Job (professional wrestling)
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In professional wrestling slang, a job is a losing performance in a wrestling match.[1] It is derived from the euphemism "doing one's job", which was employed to protect information related to kayfabe from being revealed. The term can be used a number of ways. When a wrestler is booked to lose a match, it is described as "a job". The act itself is described with the verb jobbing, while the act of booking (rather than being booked) to job is called jobbing out. To lose a match fairly (meaning without any kayfabe rules being broken) is to job cleanly.[2] Wrestlers who routinely (or exclusively) lose matches are known as jobbers or "dummy wrestlers". A wrestler skilled at enhancing the matches they lose, as opposed to a jobber, is called a carpenter.[3] In the post-kayfabe era the term has taken on a negative connotation, leading to the use of the neutral term enhancement talent.[4]
Definition
A job which is presented as being the result of an extremely close, entertaining match, or underhanded tactics on the part of an opponent, will not necessarily tarnish a wrestler's reputation, especially if the situation is presented as one where the wrestler "deserved" to win but was cheated. At other times a high-profile loss, particularly one which makes the wrestler in question look weak, foolish, or otherwise damages their reputation, might signify certain behind-the-scenes events that have real-life implications on a wrestler. Such a job may mark the end of a push, a departure from the company, or a loss of faith in the wrestler as a marketable commodity. As a result, it may also mark a downward slide in a wrestler's career. This is especially the case when the wrestler is beaten very easily, or squashed.
Sometimes, jobbing is presented to a wrestler because of the problems and bad working relationship that the wrestler and the owner of the promotion have. At other times, it is a requirement of a wrestler's on-the-job training, learning how to perform in front of a live audience while helping make the more established wrestlers look credible.
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has referred to jobbers as lovable, adorable "losers". Sometimes they euphemistically use the term "local competitor".
Historic usage
Jobber is a professional wrestling term used to describe a wrestler who is routinely defeated by main eventers, mid-carders, or low-carders. Most promoters do not use the term because of the negative connotation. Jobbers have been used since the 1950s, and they were popular in promotions of the United States and Canada around this time.
World Wrestling Entertainment (
The American Wrestling Association (AWA) also made moderate use of jobbers in their shows. In independent promotions jobbers rarely appear, but when they do, it is mostly in squash matches.
A jobber may not necessarily lose, only make the superstar look powerful—or at least make another wrestler interfering with the match to look more powerful. One example is
Jobbers can also get recognition on social media after appearing on a major promotion, giving them exposure they wouldn't receive otherwise. While being interviewed by Byron Saxton before his match against Braun Strowman in 2016, independent wrestler Johnny Knockout said he wanted to wrestle Strowman because "he likes big, sweaty men". The unexpected response led to Knockout eventually trending on Twitter ahead of other events on that night's Raw.[7]
Heels and some faces used to abuse and humiliate jobbers during or after a match:
Some jobbers, such as Barry Horowitz, Iron Mike Sharpe, the Brooklyn Brawler or the Mulkey Brothers grew to become household names to fans. Others, such as Trent Knight, Cougar Jay, Reno Riggins, Tommy Angel, Bob Emory, Ricky Nelson, Curtis Thompson, Kenny Kendall, or Eddie Jackie, were expected by fans to be squashed and even humiliated during or after a match. For example, Jake "The Snake" Roberts got Bob Emory's and Trent Knight's heads inside the sack where he kept his python snake; Dick Murdoch smashed the aforementioned Emory against a podium and then hit him with a piece of wood, Kenny Kendall got hogtied twice by Bunkhouse Buck at the end of a match, Reno Riggins was made to put a woman's dress on.
Jobbers
A slightly higher position is "jobber to the stars" (also known as a "glorified jobber"), which is a wrestler who defeats pure jobbers and mid-carders, but who consistently loses to top-level or up-and-coming stars. For example, WWE's Dolph Ziggler is widely considered to have these traits.[by whom?] This often happens to popular faces and sometimes heels towards the end of their careers. Many of these jobbers to the stars are heels who routinely beat up on face jobbers so as to build up a reputation of being reasonably capable competitors (which makes the stars all the more impressive when they in turn defeat them easily) as well as to earn the contempt of the audience who enjoy seeing them finally get their comeuppance when they take on the tougher wrestlers. Heels can also be jobbers, such as Steve Lombardi during the 1980s and early 1990s. In the 1980s, Lombardi teamed with Barry Horowitz, to form a heel team. However, Lombardi and Horowitz ended up losing most of their matches in the WWE. In addition, Triple H was given the role of "jobbing to the stars" by WWF owner Vince McMahon in the summer of 1996 as punishment for the Madison Square Garden Incident.
On the independent wrestling circuit, including the Mexican independent circuit, the star wrestlers with sufficient name recognition to be a draw would travel with their own jobber. Free from televised exposure, the star could beat the same opponent from town to town. Such a jobber could even be elevated to champion status, entering the ring with an impressive sounding title belt only to have it removed at the end of the match night after night.
There are times, however, when a jobber will prove their skill, determination, and/or loyalty to the promotion and move beyond jobber status. Curt Hennig and Eddie Gilbert, who served as high-level jobbers during their initial WWE runs, later became main-eventers. Billy Kidman initially started out as a jobber in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), before moving up the ranks to become a champion in both the WCW and WWE. Paul Roma, who started as a jobber for the WWE in the 1980s, gained enough popularity in WCW to win that promotion's Tag Team Titles with partners such as Paul Orndorff and Arn Anderson, the latter as part of the Four Horsemen; however, in Roma's case, he went downhill again some time later. The brothers Hardy Boyz began their careers in WWE as jobbers for a few years, before receiving their first push as legitimate contenders in the tag division.
Sometimes the opposite will occur, as was in the case of "Iron" Mike Sharpe, who started as a normal wrestler in the independent circuit and the WWE and ended up being a heel jobber. Another example is Siva Afi, who was a successful main-eventer/mid-carder in the independent circuit, including challenging Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship to a 60-minute time limit draw in front of 20,000 people, ended up being a jobber in the WWF, which eventually led to other local promotions to give him a jobber position. A tag-team known as The Undertakers that did well on the independent circuit became jobbers when they joined the WWF in 1992 and became known as Double Trouble.
Sometimes, jobbing may be used as a gimmick. While in ECW,
See also
- Glossary of professional wrestling terms
- Journeyman (boxing)
- Tomato can
References
- ^ "Torch Glossary of Insider Terms". Pro Wrestling Torch. 2000. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2007-11-05.
- ^ "Wrestling Dictionary". Wrestling Fortitude. Archived from the original on 2007-12-12. Retrieved 2007-11-05.
- ^ "Carpenters: Why They were Essential to Wrestling and Why They are So Needed Today", by Harry Grover, Pro Wrestling Historical Society Archived June 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Enhancement Era: The Return of the WWE jobber". Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online. August 2016. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
- ^ "Spotlight On... Sean Waltman". The Wrestler/Inside Wrestling. Kappa Publications. June 2007. pp. 24–28. Volume 15, 2007.
- )
- ^ "Braun Strowman's RAW Victim, Heath Slater Tells WWE To Listen To Fans Chanting His Name, Fans On RAW". Wrestling Inc. 2016-08-23. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
- World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-03-12.