Wrestling on Pixibot

Wrestling is a form of fighting, both playfully and as a combat sport, between two opponents without weapons who grab each other's body and/or clothing (grappling, as opposed to punching, striking, kicking and pinching). The term "wrestling" is also used figuratively, as in "wrestling with a problem".

Wrestling as a sport

Not to be confused with professional (staged) wrestling. Wrestling

FILA Greatest Wrestler of 20th Century (Greco-Roman), Alexander Karelin throws Olympian Jeff Blatnick with his famous "Karelin Lift"

Most wrestling is an amateur sport but some forms, such as sumo, have long professional traditions. (Note: The term Professional Wrestling is most often used in the United States to refer to a form of sports entertainment - that is, a simulated sporting event; see also Puroresu.)

Wrestling is often categorized as one of the martial arts; its virile image and usefulness as military training doubtlessly helped it to become and remain popular in many cultures. It is one of the oldest types of sport; there are wall-paintings more than 15,000 years old depicting men wrestling.

There are almost as many wrestling styles as there are national traditions. Some samples are sumo in Japan and Yağlı güreş (oiled wrestling) in Turkey. In the example of oiled wrestling, the wrestlers wear tight knee-length leather trousers (Muslim modesty doesn't square with the public nakedness of fighters in classical Antiquity, as in nearly all ancient Olympic disciplines) and cover themselves with diluted olive oil. A noted oiled wrestling tournament, called Kirkpinar, held annually in Edirne, European Turkey since 1362, is the oldest continuously-running, sanctioned sporting competition in the world, and in recent years this style of wrestling has also become popular in other countries, most notably the Netherlands and Japan.

There are two "international" wrestling styles performed in the Olympic Games under the supervision of FILA (Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées or International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles): Freestyle and Greco-Roman. Freestyle is possibly derived from the English Lancashire style. A similar style, commonly called Collegiate or Folkstyle, is practiced in secondary schools, colleges, and younger age groups in the United States.

Freestyle and Greco-Roman differ in what holds are permitted; in Greco-Roman, the wrestlers are permitted to hold and attack only above the waist. In both Greco-Roman and freestyle, points can be scored the following ways, with analogs in folkstyle and collegiate:

Takedowns: Gaining control over your opponent from a neutral position.
Reversals: Gaining control over your opponent from a defensive position.
Escapes: Escaping your opponents' control. (The escape point is no longer awarded in the international styles.)
Exposure: Exposing your opponent's back to the mat.
Entertainment World Wrestling Lifting: Successfully Lifting an opponent in the defensive position and exposing his back. (The lift point is no longer awarded under the rules changes adopted for the international styles in 2004-2005. Lifting has never been rewarded in folkstyle or collegiate, and rules against locking hands on the mat interfere with its practicality.)
Penalty Points: Various infractions (striking your opponent, acting with brutality or intent to injure, using illegal holds, etc). (Under the 2004-2005 changes to the international styles, a wrestler whose opponent takes an injury time-out receives one point unless the injured wrestler is bleeding.)

A match can be won in the following ways:

Period Format: In the International styles the format is now 3- 2 minute periods a wrestler winning the match when he has won two out of three periods, for example if one competitor were to win the first period 1-0 and the second period 1-0 the match would be over, however if the other competitor were to win the second period then third and deciding period would result. Only a fall or disqualification can decided total match termination, all other modes of victory result only in period termination.
Win by Fall: A fall, also known as a pin, occurs when one wrestler holds both his opponents' shoulders on the mat simultaneously.
Win by Technical Fall Pro Wrestling : If one wrestler gains a six-point lead over his opponent at any point, the current period is declared over and he is the winner of that period. (In folkstyle and collegiate wrestling, a technical fall occurs when one wrestler gains a fifteen-point lead and in that case the match is over.)
Win by Decision: If neither wrestler achieves either type of fall, the one who has gained more points during the match (or period internationally) is declared the winner. If the wrestlers have gained the same number of points, then it is ruled by the judges through certain criteria in the international styles. In folkstyle and collegiate wrestling, an overtime period will result to decide the true victor.
Win By Major Decision: In folkstyle and collegiate wrestling, a decision in which the winner outscores his opponent by eight or more points is a "major decision" and is rewarded with an additional team point.
Win by TKO: TKO stands for Technical Knock Out; if one wrestler is knocked out and unable to wrestle, the other wrestler is declared the winner. This is officially referred to variously as WBI (win by injury), medical forfeit or injury default in the international styles and folkstyle, in which knockouts are not encouraged and are treated as accidental. The term also encompasses situations where wrestlers become injured, take too many injury time-outs or cannot stop bleeding.

Woman Wrestling

The countries with the leading wrestlers in the Olympic Games are Iran, United States, Russia (and some of the former Soviet Union republics), Bulgaria, Hungary, Sweden, Finland and Turkey.

In the United States currently there is a decline of wrestling programs in colleges and universities that some attribute to Title IX. It is believed by some that when schools cannot add enough opportunities for women they choose to scrap their wrestling programs (other programs for men like golf, track and swimming are believed to be similiarly affected). This has caused controversy in recent years.

In some countries, people engage in simulated wrestling matches as a performance ("sports entertainment"). See professional wrestling.

Famous amateur wrestlers

Kurt Angle (an Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling before becoming a professional wrestler)
Bruce Baumgartner
Dan Gable
Rulon Gardner
Alireza Dabir
Frank Gotch
Alexander Karelin (FILA Greatest Wrestler of 20th Century [Greco-Roman])
Alexander Medved (FILA Greatest Wrestler of 20th Century [freestyle])
Sergei Belaglazov
Cael Sanderson
Dave Schultz
Werner Seelenbinder
John Smith
Pat Smith
Gholamreza Takhti
Otto Olson
Brock Lesnar
Shelton Benjamin
Kyoko Hamaguchi

Wrestling Wwe

Wrestling as a sport

See also

Famous amateur wrestlers