* Angle: This refers to the storyline a worker is involved in. In the old days a good angle could stretch out for months or even years, but in today's fast paced world some barely last a week. Good angles help explain why workers would settle their differences in a ring. Bad angles just smell like wrestlecrap.

* Blading: The practice of using a razor or other sharp object to cut onself open. As horrific as it may sound, it's a common practice for workers to "blade" in order to heighten the drama of a match by getting their blood flowing. Yes, more often than not, you're not seeing fake blood in the ring. If a guy gets hit with a chair and the camera pans away for 5 or more seconds, chances are he "did a blade" while it was pointed away.

* Blown up: Wrestling is a very cardiovascular business, and if you're not properly trained for it you can get "blown up" in the ring even if externally you look as muscular as can be. Trademarks of being blown up are profuse sweating, gasping for air, and being unable to execute any move in the ring other than "rest holds."

* Blowjobs: Allegedly the term used for a face tag team by certain bookers. Jerry 'The King' Lawler is said to have used this expression when he wanted to book the Rock'N'Roll Express.

* Booker: Working for the promoter, a booker is responsible for deciding what workers will be matched against each other, along with who will go over (win) or job (lose). Booking can also be done by committee, and some veteran workers are even allowed to book their own angles.

* Cheap pop: When a wrestler mentions the name of the town he's working in to get a favorable crowd reaction, or pays homage to a local favorite or hometown hero to do the same. See Mick Foley.

* Clusterfuck: The point in a match where things make no sense, usually as the result of too many run-ins all at once or too many wrestlers in the ring at the same time.

* Color: See juice.

* Dusty Finish: Named after long time wrestler and part-time booker Virgil Runnels, b.k.a. Dusty Rhodes. In a Dusty Finish, a wrestler appears to win a match only to have the decision reversed afterward on a technicality or because of foul play by someone involved.

* Face: A wrestler who acts good, or who is perceived by the fans to be fighting for the cause of good (even if he does bad things).

* Face-in-peril: The worker in a tag team match who gets his ass beat for minutes at a time, building up anticipation for his partner to come in and save the day.

* Flair flop: Named after the legendary Ric Flair, it's the act of walking away from a vicious looking move by your opponent only to suddenly fall face first into the canvas from the after-effects. Can be comical, dramatic, or (as often in Flair's case) both!

* Gimmick: What defines a wrestler OTHER than his technical ability in the ring. It can be a look, such as the Hurricane's cape and mask, or an attitude, such as Stone Cold's beer drinking and finger gesturing.

* Going over: When a worker is booked for victory in a match. Not to be confused with actually BEING over.

* Green: A wrestler so inexperienced and unprepared to be in the ring that he will either hurt himself, his opponent, or both due to his ineptness. Said wrestlers are also called greenhorns, but most (not all) can grow out of it with experience.

* Hardcore: Either as an attitude or as a type of match, hardcore implies that non-wrestling techniques will be used that inflict legitimate pain and injury - i.e. landing on thumbtacks, taking a barbed wire bat to the head, being hit with a steel chair while unprotected, and so forth.

* Hardway: When a wrestler gets busted open and starts to bleed without blading. Old school wrestlers would target specific areas of the body or face that were vulnerable to get blood flowing, often at the request of their opponent. These days, getting opened hardway is usually an accident.

* Heat: When a worker is so villainous that a crowd is damn near ready to riot to take him out. Promoters love guys that can generate good heat with their talk on the mic and their devious antics in the ring.

* Heel: A wrestler who acts bad, or who is perceived by the fans to be shallow, selfish, and altogether evil.

* Hot tag: The recipient of a tag from a face-in-peril, who more often than not proceeds to beat up all of the heels and "save the day" for the heroes.

* House show: An event held by a touring promotion that is strictly for the fans in attendance and not televised, although sometime promotions will tape house shows anyway without advertising the fact if something important is going to happen (like a title belt changing hands).

* Hulking up: Coined from watching the wrestler Hulk Hogan (whose name is in fact licensed from The Incredible Hulk) go bananas after being hit one time too many. When a wrestler "hulks up" he's about to go on a flurry of offense that is totally unchecked.

* Iron man match: The ultimate test of cardiovascular endurance, where two workers agree to challenge each other for a full hour of wrestling in one shot. Usually the match is booked so whichever worker had the most pinfalls or submissions in that hour wins, although in the most famous one to date Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels fought to a draw and the winner decided in "sudden death overtime." Michaels went over Hart in the overtime.

* Juice: Slang for blood. Also known as "color." Wrestling is a strange business folks, because workers and marks alike openly admire a guy who will "get juice" or "show good color" in a match. In some matches the workers openly compete with each other to see who can get more juice, particularly "hardcore" or "no rules" matches.

* Kayfabe: The practice of making marks believe wrestling is real. Workers who follow the kayfabe tradition never let anyone in on the secrets of the business, sometimes not even their own families. Carney wrestlers often spoke their own "kayfabe" language to confuse anybody who might overhear them, and some workers still do today. Vince McMahon is often blamed for destroying kayfabe by admitting wrestling was actually "sports entertainment."

* Manager: The sole goal of a manager is to generate pops for the worker he is paired with, either pro or con. The best managers are usually heels, so arrogant and confidant in the ability of the workers affiliated with them the crowd instantly turns on them just at the sight of the manager, known as "transferring heat." Classy Freddie Blassie was just such a man.

* Mark: An old term from the days wrestling was an attraction at carnivals and sideshows. "Mark" is a somewhat derogatory term for the people who pay money to see the shows, which in the early days varied wildly in quality, meaning a "mark" could get "took" and not get their money's worth. These days a "mark" is simply a wrestling fan, although we do occasionally feel we've been had.

* Marking out: When a face or a heel's performance is so good that a mark becomes wildly enthusiastic, or even just the mere entrance of a favorite wrestler causes one to get excited. Example: "Holy shit! The Rock's on TV!"

* Muta scale: A term inspired by The Great Muta, a wrestler who was well known for juicing in almost any match. If a wrestler gets "a full one on the Muta scale" that means his face is literally a crimson mask of blood when the match has ended, and he's "painted the canvas with color."

* Over: When a worker has achieved the desired goal of getting huge reactions from the audience - either to be booed nastily as a heinous villian or cheered loudly as the righteous hero. Over is also used to describe whether a gimmick succeeds or fails - good gimmicks are over, bad gimmicks (Goobledygooker) are not.

* Phoning it in: A worker shows up to do his job, but does so with zero charisma and no enthusiasm. It's one way to shit on bad booking, but it's also a way to wind up unemployed in a hurry.

* Plant: Someone in the employ of the promotion who was put in the audience as part of the script. If a fan jumps in the ring to beat up a wrestler and isn't immediately hauled away by the local cops, you know he's a plant.

* Pop: The reaction from the live crowd to a wrestler. A good pop indicates what he's doing on the mic or in the ring works. Dead silence is the quintessential opposite.

* Potato: Good workers usually pull their punches, making them look as realistic as possible without hurting the other worker. Occasionally though one worker will "potato" another on request to make a fight look good, or do so in a shoot if he doesn't like his opponent. Some do so simply because they're incapable of pulling a punch (i.e. incompetent).

* Promo: To advance the storyline a worker will "cut a promo" that explains his actions, justifies his beliefs, and challenges his opponent to resolve their differences in the ring. Promos can also be used to pop a crowd, either positively or negatively. A bad promo generates no reaction either live or to viewers at home.

* Promotion: A company that providers wrestling to marks for their entertainment, such as TNA or WWE. Generally speaking promotions are out to make a profit, but if the company is smart enough they do so by giving the marks a show they want to see. Marks get angry at a promotion when poorly conceived crap is shoved down their throat instead of good wrestling.

* Push: When a promotion believes one of their workers is a hot prospect as a heel or a face, they receive a "push" in the form of an improved storyline and being booked more often. This is often designed to culminate in a story arc where the recipient of the push ends up with a strap to carry. A push can also involve giving a worker a new or improved gimmick designed to get them more over with the fans.

* Putting over: The act of jobbing to a wrestler to give him a push. See Mick Foley jobbing to Randy Orton, or Triple H jobbing to Shelton Benjamin, as case in point examples.

* Ring rat: Rock stars have groupies. TV and movie celebrities have groupies. Wrestlers have groupies too, and they of course got the nickname "ring rat" from the fact wrestlers work inside the confines of a ring, and you have to hang around the ring to be a wrestling groupie.

* Rub: Getting the rub references an over worker jobbing in the hopes some of the star power will "rub off" by such a well known and/or popular wrestler being defeated.

* Screwjob: The promoter or booker tells the worker they aren't going to lose in a match, but is lying his ass off just to get them in the ring. Once there the worker finds he's been had. The 1997 Survivor Series is a good example. Bret Hart was told the match would be a draw, but Vince McMahon had the timekeeper ring the bell while Hart was in a submission hold, even though he had not actually submitted. As a result Bret not only lost his final match in the WWF but was stripped of his belt - the most famous screwjob in wrestling history.

* Selling: Another term that dates back to the carney days, when the workers had to "really sell it" to the "marks" in the crowd so that they believed it was real. Today's marks admire a man who sells well for his opponent, making you believe in everything he's doing, and heightening the quality of the match. It's possible to "oversell" though, such as dropping to the mat after a kick misses your head by a country mile.

* Shoot: The events you see are unrehearsed and unplanned. When a wrestler is "shooting" he's decided to ignore the script and do whatever the hell he feels like, either because he's pissed at the other worker, the promotion, or how the match is booked. See also "shoot interview" where a wrestler speaks candidly about his fellow workers and the promotion that employs him.

* Smark: An amalgamation of the words "smart mark." Can be used either sarcastically or as a compliment. Examples: "He's too smark to enjoy the match" or "You can't fool a smark with that crap."

* Showman: A wrestler who can entertain the crowd even without wrestling, simply by grabbing the mic and talking trash. See The Rock.

* Sports entertainment: A euphemism for pro wrestling that implies what you're seeing ISN'T technical wrestling at all but in fact a mixture of athletics with soap opera. While some diehards still cling to the belief it's real despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, most of today's marks accept that it's fake and still enjoy when a promotion has a quality show with good workers.

* Strap: Slang for a title belt. Workers who hold a title are said to be "carrying the strap." Depending on how good they are, they either raise or lower the esteem of the strap to the marks.

* Stretch: Putting a wrestler in a hold that's not fake in any way, one from which the victim cannot escape and could in fact be seriously injured by. The most famous "stretcher" is Stu Hart, who trained many of today's top wrestlers in his Calgary "Dungeon."

* Stroke: A worker who seems to have the entire promotion on his side either due to politics or his drawing power is said to have stroke. Said worker will often use their stroke to keep putting themselves over other workers and getting breaks for their friends that make them look good too.

* Technical: A worker who can legitimately do all of the moves you're seeing on TV, because of his athletic credentials and expertise in the wrestling business. Chris Benoit epitomizes a technical wrestler, whereas Hulk Hogan is the polar opposite.

* Territory: In the old days, each wrestling promotion ran a certain part of the country, by hook or even by crook, and jealously guarded their turf. If you started a promotion in someone else's territory or attempted to run shows on their turf, you could wind up with a bullet in your head. No joke.

* Tweener: When the worker and or the promotion can't decide whether to play it face or heel, and end up working it both ways. Undertaker is one of the most famous tweeners of the modern era.

* Work: The events you see are planned, scripted, and in some cases rehearsed. For example: a wrestler feigns an injury when he's actually fine. Marks are generally okay with being "worked" as long as the story involved is at least somewhat believable, and occasionally even when it's not as long as it's entertaining.

* Worker: Industry term for a wrestler. Someone who always shows up on time and performs well is a good worker. Someone who phones it in every time and shows up chronically late is a bad worker.

* Workrate: The level of performance a worker gives in the ring. Wrestlers who snap off lots of moves quickly get high praise, while wreslers who stand in the ring and do nothing (see Goldberg and Lesnar from Wrestlemania 20) cause marks to groan "Smell the workrate!"

* Wrestlecrap: Origin of this term may predate the website of the same name, but Wrestlecrap.com made it popular. Refers to a gimmick or angle so bad that you either turn off the TV in disgust or laugh your ass off at how horrible it is - sometimes both.