~ Steve Allen, The Unreal Story of Professional Wrestling
"To those who believe in the beauty of professional wrestling, nothing needs to be said. For those who don't appreciate wrestling, nothing could be said to change their minds."
~ Vince McMahon
Professional Wrestling is usually full of concepts from different types of shows. Each match is roughly choreographed (though not usually in much detail since wrestlers don't have much rehearsal time, let alone for whole matches, given that they wrestle twenty-eight days per month on average—many of a match's details will be improvised). World Wrestling Entertainment's programs remind one of nothing so much as a Soap Opera for guys, complete with all the emotion, melodrama, and occasional comic relief that that phrase implies. Other organizations, such as Ring of Honor, strive for a more gritty, realistic presentation, but still incorporate many soap opera elements.
The history of pro wrestling is a bit convoluted; until the late '80s/early '90s, promoters claimed that wrestling was a legitimate sport, and attempted to hide the fact that it was scripted at all costs. The truth is the performances are as standardized and stylized as Japanese Kabuki theatre, or commedia dell'arte — each match is a miniature set piece, using stock characters, "plots" and "twists". This has become more obvious in recent years with the increased sense of theatre provided by the major promoters and programs. As more and more wrestling fans grew wise to the fact that wrestling was scripted and choreographed, promoters had no choice but to reveal the secret that everybody already knew by that point anyway. Vince McMahon went so far as to televise a speech on an episode of Monday Night Raw, in which he promised to "stop insulting (fans') intelligence" and referred to Raw as an "action-adventure" series.
All wrestling organizations will have a "booker", or person who decides which wrestlers are going over on any given "card" or event. The larger wrestling organizations will have full booking teams, made of bookers (who help wrestlers lay out the matches) and scriptwriters (who tell the bookers the companies' long-term goals with the storylines). These are often called the "creative teams", or simply just "creative" (as in "Creative has no ideas for your character at the moment"). Booking wrestling matches and storylines is a difficult skill; most of the boom times for wrestling can largely be accounted for through good booking of matches. Poor booking can be disastrous: WCW was literally destroyed through terrible creative decisions, first under the stewardship of Vince Russo and a few others, then through the WWE's terrible "Invasion" vanity trip.
However, as many Sitcom plots (and Botchamania) have implied, Professional Wrestling is very real in the sense that mistimed inexperience can leave someone seriously injured. Professional wrestlers are like stuntmen; they're acting out a scene, but physically, and with the chance of injury, not to mention they get no second takes. And whatever you may have heard, they do hit each other, although their moves are generally designed to seem much more devastating than they are, and they avoid harm whenever they feasibly can without it looking too obvious. A professional wrestler literally puts his life in his opponent's hands several times in a single match; the slightest misstep could result in a broken bone, a broken neck, paralysis, possibly even death. I guess what we're trying to say here is... Don't Try This at Home.
If you see a word you don't understand, it may be helpful to refer to these links:
For a guide to how to effectively book a match see here
If you see an unfamiliar name, it's very likely that it is a famous wrestler's real name or earlier persona. It's easier to just use the search function at the other wiki rather than try to use a list. As a general rule, the wrestler's most famous persona will be used instead of their real name, although different fans will have a different opinion as to which persona was the most famous, and then to add to the confusion, the WWE/F has the annoying habit of trademarking a wrestler's name so that the wrestler can't use it after they leave the promotion.
Anyone Can Die: Sadly, this is starting to become true as of late, as professional wrestlers nowadays seem to have very short lifespans. Prior to drug testing (which was implemented after one such death), wrestling has had a number of high-profile deaths that seem to come out of nowhere, most notably Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero. Certainly fans are now conditioned to expect any wrestler to die at any time.
Jim Cornette's opinion on the reasons for this can be listened to here and here.
Given that there are a ton of people that have worked in the pro wrestling business, wrestler deaths are seemingly common only in proportion to every other industry. While drugs and steroids have certainly taken more wrestlers than they should have, there are just as many wrestlers from when the territorial system was at its peak (and there were a lot more wrestlers than there are now) who die naturally in their 70s and beyond.
To their credit, the WWE has worked hard in making their company more safe, from eliminating chair shots to the head (which wrestlers like Shelton Benjamin have stated can cause headaches for up to a week) to a stricter drug policy.
According to WWE themselves, Triple H and The Undertaker (two of their biggest names) were both fined after Triple H hit 'Taker in the head with a chair during their match at WrestleMania XXVII.
After the recent passing of Randy Savage a report was put out that showed over 25% of performers from Wrestlemania VII in 1991 were dead. At 58, Randy Savage had lived over 10 years longer than the other deceased.
"In the real world, the WWE has always gotten a mention or two for two reasons— the first one being that CM Punk is speaking his mind; the second one is because somebody died."
Ascended Fanboy: Pick a wrestler who named a famous pro-wrestling event as the reason he got into the business: e.g., Mick Foley or Edge.
Edge was named "Most Likely to be WWF Champion", was in the audience at WrestleMania VI, and won a training camp to become a wrestler by writing an essay. It was destiny.
HHH deserves extra special mention. He went from diehard fanboy to WCW jobber to breakout WWE Superstar to marrying the boss' daughter, and if Shane McMahon's departure from the company holds up, he and his wife Stephanie McMahon Levesque are the heirs to the WWE empire.
B Show: Xplosion to Impact, Thunder to Nitro. People often cite Smackdown as a B-Show compared to RAW, but it's more like a second A-Show in terms of this trope.
The modern ECW was almost a middle ground of this trope. It had its own storylines and World title and was considered an actual brand that is given PPV time, but its main purpose was to get talent ready for the A shows by giving them television experience and having them work with seasoned veterans such as William Regal, Tommy Dreamer, Finlay, etc.
Velocity and Heat are (or were, last time I checked) B Shows to Smack Down! and RAW respectively.
WWE Superstars (the show, not the wrestlers) and WWE NXT are both considered the new B show to both Smackdown! and Raw.
And for that matter, Batista is actually, in real life, a grandfather. Yes, THAT Batista.
Balls of Steel: This trope was used once when Chyna was wrestling Road Dogg and he wore a cup.
Beauty Is Bad: Female wrestlers who are pretty usually have to work extra hard to prove themselves as wrestlers and even then they will get hated purely because they are pretty. God help them if they have ever done even a bit of modelling. Women wrestlers who aren't conventionally beautiful usually get a free pass and are considered wrestlers regardless of whatever experience they have. Current WWE Diva Tamina is an example. This can sometimes cross over into the men's divisions with the guys getting called "gay" and "pretty boys".
Beauty is Never Tarnished: Used to varying degrees with woman wrestlers. WWE and TNA's women never bleed on purpose, by contrast Japanese women brutalise each other just as much as the men. Averted occasionally, particularly in 2002-03 in WWE where there were a lot of women's hardcore matches and the likes of Victoria and Trish Stratus bled quite a lot. Roxxi in TNA is another aversion.
Also somewhat averted in a 2010 TNA match between Daffney and Tara, which was a First Blood Match. Only somewhat because at the conclusion of that match there was only a tiny trickle of blood.
Boring Invincible Hero: A complaint most infamously leveled against Hulk Hogan, currently at John Cena. Tends to get invoked against any Face champion, though.
Triple H, from 2002-2005. Since he was heel then, the accusations were more along the lines of Villain Sue.
Ditto for Jeff Jarrett from 2003-2006, so much that fans called him "Triple J" and chanted for him to "DROP THE TITLE!" whenever he appeared.
The Ultimate Warrior is arguably the prime example of this trope. He only has a handful of clean losses on record. Not even Hulk Hogan could stop him (without cheating).
Brains: Evil; Brawn: Good: Most face/heel rivalries in Professional Wrestling play out like this, with most of the drama centered around the heel cheating and tricking his way to victory against a more powerful and/or skilled babyface. Whereas a heel who's legitimately skilled gets cheered a lot of the time, the heel still gets booed because the fans know he doesn't "deserve" to keep winning and are waiting until he finally gets demolished.
Prominent examples (as heels, of course):
Ric Flair
Chris Jericho
The Miz
Jerry Lawler was pretty much the Ric Flair of Memphis.
Triple H is a perfect example of both. As a heel, he can't win a match clean to save his life, yet as a face, all he needs are his fists and maybe a sledgehammer in order to take out the rest of the roster.
A variant specific to tag team matches, and forming the standard psychology for most of them: The heel team is more skilled at actual tag team wrestling, isolating one face and utilizing numerous tag team maneuvers. This builds tension for the Hot Tag, whereupon the fresh babyface finally tags in and demolishes the heels singlehandedly.
Chickification: Happens to women wrestlers often when promoted from a indie promotion to a major one and or because of a poorly-executed gimick change.
Cool Old Guy: Any wrestler who's in their late 40s or older, but can still kick ass and take a beating. Embodied by the one and only Funker himself, Terry Funk.
Curb-Stomp Battle: The technical term for this in pro wrestling circles is a "squash match". Not nearly as common nowdays as it was in the 80's, when most televised matches consisted of a star wrestler pitted against a hopeless "jobber" who would be destroyed in a matter of minutes without offering any offence at all. Still occasionally happens in modern times, especially if a wrestler is being given a "Goldberg push."
Demoted to Extra: The pro-wrestling term for this trope is referred to as being buried.
Notable examples include Tatanka, the Undertaker (moreso early in his career, but even now it's considered a formidable task), Hulk Hogan in the 80's, Rob Van Dam as ECW World Television Champion, Brunno Sammartino's legendary world title reign, and most famously of them all, Bill Goldberg.
So far averted with The Undertaker at WrestleMania. 19-0. It's basically a new gimmick; in the leadup to every Wrestlemania, somebody steps up and claims they're going to end the streak.
Most recently displayed (in the same week, no less) with Sheamus and Drew Mc Intyre.
Do Not Call Me Paul: Triple H and The Big Show have both said this to fans that have called them by their birth names. If you meet a wrestler, it is usually a good idea to address them by their ring name.
Double Standard: Many but one of the more recent ones involves the infamous "Piggie James" angle. People were outraged at Michelle and Layla making fun of Mickie's weight and anyone who called Mickie overweight on the IWC was immediately vilified. Yet many people started cruelly calling Michelle "Skeletor" on the internet and calling her underfed and a stick insect. Anorexia is just as big a problem as obesity and Michelle has struggled with anorexia in the past.
Easily-Distracted Referee: You have to wonder if these referees have ever seen a woman before, given their reactions to a valet shaking what God/their friendly plastic surgeon gave her.
Hey, have you SEEN Stacy Keibler's ass? Wouldn't YOU stop to stare?
Evil Is Dumb: Edge has nearly been bent in half by the World's Greatest Tag Team, bloodied in steel cages and forced to wrestle giants with a broken hand and not use his cast. He was still able to win through sheer determination and will to win. As a Rudo, he can hardly win a match without relying on shortcuts, outside interference, manipulation of the general manager or outright cheating
Fan Dumb: Like you wouldn't believe. From the people who say that only WWE matters to the elitist snobs who only watch ROH and NOAH, wrestling fandom is filled with back-biting "Stop Having Fun" Guys and fans who invoke Ruined FOREVER a bit too often.
Fan Hater: Yes, we know it's staged! You can stop "informing" us.
Foe Yay: Pretty much any wrestlers involved in a feud can have this.
A good example was when Randy Orton approached John Cena backstage at Backlash 2007 just before their Fatal Four-Way match with Shawn Michaels and Edge. He suggested that he and Cena team up to take out the competition, but unfortunately he used the words "get together" - and, to top it off, tried to appeal to Cena's vanity by noting how "young" and "good-looking" they both were. Cena, being the Deadpan Snarker he was, replied that, while he was okay with Orton's lifestyle, "that's not how I roll." He then walked off, leaving Orton yelling, "Very funny, Cena! But you know how this is going to end - with you on your back and me on top of you!" Enter the always-outspoken Ron Simmons, complete with his "DAMN" T-shirt. Hilarity Ensues.
Terri, Jacqueline, and Ryan Shamrock: the Pretty Mean Sisters.
UPYOURS - Union of People You Oughta Respect, Son
The Gambler: Kinda. Wrestling had a The Gambler, but he wasn't very lucky.
An old gimmick of Kevin Nash in was that of "Vinnie Vegas", a fast talking conman and gambler. His finisher (now used as one of The Undertaker'sFive Moves of Doom) was "Snake Eyes" (dropping your opponent face-first onto a turnbuckle).
Game Breaking Injury: Submission artists employ this tactic all the time. They will use a variety of locks and holds that target a specific part of the human body until it will become too painful to use. Not actually referring to Triple H's quad tears.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: A lot of wrestlers working in America remain hugely popular in their country of origin or descent, despite being low-card acts in the US. Some examples:
Sonjay Dutt from TNA was always popular in India, even when he was barely on TV;
WWE's The Great Khali is even more popular in India, to the point where his segments were staged and then edited so that he was a heel in the US but a face in India;
Stan Hansen of AJPW, who is vaguely notable to American pro wrestling history but remains one of the most popular and recognizable stars in Japan years after his retirement;
Terry Gordy and Steve Williams were enormously renowned in their territorial days but resigned to relatively bit roles on WWE and WCW were also very popular in AJPW, teaming as the Miracle Violence Connection.
Mark Jindrak, a mid-carder from WCW and WWE, revived his career in Mexico as Marco Corleone;
Bret Hart, always far more popular in Canada than the US;
Genki Horiguchi, a lower-card Dragon Gate wrestler whose Bald of Awesome gimmick has made him one of DG's most popular wrestlers in the US.
Similarly with Akira Tozawa. A generally middle of the road guy in Dragon Gate (who wasn't even the highest ranked member of the stable that bore his name), in the summer of 2010 he began an extended tour in the United States wrestling mainly for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. His ability to put on great matches and seemingly crazy/eccentric personality quickly won over American crowds making him a far bigger deal on the American indies than he had been in his home promotion.
Certainly invoked in the case of the British Bulldog, Davey Boy Smith. His popularity in Britain was one of the major reasons why Summer Slam '92 was held in London. To this day it is the only one of the 'Big Four' PPV's that has been held out of North America.
Good Is Dumb: Generally played straight, although occasionally subverted. Batista, who turned face when he heard his stablemates plotting against him and who displayed above average keenness as a face, is the biggest of those.
The most egregious example? Sting, who is commonly referred to as "The dumbest man in wrestling".
Ham-to-Ham Combat: Naturally, since hamminess is any wrestler's stock in trade.
Jumping the Shark: Professional wrestling has its own specific flavors. Both are just as subjective as the trope itself but are recognized and worked around by bookers and promoters.
Within the scope of an individual show, matches need to be ordered properly to avoid the crowd burning out. Putting an incredibly awesome match in the middle of the card will essentially cause the show as a whole to Jump The Shark and multiple awesome matches need to be spaced out with not-as-awesome matches and promos.
For the promotion as a whole, overuse of gimmicks and generally turning everything Up to Eleven is a good way to gain short-term ratings and attendance spikes but can leave everything overexposed: too much hardcore wrestling, for example, will cause the audience to be desensitized and force the wrestlers to come up with more violent ways of maiming themselves while having all-out brawling street fights once in a while in big situations will keep things special.
Mostly the wrestlers, but more than a few of the announcers are guilty of this, especially when dealing with a wrestler or faction they show particular favoritism towards.
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: No wrestler that's had a decent amount of airtime and attention in WWE in the last ten years has gone without being paired with somebody else in either a straight or slash fic. (Yes. Even Vince McMahon. He's got Linda, remember?)
Leotard of Power: An older wrestling costume design that still shows up nowadays every once in a while.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Employed against faces to build heat, and against heels when they get their comeuppance.
No Such Thing As HR: A contract dispute with the boss? A love triangle with another wrestler and his girl? Suspicions of trying to stage a hostile takeover of the company? There's only way to settle something like that... in the ring!
Oh Crap: Typically seen when the Heel finally comes face to face with a Face he's been trying to avoid... or when just about anyone goes one on one with the Undertaker.
Popularity Power: Wrestling runs on the fans taking an interest in you rather than liking you. It's an old expression among wrestlers that "it doesn't matter if the fans love you or hate you, as long as they care".
Rage Quit: Via intentional disqualification (or count out) by the (usually) Heel champion who knows the (usually) Face challenger has them beat. Often leads to a "Title changes hands via DQ (or count out)" stipulation being added to prevent this.
Real Life Writes the Plot: Wrestlers' real-life issues often provide fodder for their self-based characters' wrestling storylines.
One of the most famous examples is the Matt Hardy/Edge feud: Edge stole Matt's girlfriend (Lita) while he was out with an injury (and subsequently released by WWE); when Matt returned, his first feud was with Edge, and much ado was made of the Edge/Lita/Matt triangle.
His brother Jeff's drug issues were also used as the basis of Jeff's feud with the Straight EdgeCM Punk.
Reviews Are The Gospel: There are people (at least the smart marks) who swear by Dave Meltzer's (of the Wrestling Observer) reviews of matches. There are a great many wrestlers and promoters who swear at them.
Seinfeld Is Unfunny: As the years passed, many things in pro wrestling that used to be unique or shocking have become commonplace. Examples follow...
The ladder match. At Wrestlemania X, it was very exciting and revolutionary for its time. Fans who grew up watching TLC matches may find this match boring.
The DDT was once a devastating maneuver but it is now a standard move so watching an older match end with one stretches fan's willingness to suspend disbelief. Ditto for moves like the Power Bomb, Superplex, Stampeder (running power slam), and — going back even further — the Thesz Press.
Watching old AWA matches, moves like the Clothesline and Dropkick were also match enders back in the day.
Also common among lucha libre and cruiserweight wrestlers. As the style becomes more popular, more wrestles add more flippy stuff. At Bash at the Beach '96, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Psicosis created the "highspot of the night" when Rey hit a huracarrana on Psic in mid-air. But nowadays, with Jack Evan, Ricochet and PAC and the like on the indy circuit doing double rotation corkscrew shooting star presses, that just fails to impress as it did at the time.
The Dynamite Kid vs Tiger Mask series in the early 80's seems slow-paced and short by modern standards. At the time, those matches more or less established the notion of "high-flying" wrestlers.
Back in the 1980s, title matches could be considerably shorter than they are today (Hulk Hogan's famous victory over The Iron Sheik, for example, was barely five minutes long!) and were filmed in long shot, making you feel that you were actually in the arena, thus causing the novelty of watching a wrestling match at home on TV to come off as rather pointless. Add in the general lack of music, pyrotechnics, and so forth, and modern-day fans might think they're watching a Stylistic Suck!
Trish Stratus was a huge success story during her career - WWE had brought in various models to build its women's division into more about T&A than athleticism (Sable, Terri Runnels, Debra) but Trish herself was the first (in WWE at least) to develop onscreen from an eye candy valet with patchy mic skills to a charasmatic star who is now regarded as one of the best female wrestlers in North America. These days at least 60% of the women's division in WWE (and some of TNA's roster too) is made up of former models brought in and trained to wrestle in the hopes of replicating Trish's success. Due to this and comparison with women's wrestling on the indie circuit, many purists label Trish as "overrated" and resent her for not wrestling on the indies.
At the time of her debut in WWE, Lita's style of wrestling stood out for moves like headscissors, hurricanranas, and moonsaults, barely used by women in WWE. These days (see the Trish example above) due to having to work extremely short matches all the time, the models brought in by WWE will often learn flashy moves like hurricanranas to make their matches appear more exciting and cover up their lack of wrestling ability. If the models are former gymnasts this can work fine and they eventually develop into competent wrestlers (Eve Torres, Kelly Kelly) or they can just come across as sloppy spot monkeys (*cough* Ashley Massaro). Moves such as moonsaults and hurricanranas are more staples of women's wrestling these days than men's, at least in WWE due to the retirement of the Cruiserweight division.
Averted with regards to Natalya and the Sharpshooter. Aside from a one-off Trish Stratus match, fans had never seen a woman do it before and while it's not as amazing now to see her use it, she still gets great reactions whenever she does use it to win matches.
Serious Business: There is absolutely no situation that cannot be resolved with a wrestling match on PAY PER VIEW! ORDER NOW!
Kayfabe, in the old days, was major Serious Business, with at least one instance of a wrestler losing a court case because he would not break kayfabe, even under oath.
Then there's the Fan Dumb. Everything from what qualifies as a "world title" to how seriously wrestling should take itself. The fact that wrestling draws upon the framework of a sport while actually being entertainment creates a lot of this thinking, since fans often try to see some kind of order or hierarchy that doesn't exist.
She's Got Legs: Often used with the female manager/valet — which see Miss Elizabeth in the 2-on-3 match at Summer Slam for when used minimally for maximum effect. Taken to the extreme during the Attitude Era (and similar on WCW) with Stacy Keibler ('nuff said).
Talk Show With Fists: Many, both in-universe and out although Tuesday Night Titans was an especially good example.
Tear Jerker: Ric Flair's retirement match at Wrestlemania 24. Mick Foley's 1998 King of the Ring match, which should have ended in the first five minutes. Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero winning their main event matches and hugging at Wrestlemania XX. Shawn Michaels's retirement at Wrestlemania 26.
There Are No Female Wrestling Fans: And if there are, the assumption is that they're shrieking fangirls who don't know a Sharpshooter from a suplex.
Completely and utterly averted and destroyed with All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling. During the '70s and '80s, tag teams like the Beauty Pair and Crush Gals enjoyed massive mainstream popularity among girls to the point where arenas were packed mainly with screaming girls.
Also the majority of Hardy Boyz fans were screaming young girls, demonstrated by the massive pops they got whenever they removed their shirts during matches. The likes of Lita and Trish Stratus also proved to draw in hundreds of female fans.
This Is Sparta: For all we know, WWE may have INVENTED this trope. Just ask The Rock ("If ya suh-mellllll....what the ROCK....is....COOKING!") or Booker T ("Can you dig it....SUCKA?!) or especially the guy who stamped his whole goddamn meal ticket with this trope ("MMMMMisterrrrrr....Kennedy....KEN-NE-DY!")
World of Ham: Wrestling is home to so many enormous slices of ham. When someone as hammy as John Cena looks fairly normal by comparison, you know you're in a World of Ham.
You Have To Have Jews: Notoriously averted. World Wrestling Entertainment has (at least in recent years) gained a reputation for welcoming athletes of all ethnic backgrounds, except that it's one of the most goyish entertainment franchises in history. In the past decade alone, Glen Jacobs (otherwise known as "Kane") and Bill Goldberg have been the only two Jewish wrestlers to reach main-event status, and then only briefly. Scotty Goldman (a.k.a. "Colt Cabana") famously quit the company after enduring anti-Semitic harassment from his trainer, and Paul Heyman has been outspoken in his condemnation of latent anti-Semitism in the wrestling business.
Although in this case there is a sensible reason for this, as wrestling events normally occur on Friday, Saturday & Sundays nights, Jews who follow Shabbat simply tend not to become professional wrestlers as they can only work 1/3 of the shows other wrestlers do.
However, when Paul Heyman was doing color for Raw in 2001, he made references to being Jewish nearly every week. Perhaps the best was when J.R. asked him if he'd ever had BBQ sauce on a bagel. Or when Paul insisted on calling Albert's finishing move the Meshuginator every week. Jerry Lawler once remarked in the mid 1990s that he thought judo was what bagels were made from. Um...
Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Has become a standby for Money in the Bank winners. The big fan-favorite face has just retained his championship title in a grueling effort against all odds - and, often enough, against multiple opponents. Thinking the battle is finally over, he lifts the belt triumphantly above his head to the delirious cheers of the crowd. But....not so fast, bucko! An ominous entrance theme blares over the P.A. and the face's mortal enemy - the promotion's most dastardly heel - struts into the arena carrying his Money in the Bank championship opportunity contract, which he has acquired either fairly or not. The big main-event match starts all over again as the heel cashes in his contract and - following a brave but futile effort by the exhausted face - gets a pinfall to become the new World Champion.
The only person who averted this was Rob Van Dam, who had a legitimate full-length title match with John Cena at ECW One Night Stand.
Inverted when CM Punk did this to Edge using the Money in the Bank contract. This time it was the face using the contract at the opportune moment. Punk later lampshades this, stating that had he done it to anyone but Edge, he would have been perceived as the guy. Edge had won a title using the exact same tactic twice, so this was seen as karma coming back to bite him.
And then hilariously averted in 2011, also by CM Punk, when Alberto Del Rio came down to cash in his contract, CM Punk kicked him in the back of the head before the referee had the chance to ring the bell.
The Four Horsemen - Wrestling's first "elite" stable, made up of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and Ole Anderson. The Horsemen are synonymous with excellence, breaking kayfabe, and Becoming the Mask.
The Nexus - A stable that originally consisted of the eight "rookies" from season one of WWE NXT, and slowly evolved into something completely different.
Miscellaneous:
Attitude Era - WWE's shift to a more adult-oriented product from 1996/97 to 2001.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter - Run by Dave Meltzer, while it also offers up inside info about pro wrestling, it's best known for its star-rating for matches (scale of 1 to 5).
The Death Of WCW - A non-fiction book that gives an in-depth look at what killed WCW.
Monday Night Wars - The period from 1995 to 2001 when Raw (WWE) and Nitro (WCW) went head to head.
Montreal Screwjob - A moment that has had long-lasting implications on both WWE itself and the careers of several wrestlers, notably Bret Hart.
0 reviews