Professional wrestling promotion

A professional wrestling promotion (also federation or fed) is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event (see promoter). Within the convention of the show, the company is a sports governing body which sanctions wrestling matches and gives authority to the championships and is responsible for determining the divisions, rankings, etc. of wrestlers. In truth, the company serves as a touring theatre troupe, as well as event promotion body for its own events.

Currently, the major wrestling organizations in the United States are World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Total Nonstop Action (TNA) and Ring of Honor (ROH). The major Mexican lucha libre promotions are Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA). The top Japanese puroresu promotions are New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), Dragon Gate (DG), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and Pro Wrestling Noah (NOAH). There are also small promotions called indies or territories around the world.

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.

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.