For equipment, each wrestler must wear an undershirt, head covering, light shoes, knee pads, face masks and wrestling straps. An undershirt is a one-piece uniform that covers the wrestler`s upper body. In team competitions, wrestlers wear an undershirt with colors that represent the school/team they are playing for. A wrestling helmet is required to protect the wrestler`s ears. Long-time wrestlers can develop a “cauliflower ear,” in which constant blows to the ear can damage its shape and structure. The fighting helmet helps prevent this. Wrestling groups are used to distinguish each player and facilitate the scoring of points. Generally, the stripes are red and green and placed on each wrestler`s ankle. Cathy Davis sued the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) in 1977 for being denied a boxing license because she was a woman, and the case was decided in her favor later that year, with the judge striking down New York State Rule 205.15, which states: “No woman shall be fired or licensed as a boxer or runner-up. to participate in a wrestling exhibition with men. [25] [26] In his opinion, the judge cited the precedent of Garrett v. New York State Athletic Commission (1975), which “declared the provision invalid under the same guarantees of the state and federal constitutions.” The NYSAC appealed the verdict, but later dropped it.
[27] [25] Currently, the largest professional wrestling company in the world is the US-based WWE which was founded in the late 20th century. In 2001, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) acquired the main competitors. Other major global companies include All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in the United States, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), and Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) in Mexico; and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and Pro Wrestling Noah Promotions. Perhaps the best-known non-standard match is the cage match, in which the ring is surrounded by a fence or similar metal structure, with the express intention of preventing escape or interference from the outside – and with the added benefit that the cage is a potentially brutal attack weapon or platform. WWE has another provision where a standard cage fight can end with a wrestler or wrestling team escaping from the cage through the door or over it. Similar to other martial arts, professional wrestling has certain rules for maintaining order during fights. Apart from the rules of the ring, wrestlers must also follow certain rules of the respective promotions. WWE, one of the largest wrestling promotions in the world, also observed the most common wrestling practices and introduced internal rules for their superstars. Although professional wrestling began as small acts in side shows, traveling circuses and carnivals, it is now a billion-dollar industry. Revenues come from ticket sales, network TV shows, pay-per-view, branded products and home videos. Pro Wrestling was instrumental in making pay-per-view a viable method of content delivery.[12] Annual shows such as WrestleMania, Bound for Glory, Wrestle Kingdom and formerly Starrcade are among the best-selling pay-per-view programs each year.In modern times, Internet programming has been used by a number of companies to broadcast webcasts, Internet pay-per-views (IPPV) or on-demand content and help generate Internet-related revenue from the evolution of the World Wide Web. At the turn of the 20th century, almost all professional wrestling matches were rigged. [5] Those unfamiliar with the rope in WWE should know that it is a smaller rope attached to the top tensioner. Wrestlers must cling to the rope while waiting to be marked by their partner. This is done to prevent wrestlers from occupying their opponent with a double team. The basic rules of wrestling include the four different moves you can use to win a match. These rules are known as: Takedown, Escape, Reversal and Near Fall. Wrestlers must follow the guidelines of these moves to win a match, if they do not follow these rules, it would result in a defeat.
Wrestlers must also follow the punishment rules to prevent the opponent from rewarding any more points. Some terminologies derived from professional wrestling have found their way into the common vernacular. Phrases such as “body slam”, “sleeper hold” and “tag team” are used by those who do not follow professional wrestling. The term “Smackdown”, made famous by The Rock and SmackDown! in the 1990s, has been included in Merriam-Webster dictionaries since 2007. In a Texas Tornado Tag Team match, all participants in the match are legal, and boarding and disembarking are not required. All matches played under strict rules (e.g. no disqualification, no holding ban, ranked play, etc.) will all be played under Texas Tornado`s de facto rules, as a referee`s inability to issue a disqualification renders any marking requirement obsolete. A wrestling match can be declared no contest if winning conditions cannot occur. This may be due to excessive disruption, loss of control by the referee over the match, a debilitating injury to one or more participants not caused by the opponent, or the inability of a scheduled match to start. A non-contest is a separate and distinct state of a draw – a draw indicates that the winning conditions have been met. Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably in practice, this usage is technically incorrect.
Special ring entries are also being developed for special occasions, especially for the WrestleMania event. For example, in WrestleMania III and VI, all wrestlers saw the arena on miniature motorized wrestling rings. Live bands are sometimes hired to play live entrance music at special events. John Cena and Triple H have distinguished themselves in recent years for their very theatrical performances at WrestleMania. A wrestler can voluntarily submit by verbally informing the referee (usually used in moves such as the Mexican surfboard, where all four limbs are incapable, making tapping impossible). Since Ken Shamrock popularized it in 1997, a wrestler can indicate voluntary submission by “tapping”[21], that is, by tapping a free hand against the mat or against an opponent. Sometimes a wrestler takes a rope (see rope breaks below) only to put his hand back on the mat so he can crawl even further to the rope; It is not a bid, and the arbitrator decides its intention. Submission was initially an important factor in professional wrestling, but after the decline of the catch-as-catch-can style oriented towards submission of traditional professional wrestling, submission largely faded. Nevertheless, some wrestlers such as Chris Jericho, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Kurt Angle, Ken Shamrock, Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit and Tazz became famous for winning matches by submission.
A wrestler with a signature submission technique is described as better at applying the hold, making it more painful or difficult to get out than others who use it, or may be mistakenly considered an invention of the hold (for example, when tazz popularized kata ha jime judo choke in professional wrestling as a “tazz mission”).
