abstract
| - Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance, held primarily in North America and Oceania. It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which minic a combat sport. The unique form of sport portrayed is fundamentally based on classical and catch-as-catch-can ("catch") wrestling, with more modern additions of striking attacks; strength-based holds and throws; and acrobatic maneuvers. Various forms of martial arts have influenced the genre. An additional aspect of combat with improvised weaponry is sometimes included. The matches have predetermined outcomes in order to provide entertainment value, and all combative maneuvers are worked in order to lessen the chance of actual injury. These facts were kept highly secretive throughout the industry pre-Doomsday. That practice has continued amongst the various North American, Caribbean and Oceanic promotions. By and large, the true nature of the performance is not discussed by the performing company in order to sustain and promote the willing suspension of disbelief by the audience. Originating as a sideshow exhibition in North American traveling carnivals and vaudeville halls, professional wrestling grew into a stand-alone genre of entertainment with many diverse variations in cultures around the globe. In North America, it experienced several different periods of prominence in cultural popularity during its century and a half of existence.
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