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There are many different styles used in professional wrestling.
American Frontier Wrestling
Used to refer to a style of fighting practiced on the American and Canadian frontiers in the 1800s. These were usually free for all fights between two men with few rules. Over two hundred years ago, American Wrestling was established. Its roots include bouts featuring Abraham Lincoln in Illinois and Louisana in the mid-1800s.American Wrestling
Used to refer to the style of professional wrestling practiced by performers in the United States and Canada. The style gradually developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s as promoters discovered there was a larger audience for performance wrestling matches than true wrestling contests. Over the decades the style gradually involved less reality and more performance. American Wrestling presented itself to the public as being real athletic contests until the mid 1980s when the WWF (now WWE) ceased to do so. The WWE invented the term sports entertainment to describe its shows. The style today is typically characterized by over-the-top antics and no sense of reality to the matches. The main proponent of this style of wrestling is World Wrestling Entertainment.Anglo-Japanese Style
This style is a combination of the best of English and Japanese wrestling. It is highly competitive, and the combatants are more technically sound. Their submission holds are generally stretches, as in both styles, and both have high impact offenses either shoot fighting or flying. It was developed mainly in Canada by Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling. Hart would bring in wrestlers from all over the world, combining styles.British wrestling
The British style of wrestling is more technically oriented with holds and counter-holds taking centre stage as opposed to the power moves displayed by their North American counterparts and the high flying moves performed by their Mexician counterparts. British wrestling also utilizes strikes involving the wrestler's forearm and knees more compared to other types of wrestling.Catch wrestling
Short for catch-as-catch-can wrestling.Garbage Wrestling
The style of "Garbage Wrestling" originated in Japan and the term attributed to Japanese wrestler Giant Baba who used it to describe a style of wrestling which required little wrestling athletic ability and often involved no wrestling at all.This style mainly involves brawling, stuntwork such as falls from high places, weapons and blood in seemingly unusual environments or conditions. Matches tend to involve the competitors performing a series of stunts that are loosely connected with no real rules other than that the match can end with a pinfall or submission. The matches tend to be evaluated based on the risks taken by the participants and the originality of the moves rather than holds or athletic skill.
Hardcore wrestling
An unorthodox and ultra violent form of pro wrestling. Disqualifications and count outs are ignored in favor of an extreme and often graphic approach. Typically, fighters will use weapons (i.e., chairs, tables, ladders, canes, barbed wire, etc.) and fight or partake in matches in unusual environments both in and outside of the ring.Hybrid wrestling
A style that combines all pre-existing styles creating a state-of-the-art sophisticated discipline consisting of every form of combat that goes down in the ring. Hybrid Wrestling is an intense and evolving combat sport in which competitors wrestle and fight without any boundaries such as disqualification or count out stoppage. This theory was developed in January of 2000 by Court Bauer for his Major League Wrestling promotion.Lucha libre
Translated as "free fighting" in Spanish, the near 100 year old lucha libre style combines a dynamic and acrobatic aerial style with that of sophisticated and at times multi-person submission maneuvers. It is common for Luchadores (disciples of this style) to wear masks and put them (or their hair) on the line in an ultimate challenge of honor or to seek out revenge. Lucha libre six man tag team rules differ from the traditional version as you must pin/tap out two of the three members of one team or a team's captain in order to gain one fall (always in a best of three fall series).Pancrase
Developed by Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki for Mixed Martial Arts competitions, this form of wrestling borrows heavily from various other forms of wrestling (most notably the Shoot-style and Catch Wrestling) and involves punches (open hand strikes only), kicks and chokeholds as well.Rasslin'
Also known as "Southern style" or "Memphis style". Originating from the Southern United States, Rasslin' (the phonetic spelling of "wrestling" pronounced with a thick Southern accent) emphasises kayfabe and stiffness, with fewer squash matches and generally longer feuds than in American Wrestling. Heels typically uses a variety of cheap heat measures such as stalling, displays of cowardice, cheating and assaults on women or babyface managers. Storylines and characters are often derived from aspects of Southern culture.Royal road
Known also as King's Road and translated as "oudou" in Japanese, this is Shohei "Giant" Baba's theory about a pure athletic style of pro wrestling with an emphasis on world class competition. This style was formulated in the early 1970s.Shoot wrestling
Initially called "shooting'. The meaning of "shoot" is to legitimately attack an opponent to achieve a win during a wrestling contest. This method was developed by members of the New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion notably Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Satoru Sayama, Akira Maeda and Masakatsu Funaki under the guidance of Karl Gotch.These professional wrestlers were looking to create a three dimensional wrestling based martial art which would include kicks and punches in addition to a variety of Catch Wrestling moves. The style of wrestling when used in professional wrestling competitions is known as shoot-style, and involves various sub-branches itself.Strong style
A strict Japanese pro wrestling discipline that originated in the 1970s by Antonio Inoki. Using a combination of stiff (hard hitting) and sharp moves and strikes, such as the lariat clothesline, the chest chop, and front kicks in addition of throws and painful submission holds (eg. the Inoki Signature Flyfot Abdominal Stretch). Strong Style is a theory that has influenced several other styles.References
"List of professional wrestling styles"