Angle - (n.) 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.

Apter Mags - (n.) 1. Word used to describe the magazines in which Bill Apter is part of the staff (PWI, The Wrestler, etc). 2. Used to describe magazines that contain fictional tales about wrestling that pertain to the storylines.

Around the Horn - (n.) The trip to each town or series of towns that the promotion runs events in.

Blade - (v.i & v.t.) [razor 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 - (v.i.) To become fatigued or exhausted. The Ultimate Warrior was said to be one of a number of wrestlers who blows up on the entry ramp.

Book - (v.i.) To schedule a wrestler for a show.

Booker - (n.) The individual responsible for angles, finishes, hiring and firing in a promotion.

Brass - (n.) Management.

Bump - (n.) 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.

Call a Match - (v.i.) To inform opponent of upcoming moves or spots throughout the match.

Canned Heat - (n.) Crowd cheering that is piped into the sound system or into a pretaped TV show during post production. Ex: The Goldberg chants.

Card - (n.) The series of matches in one location at one time.

Carry - (v.i.) 1. To call a match. 2. To make a green opponent look good in the fans eyes.

Dark Match - (n.) A match at a TV taping that is not taped for broadcast.

Draw - (v.t.) To attract marks. (n.) the popularity of a wrestler, the ability to bring in marks.

Dusty Finish - (n.) After a second referee comes into the match and makes the 3 count leading to a pinfall after the original referee has been knocked down, the original ref overrules that decision. This finish was not exactly invented by Dusty Rhodes, but Dusty used this finish so often during his term as a booker, the finish took on his name.

DUD - (n.) A particularly bad and totally uninteresting match.

Face - (n. & adj.) [babyface] A good guy.

Fall - (n.) [pinfall] A referee's count of three with the loser's shoulders on the mat.

Feud - (n.) A series of matches between two wrestlers or two tag teams, usually face vs. heel though face feuds and heel feuds are not unknown.

Finish - (n.) The event or sequence of events which leads to the ultimate outcome of a match.

Garbage Wrestling - (n.) A style of wrestling that consists of wrestlers frequent use of blading, foreign objects, gimmick stipulations in matches and brawling without much athleticism or ring psychology. (Ex. FMW, many ECW matches) .

Gimmick - (n.) 1. The persona that a wrestler has. 2. Slang for a foreign object.

Green - (adj.) Not good due to inexperience.

Hardway Juice - (n.) Real blood produced by means other than blading, i.e. the hard way. One of the possible outcomes of a shoot.

Heat - (n.) Enthusiasm, a positive response. The WWF uses a heat machine for its televised shows which make them somewhat of a work

Heel - (n. & adj.) A bad guy, rule-breaker.

Highspot - (n.) A move that is percieved to be, or is, high risked.

House - (n.) The wrestling audience in the building said to be composed of marks.

A-Show - (n.) A show featuring the biggest stars of a promotion, while at the same time the promotion is running a show in another town with lesser percieved wrestlers by the fans.

B-Show - (n.) A wrestling event featuring wrestlers that are percieved by the fans as being not as big as the wrestlers who appear on A-Shows.

International Object - (n.) Foreign object, something now allowed in the ring. Derived from an order not to use the world "foreign" by the Turner Broadcasting Company.

Job - (n.) A staged loss. A clean job is a staged loss by legal pinfall or submission without resort to illegalities. v.i. To do a job. Sometimes combined with a descriptive adjective (stretcher job, rope job, tights job.)

Jobber - (n.) An unpushed wrestler who does jobs for pushed wrestlers. Barry Horowitz is probably the best known of these. Sometimes known as fish, redshirts PLs (professional losers,) or 'ham-and-eggers.' Steve Lombardi (Brooklyn Brawler) is also a well known jobber.

Juice - (n.) Blood. (v.i) To bleed, usually as a result of blading.

Kayfabe - (n. adj.) Of or related to inside information about the business, especially by fans. Origin is carny jargon talk for "fake."

Kill - (v.t.) Diminish or eliminate heat or drawing power. There are a variety of ways to do this, but mostly it is done by having a wrestler do too many jobs. A house can be killed by too many screw-job endings.

Lamer - (n.) Person who rags on about a wrestler and doesn't know the concept of storylines. Presumably, marks (n.) that like to argue.

Mark - (n.) A member of the audience, presumed gullible.

No Sell - (v.) When a wrestler stops selling moves for a moment to give the fans the impression that he is invincible. (Ex. Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior)

No Show - (v.) When a wrestler does not show up for a scheduled appearance.

Office - (n.) The headquarters of a wrestling organization (e.g. Titan Towers).

Paper - (n.) Complimentary tickets (v.t.) To give lots of complimentary tickets to make a house look good, particularly for a television taping.

Pencil - (n. adj.) A booker or promoter.

Plant - (n. adj.) A wrestler, or someone who works for the organization, who is placed in the audience who preteneds to be a fan, yet participates in an angle

Pop - (n, v.i.) Sudden heat from a house as a response to a wrestler's entry or hot move.

Post - (v.t.) To run or be run into the ringpost.

Potato - (v.t.) To injure a wrestler by hitting him on the head or causing him to hit his head on something.

Promotion - (n.) 1. The wrestling company. 2. The hype for an event.

Push - (n.) When a wrestler is promoted on TV and through other means in order to get that wrestler over and recognition, through interviews, match victories and TV features.

Run-In - (n.) Interference by a non-participant in a match.

Save - (n.) A run-in to protect a wrestler from being beat up after a match is over.

Sell - (v.) To act as if you were on the recieving end of a legitimate wrestling move.

Screw-Job - (n. adj.) A match or ending which is not clean (definite) due to factors outside the "rules" of wrestling.

Sheets - (n.) Slang for newsletters and journals that break kayfabe, such as the Torch and Observer, and most internet sites as well

Shoot - (n.) The real thing, i.e. a match where one participant is really attempting to hurt another. The opposite of work or fake.

Smark - (n. adj.) A fan who belives he is smart due to a certain ammount of inside knowledge he has gained, but is percieved by someone else to be less informed than that person thinks he is.

Smart - (n.) Person who knows what's actually going on in wrestling.

Spot - (n.) An event or sequence of events which makes a particular match distinctive, a high-point of a match.

Squash - (n.) A totally passive job where one wrestler completely dominates another. v.t. to win a squash match.

Stiff - (adj.) Chops, hits or moves which cause real injury (though perhaps not more than a welting up of the opponent.) Big Van Vader has a reputation as a stiff worker. Not a shoot, but almost.

Stretch - (n.) A form of shoot where one wrestler dominates rather than injures the other as a proof of personal superiority.

Stretched - (v.) To be injured, sometimes intentionaly, by ones opponent. Also refers to a worked injury resulting in the wrestler being taked out of the arena in a stretcher.

Superman Comeback - (n.) When a wrestler no sells the opponents moves during his comeback.

Swerve - (n.) 1. A joke that one wrestler does to another. 2. A false report that a wrestler or promoter leaks to the press. 3. When a finish of a match is changed so that all of the industry insiders are left shocked.

Turn - (n., v.i.) Change in orientation from heel to face or vice-versa. Examples: Lex Luger and Barry Windham.

Tweener - (n.) A wrestler who is neither a face or a heel, but in the process from turning from one to the other.

Work - (n.) A deception or sham, the opposite of a shoot.

Worker - (n.) A wrestler.

Workrate - (n.) The approximate ratio of good wrestling to rest holds in a match or in a wrestler's performance.