10 Wrestling Messages Hidden In Plain Sight
9. The Hand Grip
A non-verbal "are you okay?" has always been vital for the safety of wrestlers, especially before the days of proper standby medical attention and sophisticated headset technology between referees, announcers and those behind the curtain. Not least as bumps and spots have continually escalated over the years.
The gesture is simple enough to spot if you know what to look for and/or you even want to see it. A referee or opponent depending on proximity lightly grazes the hand of a downed foe and awaits a brief squeeze, if indeed they've not felt one already.
This simple acknowledgement is the hidden message that they're not hurt from whatever exactly has just happened, without going far enough to blow the confines of kayfabe completely. It's one of several in this list that serves as a reminder of how appreciative we should all be of wrestlers in general, in spite of the way they're presented. Bell-to-bell, they do something that requires measures such as the above, all in the interest of preserving a myth that has been wilfully exposed for decades.