WWE: 10 Wrestler Insider Terms Explained

"Looks like they're going to put him over tonight." "Why aren't they pushing this guy already?" "She's giving off some major heat for her actions in the ring." Have you ever heard wrestling fans say one or more of lines like these and later wondered what they meant? What does it really mean for someone to be put "over"? Is giving someone a "push" good or bad in wrestling? What the heck does making "heat" mean? Those are just three of the many different wrestling insider terms that experienced wrestling fans have been hearing and using in their vocabulary for ages. For newcomers to professional wrestling, some of these words don't make a lot of sense in the context they are used, but once the smoke and mirrors are noticed, eventually the terms are fully established and viewers will start to understand what a particular word means, and more importantly, why it's being used. While there are dozens of wrestling insider terms, there are ten in particular that stand out the most and can often be heard in wrestling conversations and on message forums in particular. Knowing these words, and mastering them in a wrestling conversation, will help prevent others from calling you a "mark." And unless you name happens to be Mark, you don't want that to happen.

10. Shoot

Don't worry, it has nothing to do with actually shooting somebody with a gun. When a wrestling fan is talking about a "shoot," that fan is talking about something real happening in an otherwise staged professional wrestling show. Shoots are considered unprofessional, and very rarely happen during a wrestling show. You can compare it to when an actor in a Broadway play suddenly starts going off script and breaking the fourth wall by interacting with the audience. Most of the time wrestling is a "work," meaning it's planned ahead and everybody knows what's going on. When it's a shoot, something is happening on the show that either wasn't planned or was done on purpose due to one of the wrestler having a personal gripe. A lot of times a shoot occurs when a wrestler gets on the microphone to cut a promo. The wrestler might start mentioning things that are happening for real backstage, and it can be very embarrassing for management if that wrestler is opening one too many skeleton filled closets. Shoots can also apply to situations where the fans get physically involved with the wrestlers. Anytime an overly excited (re: drunk) fan decides to get into the ring and try to fight one of the wrestlers, that's considered a shoot moment. Bodyguards will carry the fan off, and most of the time the announcers play it off as if nothing happened. Sometimes the wrestler will throw in a real punch or kick to the fan for good measure. Sometimes a promotion will decided to create a "worked shoot" which is a moment that looks and sounds like a shoot, but was planned ahead by management as a way to give the wrestler some fan support. Worked shoots go as far back as the early eighties, and Jerry Lawler's feud with Andy Kaufman stands out as a prime example of a perfectly executed worked shoot.