Top of the Card

It's about good guys, bad guys, heat and enhancement.

The good guys are "faces".

Bad guys are "heels".

In literature, we call the good guys "protagonists". We call the bad guys "antagonists"

As Shakespeare said "there is no good nor bad but our thinking makes it so"

Antagonists and protagonists both think they are good guys.

The problem is, they both want the same thing.

So there is conflict about the attainment of that thing.

We root FOR the PROtagonist and against the ANTagonists.

That rooting in wrestling, pro and con, is known as "heat"

The conflict usually leads to a confrontation.

On the way to the major confrontation, there are skirmeshes and alliances.

Major confrontations in wrestling are at the "top of the card"

Think Hamlet and Claudius

Some alliances result in tag teams.

Think Capulets and Montagues

The skirmeshes are the enhancement.

Think Mercutio and Tybalt

Skirmeshes are a way of measuring "heat".

A method of moving up or down the card.

In literature, these skirmeshes are subplots filled with secondary characters.

Every so often, a secondary character will emerge as a "truth teller".

Remember Emilia in Othello?

Secondary characters are often introduced in a conflict simply to be defeated.

In wrestling these characters are known as "jobbers"

Jobbers are used to advance the aura of the heel or the face.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Hamlet

Whenever a wrestler loses a match, he is agreeing to a "job"

in order to help get his opponent "over".

"Over" is heat.

No wonder wrestling appears overheated to some ojective observers.

Every so often a wrestler, heel or baby face character will tell the truth in an interview.

Think Richard III

This is called a "shoot".

The guys who are the toughest, most skilled wrestlers...

the guys who would really win most fights are called "shooters".

In literature, I'd say Achilles was pretty much a shooter.

We all know about his heel.