team who attained fame in the 1980s, performing into the 1990s. The team usually consisted of three wrestlers, although in different situations and points in its history, just two performed under the Freebirds name. The Freebird lineup of Hayes, Roberts, and Gordy was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2015, and members Hayes, Roberts, Gordy, and Garvin were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016.
Steven Franklin Williams, best known under the ring name "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, was an American collegiate and professional wrestler and collegiate football player. He was known for his tenures in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and is a three-time professional wrestling world heavyweight champion, having won both the Herb Abrams and Bill Watts versions of the UWF World Heavyweight Championship and the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship.
Donald Harris and Ronald Harris are American twin brothers best known for their professional wrestling careers with promotions including Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation. They are now co-presidents of the Nashville-based Aro Lucha professional wrestling promotion.
Thomas Erwin Zenk was an American professional wrestler and bodybuilder. He was best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation from 1986 to 1987, with the American Wrestling Association from 1988 to 1989, and with World Championship Wrestling from 1989 to 1994, as well for his tours of Japan with All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Curtis Thompson is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling from 1991 to 1992 under the ring name Firebreaker Chip.
In professional wrestling, Cruiserweight is a weight class but also a term for a fast-paced, aerial-based style of performer. The term was first coined in the United States in 1996 by World Championship Wrestling. Prior to this, the terms "Light Heavyweight" and "Junior Heavyweight" were more commonly in use. The older term Junior Heavyweight is still favored in Japan, where many titles for lighter-weight competitors are called Junior Heavyweight titles. Prominent titles include New Japan Pro-Wrestling's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, Pro Wrestling Noah's GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship, and All Japan Pro Wrestling's World Junior Heavyweight championships.
The Steiner Brothers are an American professional wrestling tag team consisting of brothers Robert "Rick Steiner" Rechsteiner and Scott "Scott Steiner" Rechsteiner.
The Public Enemy was a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge. The duo competed in many promotions, including Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). They won the World Tag Team Championships in each company except WWF.
Midget wrestling is professional wrestling involving people of exceptionally short stature. Its heyday was in the 1950s and 1960s, when wrestlers such as Little Beaver, Lord Littlebrook, toured North America, and Sky Low Low was the first holder of the National Wrestling Alliance's World Midget Championship. In the following couple of decades, more wrestlers became prominent in North America, including foreign wrestlers like Japan's Little Tokyo.
The history of professional wrestling, as a performing art, started in the late 19th century, with predecessors in funfair and variety strongman and wrestling performances in the 1830s.
Peggy Lee Fowler, also known by her stage names Peggy Lee Leather, Lady X, and Thug, was an American professional wrestler who worked in the WWF, AWA, and WCW.
