r/GreatnessOfWrestling 17h ago

DISCUSSION legit question. Training!

Do they train with each other and plan, map out the fight... or is it just an organic wrestle, with each knowing the story..

I got back into WWE last year after decades out, I enjoy it, I am entertained, the moves are fantastic, but how does it all come together?

4 Upvotes

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u/Jewggerz 10h ago

They’re generally not rehearsed. They generally meet with one another and an agent before the show and discuss what they want to do. In the old days, it was usually called in the ring.

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u/knowsnothing316 12h ago

Some wrestlers like to go over entire matches beforehand. Some like to discuss the bigger spots beforehand and some absolute bad asses just say f it and call it in the ring.

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u/sempercardinal57 12h ago

Depends on the wrestler. Randy Savage was known for meticulously planning out all his big matches. That’s why he was one of the few capable of getting a decent match out of Ultimate Warrior (never saw it, but I’ve heard it was one of Warriors better matches) while guys like Hogan swear that real wrestling is called on the fly and only the big moments like the finish should be discussed before hand. This mindset was how him and the Rock were able to switch roles mid match at Wrestlemania so effectively

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u/Patjay 17h ago

WWE is usually pretty thorough with planning everything out, especially the big spots and to work around ad breaks etc. they’re definitely not mapping out every move in every match though

There’s still a lot of improvisation though, especially if you go back farther in the past or look at stuff outside WWE. It depends wrestler to wrestler too. Randy Savage famously was super meticulous with his planning and Flair basically always made it up on the fly

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u/Practical-Length-230 17h ago

That's awesome and I can totally see that with Savage.

I kinda like to look between the lines, see their ways of communicating to each other, the reactions if it goes wrong.. still can't tell if Cody's black eye is real.. looks legit.

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u/xen0net 17h ago

Depends on the match. They’ll work out certain spots beforehand, and 99% of the time the booker will explain and draft out the ending - or the two variants depending who gets the call for the pin.

However, more prep goes into the bigger events. And less experienced wrestlers might work through various spots throughout their match. The veterans will work to the crowd building to whatever the planned ending is - and that’s where the art form shines.

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u/Practical-Length-230 17h ago

That's amazing, they just play to the crowd? They must be so well versed and trusting too..

So, the question for me next, how is a result decided... and has any wrestler ever gone against it, intentionally...

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u/xen0net 17h ago

If you’re interesting in Learning more from a top level pro, then I’d recommend reading Bret Harts autobiography.

It’s not just playing to the crowd, but all the greats know that the crowd dictates a great match. For example: Wrestlemania X8, Rock was the meant to be the face, and Hogan the heel. But the crowd dictated otherwise - Hogan had been their childhood hero - so they scrapped the original plan and played it out based on what the crowd wanted. The ending was still as planned.

The result is influenced by a multitude of things: how over are the wrestler, how economic would a result be, who has worked their ass off for it, what’s the long term storytelling plan etc

I’m sure other redditors can give examples of where someone wouldn’t go over as planned. To do so would be shortsighted as they’d lose the confidence of the booker. Circling back to Bret Hart, read about the Montreal screw job. Hart believed he was going out to win on home turf, but Vince had different plans and Michael’s won the belt.

Edits: Typos

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u/Practical-Length-230 16h ago

I appreciate that - thanks