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Entertainment Based Products
Absurdist Entertainment: The logical end point of Sports Entertainment, the emphasis is almost entirely on big characters, angles and skits; the actual matches are almost entirely irrelevant.
Attitude Entertainment: Effectively a late 90's version of Sports Entertainment, it adds a grittier feel and more realistic content.
Avantgarde Puroresu: Not really found outside of Japan, this product blends modern wrestling with subversive comedy that relies on the audience having an intimate knowledge of puroresu products.
Bar Room Entertainment: Designed to appeal to an adult audience primarily in bar rooms, matches tend to be either full-on comedy or or hardcore but the emphasis is on big characters and entertaining angles.
Campy Fun: The most cringeworthy of styles for most wrestling fans, this is professional wrestling taken to the point of almost being a pantomime. Characters are big, bold and completely unsubtle and the matches are basic to the extreme.
Classic Balanced: In essence the midpoint of all products, this places in-ring match quality as having equal importance with the entertainment aspect of playing to the crowd. By its nature it's quite loosely defined and means that there's a lot of freedom in how the company presents itself.
Classic Lucha Libre: Colourful characters compete in a family friendly atmosphere. There's an emphasis on quality, athletic matches. While angles and storylines are put of the show, the focus is on the in-ring action.
Classic Sports Entertainment: This is the typical western style of having larger-than-life characters battle it out with soap opera storylines and angles. Connection with the crowd is far more important than in-ring skill, although great matches are appreciated. This style appeals to a large and varied demographic
Classic Wild West: This is the sort of wrestling that was very popular in Texas in the 70's and 80's. Matches are hard fought and often bloody but there is also showmanship and killer angles.
Comic Book Lucha LIbre: Taking the lucha libre traditions and adding in the mythos and visual language of comic books, this style is all about big dramatic rivalries played out in in-ring battles.
Episodic Entertainment: Designed to be attractive to binge-watching TV viewers, strong characters and storylines are just as important as the matches.The whole thing has a Sports Entertainment vibe
Episodic Lucha Libre: Designed to be attractive to binge-watching TV viewers, strong characters and storylines are just as important as the lucha libre influenced matches
Family Friendly Pro Wrestling: Western pro wrestling stripped down, this is all about larger-than-life colourful characters battling it out in simple matches with interviews and easy-to-follow angles to add to the drama.
Golden Age Pro Wrestling: This is the style from the 70's before Sports Entertainment became the dominant style in the west. The wrestling is treated very seriously as a legit competition, but the first elements of true showmanship and entertainment are creeping in.
Grindhouse Lucha Libre: Although based around (often quiet dark) storylines and characters, match quality is still important. Hardcore matches and fast-paced, exciting spectacles form the core of the in-ring output.
Hokey Southern Rasslin: This is the southern American 'rasslin' where hokey OTT characters somehow rub shoulders with wild angles and blood feuds.
Lighthearted Entertainment: One step removed from the Sports Entertainment, the actual wrestling portion of the show is less important and is often treated with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour.
Lucha Libre Entertainment: This is effectively an Americanised version of Classic Lucha Libre, with in-ring action becoming less important and more emphasis being placed on angles and storylines.
Lucharesu Entertainment: This takes the concept of Lucharesu- a blend of lucha libre and puroresu- but adds in a third element, that of highly theatrical sports entertainment, to make it far less serious.
Modern Throwback: Used by modern companies who are looking backwards, this takes the approach from the golden age- wrestling treated seriously but with a little showmanship- but adds the workrate and style of the modern age.
Monster Battle: Part wrestling, part theatre, this style involves wrestlers in costume, usually as monsters or crazy characters, engaging in super OTT matches with a very tongue in cheek, comedic feel. It's not one for the purists
PG Rated Sports Entertainment: This is the traditional western Sports Entertainment but done with an eye toward a younger audience. It's dumbed down and sanitised, but as a result has a fairly wide appeal and is very sponsor-friendly.
Scripted Reality: Essentially a reality TV show that happens to involve some wrestling, this is all about the characters and storylines; the matches are basically an afterthought.
Silver Age Pro Wrestling: Existing somewhere between Golden Age Pro Wrestling and Respectful Wrestling, workrate is more important than in the former but wrestling is not as intensive as the latter.
Skit Based: Based around short skits like a comedy sketch show, the wrestling influence is that the characters tend to be larger-than-life and there are matches, albiet ones which are heavily comedic or used to tell stories.
Stoner Entertainment: Sports entertainment with a tongue-in-cheek slant, nothing is taken too seriously. The angles, storylines and characters are the focus with match quality being a lesser concern.
Telenovela: A compltely OTT soap opera that happens to feature wrestling, the emphasis is on larger-than-life characters and dramatic angles. The actual wrestling is, at best, secondary, and is lucha libre influenced.
Wrestling Soap Opera: Effectively using wrestling merely as a backdrop for soap opera style feuds, this product is all about dramatic rivalries and OTT angles. A lot of the drama is played out in the ring too, although match quality is not a priority.
WRESTLING BASED
Catch Wrestling: Presented as a shoot, this is no-frills competitive wrestling.
Classic Lucha Libre/Classic Wild West
Classic Mainstream Puroresu: This is where a Japanese style has some western influence; match quality is crucial and the wrestling is treated with respect, but there are flourishes of showmanship and larger-than-life characters are welcome.
Classic Southern Rasslin: The 'rasslin' that is closely associated with the 70's and 80's in the southern US, this is professional wrestling treated as being real but with larger-than-life characters and storylines.
Comic Book Lucha Libre
Episodic Lucha Libre
Episodic Sport: Designed to be attractive for binge-watching TV viewers, the wrestling is treated as a proper sport but realistic angles and ongoing storylines make sure that there's an ongoing hook to keep the viewer interested.
Fast and Furious: Generally associated with smaller wrestlers, this is a fairly serious style all about match quality. Bouts are generally fast paced and full of cutting edge moves, incorporating high flying, technical wrestling and hard strikes. Character work takes a backseat to match quality.
Golden Age Pro Wrestling:
Guerilla Warfare: This style focuses on fast-paced, moves-heavy, high quality matches but adds in a big dose of humour and allows workers to show their characters more.
Hardcore Evolved: This takes the ethos of hardcore wrestling but removes the more immature parts, such as the obsession with blood and sex, and just treats the in-ring aspect with a lot more seriousness. It's still an edgy alternative in the vein of Ant-Establishment Hardcore but just grown up a little.
High Flying Hardcore: This style brings together the jaw dropping spectacle of high flying wrestling with the attitude, weapons and bloodshed of a hardcore company.
Historic Lucha Libre: Lucha libre from ye olde days, this is all about mat-based hold-for-hold counter wrestling with very little in the way of high spots.
Hokey Southern Rasslin
Lucharesu: A potent mix of lucha libre and puroresu, this mixes the high speed athletics and technical skills of the former with the hard hitting and submission base of the latter. It's nirvana for wrestling nerds who love workrate, although the colourful characters make it surprisingly accessible to others.
Modern Throwback
Pseudo Sport: A peculiarly British affair, wrestling is treated as a serious sport and is the main focus of the company, but there is also larger-than-life characters and showmanship.
Respectful Wrestling: A western slant on Japanese wrestling, wrestling is treated very seriously with an emphasis on high quality matches, but some angles are used to build rivalries.
Royal Puroresu: This is a very physical style of wrestling with an emphasis on brawling, impactful throws and submissions. The use of in-ring psychology to tell stories is at the absolute heart of everything. There's little concession to glamour and glitz.
Silver Age Pro Wrestling
Strong Puroresu: Heavily influenced by martial arts and combat sports, this style revolves around realistic strikes and submissions- it's midway between wrestling as a sport and full-on Shoot Style Wrestling. Everything is treated very seriously.
Wrestling as a Sport: The stereotypical eastern style, this is where wrestling is treated as a legit sport. Fans want to see good quality matches with none of the hoopla that is associated with the western style.
Wrestling Nerd Nirvana: Designed to appeal to the 18-30 wrestling nerd demographic, this is all about things that will play well to a 'smart' internet audience; good match quality, entertaining characters, hot angles and all done with a sense of humour.
HARDCORE BASED
Anti-Establishment Hardcore: A mildly toned down version of Extreme Hardcore, this style still involves a punkish anti-establishment attitude and cultlike mentality but has a more varied in-ring approach that isn't so narrowly obsessed with bloody matches.
Bar Room Entertainment
Deathmatch: Shows are all about gory matches and spectacle. In-ring skill is pretty unimportant, it's more about a willingness to bleed and do stupid stunts.
Deathmatch Lucha Libre: This is a straight Deathmatch product but with the usual trappings and quirks of lucha libre.
Episodic Hardcore: Designed to be attractive for binge-watching TV viewers, strong characters and storylines are combined with hardcore style matches.
Extreme Hardcore: Hardcore wrestling with an emphasis on shock and awe. It is mostly about brawling, although other styles can thrive if they're good enough. This product tends to attract a rabid fanbase.
Gory Hardcore: Pitched somewhere between Deathmatch and Extreme Hardcore, this is all about ultra-bloody matches and sick spectacle. Angles are used to build up the characters and break up the gore.
Grindhouse Lucha LIbre
Hardcore Evolved
Hardcore Lucha Libre: This take the classic elements of lucha libre but gives them a hardcore makeover. Except fast-paced matches mixed with bloodshed.
High Flying Hardcore
Junior-Deathmatch Combined: Effectively two products within one, this has fast-paced junior heavyweight style bouts and also bloody deathmatches. The two can either be intermixed or presented as two separate divisions with the company.
Puerto Rican Hardcore: A style closely associated with the Caribbean; matches are often bloody, characters are big and it tends to attractive a rabid crowd.
Slobberknocker-Deathmatch Combined: Effectively two products within one, this has big heavy hitters duking it out and also bloody deathmatches. The two can either be intermixed or presented as two separate divisions with the company.
Stoner Hardcore: This is hardcore wrestling but with as much a focus on the characters and humour as on the wild matches, blood and stunts.
COMEDY BASED
Absurdist Entertainment
Avantgarde Puroresu
Campy Fun
Comic Book Lucha Libre
Family Friendly Pro Wrestling
Hokey Southern Rasslin
Lighthearted Entertainment
PG Rated Sports Entertainment
Stoner Entertainment