ProfessionalWrestling federations tend to end up with more wrestlers than they know what to do with. They tend to sign people simply so that the competition can't, snatch up hot young talents in hopes of figuring out how to put them in the show later, or hire guys as a favor to somebody in the office. For most professional wrestling organizations, the "A Show" is where only the big name talents compete on the show. Naturally, the average wrestling fed can't squeeze all these guys onto their main "A Show", so they eventually put together a B Show.

The A Show is the show that draws -- or is supposed to draw -- the biggest ratings. The "A Show," then, will have most of the storyline developments (or the most dramatic SoapOpera-esque storylines) and have most of the championship title changes. Often, the biggest star of the A Show will be booked as the champion, holding the most prestigious title, and many times the best matches of a given calendar year happen at these events.

In contrast, a B Show is a very different experience from an A Show. A B Show has few angles going on at any one time, and what angles do appear are much simpler and largely character-driven. Instead, you'll simply see a few matches – some {{Squash Match}}es, and some memorable encounters from those trying to get noticed – with video packages in-between recapping the latest angles from the A Show. They're considered something of a loss-leader in the wrestling world, put on largely so that the wrestlers can keep themselves sharp and the promoters can watch carefully to single out wrestlers with potential, rather than with any eye to ratings and revenue. While some promotions such as Wrestling/{{CMLL}} and Wrestling/{{AAA}} run actual B Shows outside of their main venues and some promotions have entire "B Markets", fans in the USA are used to organizations like WWE taping their "B Shows" at the beginning of an A Show, to minimize the costs involved.

That is to say with larger organizations with large rosters, there are often two events going on on a single evening. While the A-Show (which may or may not be a live event or television taping) is going on in one city, the B Show will be taking place in another city sometimes hundreds of miles away. The B-Show, then, is comprised of younger wrestlers, often up-and-coming stars who are currently middle- and lower-level talent in a wrestling promotion, although well-known wrestlers making a comeback, finishing a career or making a special appearance will often participate, as will local wrestlers who compete for local or regional organizations. Additionally, there may be one or two A-show stars who appear at these shows, so as to draw fans (and thus anchor the show) and to help guide newer, up-and-coming wrestlers. [[note]] Often, the local wrestlers will be put in the role of jobber, although they could also be matched against a lower-level talent to provide a good-quality match.[[/note]] These shows are not always taped, although it's always been said the cameras may sometimes be rolling, either to capture an unexpected title change, development or -- most importantly -- to use as an evaluation tool for the wrestlers. Almost always, a championship match -- usually for a secondary or tag team title –- will be contested as the "main event," although this has also included battle royals and special "{{gimmick matches}}" pitting a wrestlers in the promotion's current No. 2 or 3 feud, and sometimes the flagship title is contested between the champion and a challenger who normally may not receive this opportunity on an A-Show. These shows often have a unique experience and flow to them, and very often B-Show wrestlers are able to develop their skills enough to be promoted to the A-Show. So, in many ways, the wrestling at a B-Show is often very good, if not excellent, and the same goes for C-Shows (for organizations that sometimes have a third group of wrestlers who compete at yet another event).

In the case of B Show made of matches cut from the A show, they often start off with appearances from draws who didn't wrestle on the A show's last airing or special events such as debuts and first title defenses but usually regress to showcasing talents the company simply has nothing for at the moment. A wrestler who manages to develop a B Show following in this case can easily find himself promoted to the A Show; however, most B Show regulars who find themselves on the A Show [[{{Jobber}} play a different role entirely]]. B Shows taped entirely separate from the A or indeed "B Markets", will usually maintain their special attractions.

Not to be confused with Wrestling/BigShow... unless you're looking for a {{Dope Slap}} by his GiantHandsOfDoom.

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!!Examples
* Championship Wrestling Superstars/Global Wrestling/North Florida Championship Wrestling/United States Class Wrestling/American Championship Wrestling/Southern Professional Wrestling was the B-show to [[Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance Championship Wrestling from Florida]]. That B-show went through a LOT of names.
* Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling's general B-show is the creatively titled ''B-Banquet'', with the archive showcase Royal Road Club serving as a B-show of sorts to their ''Samurai TV'' A-show ''King's Road''.
* In the Memphis-based/CWA/Jarrett territory, the B-show had the same name as the main show (Championship Wrestling), but focused on house show matches from a few weeks earlier. It usually aired in markets like Tupelo, MS and Jackson, TN that got the main show in from Memphis and needed their own show to promote the local house shows.
* For years, the syndicated WWF shows were All-Star Wrestling and Championship Wrestling. They were pretty much equal until the Summer of 1984, when they moved tapings from Pennsylvania to Brantford, ON and Poughkeepsie, NY respectively. At that point, Championship became the clear B-show. A few months before that, Superstars of Wrestling was added as the C-show featuring a mix of original content and matches aired on the other shows. At the start of the Fall '86 TV season, all 3 shows changed names and the A & B shows switched to big arenas that changed each month. Championship Wrestling became Superstars of Wrestling (yup), All-Star Wrestling became Wrestling Challenge, and Superstars of Wrestling became Wrestling Spotlight.
* Power Pro Wrestling was the B-show to Mid-South Wrestling/Universal Wrestling Federation. At first, it aired a mix of old matches, house show matches, and matches from other territories featuring wrestlers who were coming to the territory soon. In October 1986, it switched to the same format as UWF, with original matches taped specifically for TV, plus the added twist of being taped at the Cowtown Coliseum in Ft. Worth Texas every week so they could promote the idea that country stars might drop in after performing next door at Billy Bob's Texas ("The world's largest honky tonk!"), as well as positioning the show as an alternative to World Class Championship Wrestling out of Dallas/Ft. Worth, which the promotion was now competing against directly.
* Wrestling/{{WWE}} has had several B-Shows throughout the years:
** ''Heat'' was Wrestling/{{WWE}}'s [=B Show=] of the 2000s. It's no longer aired on television, but was viewable on WWE.com for quite a while, until it was canceled completely. Long before ''Heat'', the WWF aired ''Shotgun Saturday Night'', which was unique in that it was set up in incredibly intimate venues (and when we say "intimate venues", we mean places like bars and subway stations). Eventually this became prohibitive, however, and was replaced with a standard [=B Show=].
** It also existed in other forms depending on the market. There was a custom version for NY stations called WWF NY, though SSN would still air on another NY station. Markets not airing the show on Saturday night got Shotgun or Shotgun Challenge. Canada got Canadian Superstars. Eventually, they were replaced with Jakked and Metal, which had the same matches in different order with different commentary and recaps intended for different aged audiences.
** Wrestling/{{WWE}} had ''Raw'' as an A show and ''Smackdown'' as its B show, but ''Smackdown'' grew in ratings to the point it eclipsed ''Raw'' and became a separate A show with its own B show, ''Velocity'', to match Raw's ''Heat''. ''ECW'' started out as a B show to the much more prestigious ''Raw'' and ''Smackdown'' until it was cancelled and replaced with the reality-esque show ''[[Wrestling/{{WWENXT}} NXT]]'', which portrayed rookies wrestling lower card talent.
** By the early 2010s, the gradual dissolution of the brand split meant that ''Raw'' -- being three hours long, live, and branded as a "super show" -- firmly established its place as the A show, with ''Smackdown'' -- being two hours long and pre-taped -- as the B show. A second brand split in 2016 saw ''Smackdown'' regain some of its old luster, and with its 2019 move to Fox, it eventually became the ''de facto'' A show. Lower card talent for both shows would also appear on the C shows of ''Superstars'' (2009–2011) and ''Main Event'' (2012–present). ''205 Live'' (2016–2022) started out as a cruiserweight-exclusive B show to ''Raw'', before being retooled as an ''NXT'' B show in 2019.
** Since its move to a full-fledged developmental brand, ''NXT'' has typically been sort of disconnected from the Raw–Smackdown paradigm, and doesn't fit neatly into the A/B dynamic, although its temporary elevation in the late 2010s to a third brand made it, effectively, a temporary B show to the A shows of ''Raw'' and ''Smackdown''. ''NXT'' currently serves as its own A show to ''NXT LVL UP'', which is a show for greener development to get TV time and experience before moving up the ladder.
* ''Wrestling/{{WCW}} Saturday Night'' used to be WCW's flagship show, but was demoted to [=B Show=] after ''Wrestling/{{WCW Monday Nitro}}'' was created to compete directly with the then-WWF. Unlike most B Shows, it still had quite a few storylines going on at any one time with a more old-school sensibility than ''Nitro'', to the point where, by the time of its demise, it seemed to be almost a separate promotion from mainstream WCW.
** ''WCW Thunder'' counted as a [=B Show=] too by virtue of the fact that all of the top-card wrestlers -- which ''Nitro'''s angles would revolve around -- ''refused'' to appear on it. That, and ''Thunder'' was so poorly produced that it's hard to believe that WCW cared about it at all.[[note]]Most of them didn't care because ''Thunder'' was forced on them by the Turner brass, over the loud objections of Wrestling/EricBischoff and several others. Bischoff felt that an extra 2 hour show would just oversaturate the market and burn out the bookers, and he was right on both counts.[[/note]]
*** Thunder came about because of an aborted arc: the plan with Starrcade 97 was that the Wrestling/{{n|ewWorldorder}}Wo would win control over Nitro and WCW would be forced to retreat to the newly created Thunder. It bombed, though, when the company tested out the idea of "nWo Nitro" right before a PPV and it was a giant clusterfuck of bad ratings, largely because they made the move to remodel the set ON THE AIR, causing about 40 minutes of said remodeling to drive away viewers in droves (and the few who stuck through it turned to Raw during the three to four 20-minute circle jerk sessions involving Hulk Hogan).
* ''Wrestling/{{TNA}} Xplosion'', which is syndicated in a handful of markets. It in fact predates TNA's A show, ''iMPACT''. Xplosion was created when TNA was running weekly pay per views, and existed mainly as an advertisement for them. ''iMPACT'' started as the weekly program with the move to monthly pay-per-views, with Xplosion still around but not even broadcast in the USA anymore.
* Wrestling/DragonGate's "Prime Zone" webcast and "Infinity" television show are sometimes referred to as "B Shows", since they air matches from other events.
* 19'Oclock was an odd example, as it was more an experiment in streaming that ended up being one of Ice Ribbon's primary ways of reaching an international audience, though it was eventually discontinued in favor of just showing Ice Ribbon's primary roster.
* Pro Wrestling Sem is a cross between B show and {{spinoff}} for/of Wrestling/ProWrestlingNOAH. Inspired by Wrestling/MitsuharuMisawa's trip to German based westside Xtreme wrestling, it mostly featured younger wrestlers competing against each other on teams headed by Naomichi Marufuji and Wrestling/{{KENTA|Kobayashi}} in smaller buildings than NOAH's usual fare. It mostly lost purpose and stopped happening after KENTA left.
* Wrestling/{{CZW}}'s ''[[RivalDojos Dojo Wars]]'' is another cross between a B show and an outright spinoff. It primarily features students from the CZW\Wrestling/{{WSU}} dojo competing with each other or fighting wrestlers from other schools.
* Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling has ''AEW Rampage'', a one hour show that airs on Fridays, and is typically taped after, and treated as an extension of, the A show ''AEW Dynamite''.
** AEW formerly had two more B shows in ''AEW Dark'' and ''AEW Dark: Elevation'' that were shown on Website/YouTube. Both these shows were cancelled in May 2023 after AEW was given a third cable show called ''Collision'' on Saturday nights. This wasn't intended to be a B-show,[[note]]It was intended to be Wrestling/RingOfHonor (which AEW owner Tony Khan purchased in March 2022), but Creator/WarnerBrosDiscovery had no interest in airing a wrestling company that just went belly up, regardless of who the current owner was.[[/note]] and more like a soft roster split to keep [[HostilityOnTheSet certain wrestlers as far away from each other as possible]], but after a hot start ''Collision'' ratings fell to about the same level as ''Rampage'' (or about half of what ''Dynamite'' does), firmly cementing it as another B show.
** Ring Of Honor functions as a ''B promotion'' to AEW at times, primarily showcasing newer wrestlers and allowing lower-card wrestlers to get reps, as well as featuring more women's matches than either of the AEW shows.
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