Glossary of e-wrestling terms

E-wrestling has accrued a considerable amount of slang, in-references, and jargon. Much of it stems from the industry's origins. Many of the terms refer to the out of character aspect of the sport rather than the athletics themselves.

A
Abilities
 * Special attributes awarded for e-wrestlers that compete in Lords of Pain Wrestling (LPW), which generally serve to symbolize the behaviors an e-wrestler will exhibit during a match. Taking a page from video games and experience points, e-wrestlers are rewarded with additional abilities over the course of their LPW.

Alter ego
 * A second personality or persona within a person or character, who is often oblivious to the persona's actions. A person with an alter ego is often said to lead a double life.

Anagram
 * A type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once. In LPW, St. Jayne Nighthawk debutted as an e-wrestler suffering from amnesia and would later go on to win the LPW Television Championship. While feuding against the recently turned heel Ultramarcus, Nighthawk revealed the rearranging of his name to spell out Jaetyn Knightwash, his ex-Heroic Future tag team partner.

Average promo score (aps)
 * A graded e-wrestling scoring system used to judge the quality of promo written by a handler for his e-wrestler. The system of scoring is used for all e-federations who employ the Promo and Voting method of roleplay and is added to the average voting score to determine the winner of the roleplay's match.

Average voting score (avs)
 * Vote tally that rewards 0.1 points to the writer of an e-wrestler for outstanding work for his/her promo in a match. It is used as an e-wrestling voting system used to distribute points. The system of voting is used for all e-federations who employ the Promo and Voting method of roleplay.  The avs is combined with the average promo score (aps). The best combination of the two scores will determine the winner of the roleplay's match.

B
Backstage Brawls
 * Impromptu matches that were not featured on LPW programming. Two e-wrestlers or more agreed upon a match in which both posted a promo, then voted and rated upon.

C
Championship
 * A recognition of a wrestler being the best in his or her promotion or division in the form of a championship belt

Championship unification
 * The act of combining two or more separate championships into a single title.

Character
 * The split personality that is of a wrestler's acting as opposed to their genuine real-life character.

Color commentator
 * A member of the announcing team who assists the play-by-play announcer by filling in any time when play is not in progress, providing humor, and explaining storylines.

Cycle
 * A portion of time in which the e-federation is in session between pay-per-view events.

D
Dark match
 * A non-televised match at a televised show used to test out new talent.

Drop
 * Refers to the event in which a champion relinquishes their championship in a scripted angle usually due to resignation or injury.

E
E-federation
 * A fantasy wrestling federation. Like in 'real' wrestling, e-federations run (often) weekly shows, along with occasional pay-per-view events, with the results decided depending on the type of federation that it is.

E-wrestler
 * The character which is played by most handlers in e-wrestling, and is the virtual wrestler which handlers control in whichever e-federation they are in. E-wrestlers often have varying degrees of skill, often directly related to the role-playing skill of their handler, and have varying degrees of personality and character.

E-wrestling
 * A form of creative roleplay based around professional wrestling. The most popular form of fantasy wrestling, the origins of e-wrestling are not certain, but since the mid-to-late 1990s the form of writing has proved to flourish in popularity.

F
Face
 * A character who is portrayed as heroic relative to the villianous heel e-wrestler. Not everything a face wrestler does must be heroic. Faces need only to be cheered by the audience to be effective characters. The vast majority of wrestling storylines place a heel against a face.

Feud
 * A rivalry between multiple wrestlers or alliances of e-wrestlers. They are integrated into ongoing storylines, particularly in events which are televised. Feuds may last for a few months to months or be resolved with implausible speed, perhaps during the course of a single match.

Flaker
 * A handler that no shows events where he is first scheduled right after signing up for an e-federation. A handler that "flakes out", put short, even though signed to a federation, never roleplays or works with storylines, depending on the fed type.

Foreign object
 * A wrestling term for an object introduced into the match. Foreign objects are often used to give the bearer an unfair advantage. According to the supposed rules of professional wrestling, if a foreign object is used inside the ring on another wrestler in the presence of a referee, the user would be immediately disqualified.

G
Gimmick
 * A wrestler's personality and/or other distinguishing traits while performing. It can also be an implement used to cheat. In recent years, the emphasis has been on more realistic gimmicks (with rare exceptions such as Krimson Mask and cYnical) which portray the wrestler as an actual person, albeit with exaggerated personality traits, as opposed to previous years during which gimmicks could be best described as "cartoonish".

Golden Age
 * A period in the history of Lords of Pain Wrestling (LPW), then known as Psychotic Wrestling Alliance (PWA), which was generally thought of lasting from the PWA's inception in spring 2003 until the first 2004 PWA Draft months before the inaugural Altered Reality.

H
HDtron
 * A large-screen high-definition television used in arenas for Lords of Pain Wrestling (LPW) television events.

Handler
 * A term to refer to the 'real people' who control wrestlers or other characters in e-wrestling.

Heat
 * Refers to both crowd reaction and real-life animosity between those involved in the professional wrestling business. In terms of crowd reaction, heat is usually either cheers for a babyface or boos for a heel. The amount of heat a wrestler generates is often an accurate gauge of his popularity.

Heel
 * A villainous character that are portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner, breaking rules or otherwise taking advantage of their opponents outside of the bounds of the rules of the match. Heels are often the "bad guys", typically opposed by a babyface or more simply, face (crowd favorite).

I
In character (IC)
 * A term used in e-wrestling and roleplaying in general to refer to writing or behaviour which is 'as part of the game'. For example, a roleplay, on-card segment, trash-talk or match is in character. The opposite of this is out of character, which is behaviour which is as a handler, and not as the e-wrestler or other character you are portraying.

Independent circuit/promotion
 * Refers to a wrestling group that is too small to compete on a national level or not well known.

L
Low-carder
 * A wrestler who wrestles usually at the start of the program or sometimes even performs rarely.

Lucha libre
 * A term used to describe the Mexican style of wrestling that consists of high-flying acrobatic moves.

Lumberjack
 * A, most often, e-wrestler who stands close to the ring helping one or more wrestlers.

M
Main eventer
 * A wrestler who earns or is viewed by management to be one of the top draws on the roster and thus is promoted in main events.

Manager
 * A secondary character paired with a e-wrestler (or e-wrestlers) for a variety of reasons. The manager is often either a non-wrestler, an occasional wrestler, an older wrestler who has retired or is nearing retirement or, in some cases, a new wrestler who is breaking into the business (or a specific company) and needs the experience in front of the crowds. The wrestler that a manager manages is called his or her charge.

N
No-contest
 * A match which ends without a winner normally due to a legitimate injury where the wrestler can not continue, to prolong a feud, or because of interference.

No show
 * Also called no showing or no showed is the unattentive event in which the neglective handler(s) of an electronic wrestling character fails to participate in the post-text-submission of typewritten roleplays against assigned opponent(s) for the scheduled event or either failing to submit a promo or segment for an event of an electronic wrestling federation while it is indispensably required for enrollment. The result of these cases are usually culpable to real-life circumstances, unmotivation and sometimes simple excuses.

O
Out of character (OOC)
 * To differentiate between character-play and the supposed character in reality.

P
Parts Unknown
 * Billing a wrestler as being from "Parts Unknown" (rather than from his real hometown or another actual place) is intended to add to a wrestler's mystique (for example, Vendetta). Sometimes, wrestlers can hail from other, abstract places; for example, cYnical is billed from the "Dark Side of Your Subconscious", Krimson Mask hailed from "A Land Far, Far Away", Jaetyn Knightwash hailed from Sparrow's Flight, and Villiano 187, although being Mexican, is billed from "Wherever He Damn Well Pleases".

Play-by-play
 * The reporting of a sporting event with a voice over describing the details of the action of the match in progress. The play-by-play person is assisted by a color commentator.

Primary character
 * The e-wrestler of whom a handler controls and whom the events of the handler's plot revolve around.

Promo and Voting
 * A method to award the e-wrestler(s) who puts forth the best competitive effort in terms of promo or roleplay. A combined average of promo scores (rated by the writing staff) and vote tallies by participants (collected in the Promo and Voting thread) determine the winner(s) of the match.

S
Schizo 6
 * The collective moniker given to six e-wrestlers (also divided into three separate tag teams) who competed on the Schizophrenia brand during its PWA European tour in second season. Blood & Chaos (Bloodrose and Mass Chaos) as they called themselves, along with The Wild Cards (Wevv Mang and Red Dragon), and "Sick" Nick and The Rabbi, fought each other for the PWA U.S. Tag Team Championship and the PWA Television Championship.  The six of them where given the moniker the for the scale of matches all six men put forth.

School
 * A school or gym that teaches students the necessary skills to become e-wrestlers. Students undergo strenuous physical conditioning while learning the basics of the e-wrestling industry, proper performance techniques, and character development. The courses are taught by qualified professional instructors who have usually worked for several years as professional wrestlers themselves. Some schools are affiliated with a specific promotion company, others are independent. The most famous e-wrestling school is "Sick" Nick's School of Hardcore.

Secret identity
 * Where a character develops a separate persona, while keeping their true identity hidden. The character also may wear a disguise (ranging from makeup, a wrestling mask, to a complete change in costume).  For an example, The Boss was the secret identity for D. Hammond Samuels until he revealed himself.

Season
 * A portion of time in which an e-federation is in session. It generally consists of four cycles, with each cycle containing five shows in the span of as many months.

Secondary character
 * Used by the handler to develop the primary character in promos, and is relevant enough to support in an on-air role. Most notably, the secondary character will take on the role as a manager, valet, or sidekick.

T
Tag team
 * Consists of two e-wrestlers who are working together as a team (more than two is called a stable). Often, they are close partners and backstage friends who team with each other almost exclusively, while other times they are singles competitors who are booked together for just one match. They usually wrestle against a like number of opponents on the other team or teams, however in the occasional "handicap match" there may be an unequal number of competitors on the different teams.

Tap out
 * Submitting to a submission maneuver by tapping on the mat, as in mixed martial arts, rather than verbally acknowledging the submission.

Third-tier character
 * The third most important character to a primary character, after a secondary character, used to further develop the primary e-wrestler through roleplays, but is not relevant to be featured in an on-air capacity.

Trade
 * A transaction involving an exchange of e-wrestlers and/or draft picks between brands.

Trash Talking
 * A form of boast or insult commonly heard in competitive situations in LPW. It is often used to intimidate the opposition, but can also be used in a humorous spirit. Trash-talk is often characterized by hyperbolic, figurative language, e.g., "I have poopers that can put up a tougher fight than you!" Puns and other wordplay are commonly used.

Turn
 * When a wrestler switches from face to heel or vice versa.

Tweener
 * A wrestling term for a morally ambiguous wrestler or e-wrestler, who is neither a bad guy (heel or (good guy (face). He (or she) who will fight anyone regardless of alignment (example is Eddie B). This term is also used to describe wrestlers who use tactics typically associated with heels (such as cheating), yet are still cheered by fans in spite of (or because of) these antics.

W
Wrestling mask
 * A fabric based mask that some professional e-wrestlers wear as part of their in-ring persona.

Wrestling ring
 * The squared-ring stage in which professional e-wrestlers compete.