Gimmick (professional wrestling)

In professional wrestling, a gimmick mainly refers to a wrestler's in-ring persona, character, behaviour, attire and/or other distinguishing traits while performing which are usually artificially created in order to draw fan interest.

Gimmicks or in-ring personalities often involve costumes, make up and catchphrases that they shout at their opponents or the fans.

Gimmicks can be designed to work as good (babyfaces) or bad (heels) guys/girls depending on the wrestler's desire to be popular or hated by the crowd. A tweener gimmick falls between the two extremes. A wrestler may portray more than one gimmick over their career depending on the angle or the wrestling promotion that that they are working for at that time.

Promotions will often recycle past gimmicks, giving them to newer wrestlers. Occasionally, a gimmick used on a newer wrestler in tribute to a wrestler from the past.

When a wrestler acts outside his or her gimmick this is known as 'breaking kayfabe', a term showing pro wrestling's linkages to theatre, where the more common term "breaking the fourth wall" is used.

Gimmick

In marketing terminology, the term gimmick refers to a unique or quirky special feature that makes something "stand out" from its contemporaries. However, the special feature is generally thought to be of little relevance or use. Thus, a gimmick is a special feature for the sake of having a special feature. It began, however, as a slang term for something that a con artist or magician had his assistant manipulate to make appearances different from reality. Such things as the manipulating of a gaming wheel led to the idea of a "gimmick" being used. Musicians often use gimmicks such as Slash's top hat, Angus Young's schoolboy uniform and Deadmau5's mouse helmet.

In marketing, product gimmicks are sometimes considered mere novelties, and not really that relevant to the product's functioning, sometimes even earning negative connotations. However, some seemingly trivial gimmicks of the past have evolved into useful, permanent features. According to the OED, the word was first attested in 1926, defined in the Wise-Crack Dictionary by Main and Grant as "a device used for making a fair game crooked".

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling (colloquially abbreviated to pro wrestling or wrestling) is an athletic form of entertainment based on a fictionalized, highly exaggerated portrayal of a combat sport. Taking the form of live events held by touring promotions, it portrays a unique style of combat based on a combination of adopted styles, which include classical wrestling, catch wrestling and various forms of martial arts, as well as an innovative style based on grappling (holds/throws), striking, and aerialism. Various forms of weaponry are sometimes used.

The content including match outcomes is choreographed and the combative actions and reactions are executed in special manners designed to both protect from, yet simulate pain. These facts were once kept highly secret but are now openly declared as the truth. By and large, the true nature of the content is ignored by the performing promotion in official media in order to sustain and promote the willing suspension of disbelief for the audience by maintaining an aura of verisimilitude. Fan communications by individual wrestlers and promotions through outside media (i.e. interviews) will often directly acknowledge the fictional nature of the spectacle.

Professional

A professional is a member of a profession or any person who earns their living from a specified activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skills necessary to perform the role of that profession. In addition, most professionals are subject to strict codes of conduct enshrining rigorous ethical and moral obligations. Professional standards of practice and ethics for a particular field are typically agreed upon and maintained through widely recognized professional associations. Some definitions of "professional" limit this term to those professions that serve some important aspect of public interest and the general good of society.

In some cultures, the term is used as shorthand to describe a particular social stratum of well-educated workers who enjoy considerable work autonomy and who are commonly engaged in creative and intellectually challenging work.

Trades

In narrow usage, not all expertise is considered a profession. Although sometimes incorrectly referred to as professions, occupations such as skilled construction and maintenance work are more generally thought of as trades or crafts. The completion of an apprenticeship is generally associated with skilled labour, or trades such as carpenter, electrician, mason, painter, plumber and other similar occupations. A related distinction would be that a professional does mainly mental work, as opposed to engaging in physical work.

Wrestling

Wrestling is a combat sport involving grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two (occasionally more) competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position. There are a wide range of styles with varying rules with both traditional historic and modern styles. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into other martial arts as well as military hand-to-hand combat systems.

The term wrestling is attested in late Old English, as wræstlunge (glossing palestram).

History

Wrestling represents one of the oldest forms of combat. Literary references to it occur as early as in the Iliad, in which Homer recounts the Trojan War of the 13th or 12th century BC. The origins of wrestling go back 15,000 years through cave drawings in France. Babylonian and Egyptian reliefs show wrestlers using most of the holds known in the present-day sport.