Credit goes to Shooter for getting this:
Steve Corino Pro-Wrestling Seminar
Welcome to the Steve Corino and Puroresu Dojo professional wrestling seminar on Marketing and Psychology. Over the next few hours we are going to cover different aspects of our sport and place an emphasis on what we call the “Little Things”. The “Little Things” refers to those things you need in the squared circle that usually go unnoticed by the typical wrestling fan but are VERY important when conducting oneself in front of a crowd. Remember, it is the person that is NOT a pro-wrestling fan that will see the mistakes first.
Calling oneself a “professional wrestler” in this day and age is easy. You can almost find as many wrestling schools as you can 7-11’s, but truly being a great worker is incredibly difficult. Do you need to be the most gifted athlete to be a great worker? NO. What you need is to learn how to control a match, the fans, a promo, and most importantly your career…
Below are the subjects we are going to cover today:
1) The Psychology of Pro-Wrestling
2) Telling the Story
3) Slowing Down
4) Getting the Most Out Of the Least
5) Selling
6) Facials
7) Being a True Heel
Being a Believable Babyface
9) Promos
The Psychology of Pro-Wrestling
Webster’s dictionary describes psychology simply as…
“The SCIENCE dealing with the mind and with the mental and emotional process.”
As professional wrestlers, we have that power (the science) in our hands in EVERY MATCH. It doesn’t matter if you are jerking the curtain at the local Steak & Ale in front of 9 people or selling out Madison Square Garden, pro-wrestling psychology should be used in every match.
If you watch a match from the 1970’s or 1980’s you will notice that even in a TV squash match psychology is used. How you ask?
“The Science dealing with the mind and with the mental and emotional process.” is used when WRESTLER A squashes WRESTLER B.
Your mind now believes that Wrestler A is strong and your mental and emotional process is affected by how you now feel about that certain wrestler. Should I cheer him? Should I boo him? Is he a threat to the championship? You now have created EMOTION. Emotion is the most important thing you can create for pro-wrestling fans.
In the Scarbough Research Guide for 2007, they indicated that pro-wrestling fans today range from age 3 to 93. But the highest percentage of fans are males 27 to 44 who are married and earn between $42,000 to $75,000 a year. Normal, everyday people are our fans! How do we know this? Well, its very simple. Watch the commercials for Monday Night Raw, Friday Night Smackdown, or TNA Impact. The commercials are marketed toward that exact demographic.
When people want to escape there mundane and routine lives for a few hours, it is our job to help them do that by creating EMOTION, and allowing them to suspend their disbelief. We are not changing their lives, but we can use psychology to deal with their mental and emotional process. One of the greatest compliments I ever received was a few years ago in Baltimore. A middle-aged man came up to me and said “Please don’t take this the wrong way but I hate you and so does my son.” Although I didn’t sell it at the time I was taken back and shocked that the guy would tell me he hated me but in such a nice way. He continued…
“You see, he is 15 now and we don’t agree on anything. Our relationship is strained. But once a month we come to this show and boo the hell out of you. We do it together. We talk about it for the whole 17 minute ride home, how much we hate you. But at least we agree on something. I just wanted to thank you.”
That, besides making me feel great inside, is art of psychology in a nut shell.
Telling The Story
The concept of pro-wrestling is simple: Good vs. Evil. Like in the Bible or a movie, Evil tries to suppress Good but Good always comes back in the end. Of course, Vince Russo tried to change those rules (and failed) but in the long run Good vs. Evil formula wins out.
Every match should tell a story. Good vs. Evil, Big vs. Small, Partner vs. Partner, Champion vs. Contender, Teacher vs. Student, Debuting Wrestler vs. Jobber, etc. Every match has a story. Even if the story isn’t advertised on the program, television, or Internet, a story is needed for a successful match. But it is our job to tell the story to the people, NOT let them dictate that story to us.
We have the power to be an author per say, or an artist. The match is our book or canvas.
Slowing Down
As young pro-wrestlers, we seem to rush out of fear that the fans will either get bored with our matches, or we will forget our spots. But remember, the fans see spots at a little more than half the speed at which they are executed. We see them faster because we do them, we know how they are done, and know how they end.
Another problem is the integration of too many highspots. Why do I say this? Am I a hater on the high flying style of wrestling? Heck no. I love it. But the problem is that pro-wrestling fans can only remember so much action at one time. Why were phone numbers seven numbers long 15 years ago? Because psychologists did a study and found that people could only remember a stretch of seven numbers at a time. Now it is up to ten. Ask a normal American to remember a phone number of a British or Japanese person (with country code) and its difficult. The human brain can only process so much at once unless trained to process more. If you think back to which moves were the most popular of the last few years, you think of: The Stone Cold Stunner, The People’s Elbow, The Spear, The Legdrop, the FU, and the Superkick. These are all moves that look easy, but are done at the right times. Highspots are great but need to be spaced out so that the fans can remember them. If you do a 14 move sequence, how many moves do you think the fans will remember? Think about how many times you had to go over it in your head or with your opponent to remember it.
There is an old saying…
”One well placed dropkick is far more effective than 10 poorly placed and poorly executed dropkicks.”
Getting the Most Out Of the Least
Many young pro-wrestlers take this as being lazy, but in reality it is being smart. Larry Zbyszko is the best example of getting the most out of the least. He takes his time and when he does something it means something. Why hit someone four times when you can hit them really good once? Why do ten reversals into the corner when you can do two good ones? Under the lights it is hard to breathe. Add to that the nervousness you have when you are young, and blowing up can and will happen quick. And once you are blown up it is almost impossible to get your breathing back down to normal. Getting the most out of the least saves your breath, your body, and lets PSYCHOLOGY take over where we can deal with the mind and emotional process of our fans.
Selling
Arn Anderson will be the first to tell you that to be a successful professional wrestler you need to learn how to sell. Not over sell, which is a problem in today’s wrestling, but a believable sell. What is a believable sell? Poke yourself in the eye. What happens? You can’t see for a minute. Then why would you rake someone’s eyes and then whip them into the ropes?
Remember…Believability!
What percentage of pro-wrestling fans do you think know that pro-wrestling is a work? I would say 80%. So you have 8 out of every 10 people doubting everything you do because they don’t think you are really hurt. In some places it is 95%. How do we get away from that? The believable sell. If someone is choking you, why would you be flailing hands in the air when you should be trying to pry his hands off your throat? When you get punched in the face, wouldn’t you grab your face?
Good and believable selling creates - EMOTION
Being a Heel
75% of the pro-wrestlers I know love to be a heel and would rather do that than be a babyface any day. Why? It is easier of course. You don’t have to worry about the fans crapping on you. If they are, then as a heel you are doing your job right? Wrong. Being a heel is about putting HEAT on the babyface and getting negative EMOTION from the pro-wrestling fans. Also a heel’s job is to lead the match so that the babyface can concentrate on selling and getting sympathy.
Being a Babyface
Since most of us as pro-wrestlers are insecure, being a babyface can be not only rough but painful, but it doesn’t have to be. A good heel can get even the worst babyface over. A babyface’s job is to SELL and get SYMPATHY from the fans. Look at the best sellers in the history of pro-wrestling: Ricky Steamboat and Ricky Morton. You feel their pain when the heat is on them. You feel the EMOTION when they make a comeback. That is the key to being a babyface. You need to be the everyday guy. You need to feel what the normal person feels. Why was Stone Cold Steve Austin so over in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s? People believed in him. Everyone wants to shoot the middle finger at people they don’t like, drink beer in public, and beat up their boss. He played up to those raw, human emotions. Why was The Rock so over? He played to the people. Babyfaces, even if they don’t look like the normal person, should be able to empathize with the normal, everyday person.
Promos
Have you ever lied to someone so well you almost believed it yourself? If you have then you already have the formula to execute a good heel promo. A good heel promo is NOT about cursing or telling people that their local football team is horrible (even though it is fun to say), but it is about believing in what you say. Most heels believe that they are a babyface at heart, but the fans are the ones that are the heels. So when you speak, you have to believe your own words.
A babyface promo is about getting the people behind you. How can you lose if you have the fans “fighting” with you?
Subject: Tips on Wrestling Psychology 
Mon Jan 04, 2010 4:53 pm
