Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling is a type of performance art that blends athleticism and dramatic storytelling to create a compelling spectacle of sport and entertainment. Since its inception in the late nineteenth century, professional wrestling has become a popular form of entertainment across the United States and worldwide. Although it is typically presented like a true competitive sport in the vein of boxing or mixed martial arts, professional wrestling is actually a scripted performance that is more akin to ballet than cage fighting. Regardless of its predetermined nature, however, professional wrestling is a violent and legitimately dangerous art form that often requires the performers involved to endure severe pain and risk serious injury. The modern professional wrestling industry, which is dominated by Vincent K. McMahon's World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), is a multimillion-dollar business built on the backs of popular performers such as Hulk Hogan, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

Background

The historic roots of professional wrestling as it is known today can be traced back to the carnival sideshows of the late nineteenth century. Many traveling carnivals of that period featured a strongman who challenged onlookers to beat him in a wrestling match or simply last more than a few minutes in the ring with him. Although many of these carnival fights were fixed, early professional wrestling was sometimes legitimately competitive. In the 1850s and 1860s, promoters organized traditional collar-and-elbow wrestling tournaments and began crowning champions. After the American Civil War (1861–1865), professional wrestling began to reach new levels of popularity with the emergence of the first national wrestling champions. Most matches were legitimately competitive into the early twentieth century, but an increasing number of predetermined bouts were staged over time.

In 1948, most of the United States' various regional wrestling promotions joined forces to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). With its member promotions agreeing not to compete against one another or steal talent, the NWA dominated the wrestling scene for the next several decades. The only significant competitors to the NWA, both of which first appeared in the 1960s, were Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA) and Vincent J. McMahon's World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). When McMahon's son, Vincent K. McMahon, took over for his father in the 1980s, he changed the WWWF's name to World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and transformed the wrestling industry. He brought professional wrestling to a national audience, utilizing closed circuit and pay-per-view television, and introduced marquee events like WrestleMania. As a result of McMahon's aggressive approach, many smaller promotions were forced out of business, and the NWA largely fell by the wayside.

Through the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s, the WWF continued to be a dominant force in professional wrestling. In the latter half of the 1990s, it faced a serious threat from World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which was an offshoot of one of the last surviving NWA promotions. The rivalry between WWF and WCW led to an era of strong competition and increasingly extreme content that ultimately ended with WCW's collapse in 2001. In the years that followed, the WWF, which later became known as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), assumed a place as the United States' only major national wrestling promotion.

Overview

Professional wrestling combines incredible feats of athleticism with a dramatic narrative to create an entertaining spectacle that captivates live audiences and television viewers worldwide. Individual matches are generally part of a broader storyline that pits a fan-favorite wrestler against a hated villain wrestler. By speaking directly to the audience through melodramatic addresses, called promos, or participating in various backstage vignettes designed to build character and increase dramatic tension, wrestlers seek to craft a compelling story that will draw fan interest in individual matches and increase ticket sales.

Traditional professional wrestling matches generally follow a standard format. Most matches are won by pinfall or submission, though they can end by count-out or disqualification. Wrestlers typically exchange a series of strikes, submission holds, and other moves during a match. Although the sequence of events is sometimes planned, many wrestlers improvise their moves in the ring based on the crowd's response and the result they aim to achieve. In many cases, the wrestlers receive cues from the referee. Although it often appears that wrestlers are hurting one another, they are actually working together very carefully to make their moves look as authentic as possible while doing everything they can to protect themselves and ensure the safety of everyone involved in the match. Nevertheless, moves such as piledrivers and suplexes are still quite dangerous and can cause serious injury when performed incorrectly.

In addition to traditional matches, many types of specialty wrestling matches are held. Among the most common of these are tag team matches in which two or more teams of wrestlers compete. In a battle royal, many wrestlers enter the ring and attempt to throw one another out to the floor until the last remaining wrestler is declared the winner. During ladder matches, wrestlers attempt to use a ladder to retrieve a title belt or another object of value suspended above the ring. In some matches, different cage structures are erected around the ring. Such cage matches often are used as the final match in an ongoing feud.

Professional wrestlers may use an array of objects in their matches, such as steel chairs, tables, and baseball bats. When weapons like these are used, wrestlers often are left bloodied. While this effect is occasionally achieved with the help of a blood capsule, most wrestlers actually intentionally cut their foreheads with razor blades to make themselves bleed for dramatic effect. The practice is popularly referred to as "blading."

In addition to the wrestlers, many other people play important roles in professional wrestling. Managers and valets accompany wrestlers to the ring and often serve as mouthpieces for those wrestlers who struggle with promos or whose characters prevent them from talking for themselves. Referees help direct traffic in the ring and are responsible for counting pins and noting submissions. Play-by-play announcers and color commentators describe the in-ring action to viewers at home and help sell ongoing storylines. Behind the scenes, matchmakers called bookers and various writing teams are responsible for developing storylines and putting matches together.

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