Editing Professional wrestling (section)

=== Mainstream popularity ===
{{unreferenced section|date=September 2018}}
[[File:US Navy 050519-N-7130B-003 Professional wrestling champion and actor Bill Goldberg takes a moment to pose with the photographers of Operations Department's OP Division during his tour of USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76).jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Bill Goldberg]] during his tour of [[USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76)|USS ''Ronald Reagan'']]]]
From the first established world championship, the top professional wrestlers have garnered fame within mainstream society.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-08-26 |title=Pro wrestling legend Sid Eudy, known to fans as Sid Vicious, dies at 63 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/sid-eudy-sid-vicious-wrestler-dies-63-rcna168321 |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-11-11 |title=Hulk Hogan Recalls The Moment He Knew Hulkamania Had Gone Mainstream |url=https://itrwrestling.com/news/hulk-hogan-recalls-the-moment-he-knew-hulkamania-had-gone-mainstream/ |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=itrwrestling.com |language=en-US}}</ref> Each successive generation has produced a number of wrestlers who extend their careers into the realms of music, acting, writing, business, politics or public speaking, and are known to those who are unfamiliar with wrestling in general. Conversely, celebrities from other sports or general pop culture also become involved with wrestling for brief periods of time. A prime example of this is [[1980s professional wrestling boom|The Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection]] of the 1980s, which combined wrestling with [[MTV]].

Professional wrestling is often portrayed within other works using parody, and its general elements have become familiar [[Trope (literature)|tropes]] and [[Internet meme|memes]] in American culture.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cantwell |first=Derrick |date=2015-04-23 |title=Top 10 Ways Wrestling Has Infiltrated Pop Culture |url=https://www.thesportster.com/wrestling/top-10-ways-wrestling-has-infiltrated-pop-culture/ |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=TheSportster |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2024-07-11 |title=The Influence of WWE on Pop Culture: Movies, Music, and More |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/wwe/top-stories/the-impact-of-wwe-on-pop-culture-movies-music-and-more/articleshow/111658685.cms |access-date=2025-01-03 |work=The Times of India |issn=0971-8257}}</ref>

Some terminology originating in professional wrestling has found its way into the common vernacular. Phrases such as "body slam", "sleeper hold" and "tag team" are used by those who do not follow professional wrestling. The term "smackdown", popularized by [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] and ''[[WWE SmackDown|SmackDown!]]'' in the 1990s, has been included in [[Merriam-Webster]] dictionaries since 2007.

[[File:El Santo statue.jpg|thumb|upright|Mexican wrestler [[El Santo]] became a [[folk hero]] in that country and a statue of him stands in his home city of [[Tulancingo]]]]
Many television shows and films have been produced which portray in-character professional wrestlers as protagonists, such as ''[[Ready to Rumble]]'', ''[[¡Mucha Lucha!]]'', ''[[Nacho Libre]]'', and the Santo film series.

There have been multiple stage plays set in the world of pro wrestling: ''The Baron'' is a comedy that retells the life of an actual performer known as [[James Raschke|Baron von Raschke]]. ''From Parts Unknown...'' is an award-nominated Canadian drama about the rise and fall of a fictional wrestler. ''[[Trafford Tanzi]]'' is a play set in a wrestling ring and divided into ten rounds, in which all the cast members participate in wrestling. ''[[The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity]]'' is a dramatic comedy about a fictional wrestler, which involves scenes of professional wrestling that take place in a wrestling ring. ''Mythos: Ragnarök'' adapts [[Norse mythology]] for the stage by combining dramatic dialogue with scenes of professional wrestling, in the first example of wrestling being used as theatrical stage combat.

The 2009 ''[[South Park]]'' episode "[[W.T.F. (South Park)|W.T.F.]]" played on the soap operatic elements of professional wrestling. One of the lead characters on the Disney Channel series ''[[Kim Possible]]'' was a huge fan of pro wrestling and actually featured it on an episode (with two former WWE wrestlers voicing the two fictitious wrestlers featured in the episode). The 2008 film ''[[The Wrestler (2008 film)|The Wrestler]]'', about a washed-up professional wrestler, garnered several Oscar nominations. The 2017 TV series [[GLOW (TV series)|GLOW]], based on the [[Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling]] promotion, gained critical acclaim, including a nomination for [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series|Outstanding Comedy Series]] at the [[70th Primetime Emmy Awards]].

The 1950 [[film noir]] ''[[Night and the City]]'', directed by [[Jules Dassin]] and starring [[Richard Widmark]] and [[Gene Tierney]], told the story of a promoter in [[London]] trying to make it big, and featured a match involving real professional wrestler [[Stanislaus Zbyszko]]. The 2019 ''[[Fighting with My Family]]'' is a [[biographical]] [[sports]] [[comedy-drama]] film that depicts the career of English professional wrestler [[Saraya Bevis|Paige]]. [[Walk Like a Panther (film)|Walk Like A Panther]] is 2018 British comedy film about a group of 1980s wrestlers staging one final show to raise money to save their pub.

Many professional wrestlers have also become mainstream in their own right, including [[John Cena]], [[Dave Bautista]], and [[Dwayne Johnson|Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]], mainly for acting in major films, as well as [[Chris Jericho]] and [[Randy Savage|"Macho Man" Randy Savage]] for their musical ventures.
 
Wrestling has also gained a major following on [[YouTube]], with [[WWE]] being the most subscribed wrestling channel and sixth most subscribed channel in the world. Other promotions, such as [[All Elite Wrestling]], [[Major League Wrestling]], [[Impact Wrestling]] and the [[National Wrestling Alliance]] have distributed their own weekly programming on the platform.

==== Measures of popularity ====
[[File:Street televisions in Japan.JPG|thumb|left|upright|A crowd gathers to watch a [[Rikidōzan]] match in 1955]]
Professional wrestling has become especially prominent in North America, Japan and Europe ([[Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom|especially the United Kingdom]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://superluchas.com/lucha-libre-entre-los-5-deportes-populares-en-mexico/|title=Encuesta De Mitofsky Revela Que La Lucha No Es El Segundo Deporte Mas Popular En Mexico|author=Yoav|date=October 22, 2007|access-date=September 5, 2009|work=[[Súper Luchas]]|language=es|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200111003611/https://superluchas.com/lucha-libre-entre-los-5-deportes-populares-en-mexico/|archive-date=January 11, 2020}}</ref> In [[Brazil]], there was a very popular wrestling television program that aired from the 1960s to the early 1980s called ''[[Telecatch]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Shahaf|first1=Sharon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qs9pAtQeBA0C&q=brazil+telecatch&pg=PT223|title=Global Television Formats: Understanding Television Across Borders|last2=Oren|first2=Tasha|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-88950-0|language=nl|access-date=2020-11-19|archive-date=2023-04-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406042803/https://books.google.com/books?id=Qs9pAtQeBA0C&q=brazil+telecatch&pg=PT223|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media |people=Marc Dourdin |date=2015 |title=Monstros do Ringue |trans-title=Wrestlers |medium=Documentary |language=pt |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5204834/?ref_=ttls_li_tt |access-date=2020-10-27 |archive-date=2023-04-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406042803/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5204834/?ref_=ttls_li_tt |url-status=live }}</ref> High-profile figures in the sport have become celebrities and even [[cultural icon]]s in their home countries.

Although professional wrestling started out as a small [[sideshow]] in traveling [[circus]]es and [[traveling carnival|carnivals]], today it is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Revenue is drawn from ticket sales, network television broadcasts, [[pay-per-view]] broadcasts, branded merchandise and home video.<ref>Nicholas Sammond, ed., ''Steel Chair to the Head: The Pleasure and Pain of Professional Wrestling'' (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2005). {{ISBN|9780822334385}}</ref> Wrestling was instrumental in making pay-per-view a viable method of content delivery. Annual shows such as [[WrestleMania]], [[All In (professional wrestling)|All In]], [[Bound for Glory (wrestling pay-per-view)|Bound for Glory]], [[Wrestle Kingdom]] and formerly [[Starrcade]] are among the highest-selling pay-per-view programming each year. In modern day, internet programming has been utilized by a number of companies to air web shows, internet pay per views (IPPVs) or on-demand content, helping to generate internet-related revenue earnings from the evolving [[World Wide Web]].

Home video sales dominate the [[Billboard charts]] Recreational Sports DVD sales, with wrestling holding anywhere from 3 to 9 of the top 10 spots every week.<ref>Billboard Recreational Sports Weekly Top 10 – [http://www.letstalkwrestling.com/search/label/Billboard%20Recrational%20Sports%20DVD%20charts Billboard Sports Weekly DVD Sales] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151107004140/http://www.letstalkwrestling.com/search/label/Billboard%20Recrational%20Sports%20DVD%20charts |date=2015-11-07 }}</ref>

[[File:WrestleMania 32 2016-04-03 18-55-46 ILCE-6000 9123 DxO (27799110291).jpg|thumb|upright|[[AT&T Stadium]] during [[WrestleMania 32]]. WWE claims a record attendance of 101,763 for the event]]
Due to its persistent cultural presence and to its novelty within the performing arts, wrestling constitutes [[#Study and analysis|a recurring topic in both academia and the media]]. Several documentaries have been produced looking at professional wrestling, most notably ''[[Beyond the Mat]]'' directed by Barry W. Blaustein, and ''[[Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows|Wrestling with Shadows]]'' featuring retired wrestler [[Bret Hart]] and directed by Paul Jay. There have also been many fictional depictions of wrestling; the 2008 film ''[[The Wrestler (2008 film)|The Wrestler]]'' received several [[Academy Award|Oscar]] nominations and began a career revival for its star [[Mickey Rourke]].

Currently, the largest professional wrestling company worldwide is the United States–based [[WWE]], which bought out many smaller regional companies in the late 20th century, as well as primary competitors [[World Championship Wrestling]] (WCW) and ECW in early 2001. Other major companies worldwide include [[All Elite Wrestling]] (AEW) in the United States, [[Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre]] (CMLL), and [[Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide]] (AAA) in Mexico; and [[New Japan Pro-Wrestling]] (NJPW), [[All Japan Pro Wrestling]] (AJPW), and [[Pro Wrestling Noah]] in Japan.