Dictionary

Have you ever wondered "What does a shoot mean?" or "What does kayfabe mean?" Learn the lingo of the industry. View our dictionary of wrestling terms and learn all the terminology from "angle" to "work."

Term	Definition
angle	a wrestling "plot" which may involve only one match or may continue over several matches for some time; the reason behind a feud or a turn.
blade	the practice of cutting oneself or being cut with a part of a razor blade hidden in tights, hair or wrappings in order to produce juice.
blow up	to become fatigued or exhausted.
booker	the individual responsible for angles, finishes, hiring and firing in a promotion.
bump	a fall or hit done as a spot (see spot) which takes the wrestler (or other participant, i.e. referee, manager) out of the ring or out of action.
card	the series of matches in one location at one time.
cleans house	when a wrestler eliminates every other man in the ring
draw	to attract fans. the popularity of a wrestler, the ability to bring in fans.
dud	a particularly bad and totally uninteresting match.
face	a good guy.
fall	a referee's count of three with the loser's shoulders on the mat.
feud	a series of matches between two wrestlers or two tag teams. many times they will interview and bad mouth the other wrestler.
finish	the event or sequence of events which leads to the ultimate outcome of a match.
garbage	matches or promotions that have no wrestling but pure violence.
green	not good due to inexperience in the ring.
hard way juice	real blood produced by means other than bleeding, i.e. the hard way.
heat	enthusiasm, a positive response from fans.
heel	a bad guy, rule-breaker.
house	the wrestling audience in the building
house show	a wrestling event un-televised.
international object	foreign object, something now allowed in the ring.
job	a staged loss. a clean job is a staged loss by legal pinfall or submission without resort to illegalities.
jobber	an unpushed wrestler who does jobs for pushed wrestlers. usually on a losing streak.
juice	blood.
kayfabe	of or related to inside information about the business, especially by fans. it can also be called "to act the part"
mark	a member of the audience, presumed gullible and moronic. fans who do not know anything about wrestling.
paper	complimentary tickets, given to fans to make the arena look as if it sold out.
pop	sudden heat from a house as a response to a wrestler's entry or hot move.
post	to run or be run into the ringpost.
potato	to injure a wrestler by hitting him on the head or causing him to hit his head on something.
push	when a wrestler starts to go on a winning streak and gets title shots. also gets more interview time.
run-in	interference by a non-participant in a match.
save	a run-in to protect a wrestler from being beat up after a match is over.
screw-job	a match or ending which is not clean due to factors outside the "rules" of wrestling.
sell	"to sell a move", meaning to act hurt when a move has been applied.
shoot	the real thing, i.e. a match where one participant is really attempting to hurt another. the opposite of work or fake.
smark	a smart mark. a guy who thinks he knows everything there is to know about wrestling. doesn't care much for gimmicks or angles. just likes good wrestling.
spot	an event or sequence of events which makes a particular match distinctive, a high-point of a match.
squash	a totally passive job where one wrestler completely dominates another.
stable	a group of wrestler's united to watch each other's backs.
stiff	a wrestler who cannot maneuver around the ring very swiftly. he doesn't have much flexibility or stamina
stretch	a form of shoot where one wrestler dominates rather than injures the other as a proof of personal superiority.
tap out	to give into a submission maneuver
turn	change in orientation from heel to face or vice-versa.
tweener	a wrestler who is part heel and part face
work	a deception or fraud, the opposite of a shoot.
workrate	the approximate ratio of good wrestling to rest holds in a match or in a wrestler's performance.

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