Legit (professional wrestling)

In professional wrestling, legit (from "legitimate") is a List of professional wrestling s _sl. booked, or a performer who relies on wrestling skill and ability, as opposed to his gimmick, to gain notoriety and popularity with fans. In the recent past many matches and wrestlers were presented as being "legit", although this was not always, or even often, the case. Two of the most famous exceptions to the rule (in actuality and known backstage for being "legit") were Lou Thesz and Frank Gotch.

Definitions

The term is also often extended to mean a wrestler with a legitimate background as an actual street fighter or brawler (he may also be a former professional boxer, a stuntman, martial artist or have crossed over from some other professional or amateur sport), who brings legitimate fighting skills to the apparent, but often tightly controlled, "chaos" of the pro wrestling arena. A "legit" competitor in this instance may tend to revert to the actual violence of real fighting, causing concern (and danger) among opponents, and others.

The term "legit" can also be attributed to an incident where a legitimate injury occurs during a professional wrestling match. An example would be during the Four-Way Tag Team Ladder match at Armageddon 2006, in which Joey Mercury suffered a severe head injury, a broken nose and a possibly fractured frontal bone, and severe lacerations around his left eye as a result of a see-saw ladder maneuver by Jeff Hardy. [cite web | url = http://www.wwe.com/shows/armageddon/exclusives/38575801 | author = WWE.com | title = Update on Joey Mercury | accessmonthday = April 9 | accessyear = 2007 | date= December 18, 2006]

Also, during a Last Man Standing match at One Night Stand 2008, Randy Orton broke his collarbone after going for an RKO on Triple H; but it was reversed and Orton was thrown to the outside of the ring. Jerry Lawler said to fellow broadcast partner Jim Ross, "I think Orton told referee Mike Chioda he broke his collarbone". Triple H ended the match, faster than usual due to Orton's physical well-being, with a sledgehammer to the face.

In March 2005, a new professional wrestling promotion was announced called Real Pro Wrestling. This promotion is being packaged as being strictly legit, although such promotions in the past have either proven to be short-lived or have soon resorted to booked and worked matches, which pro wrestling fans claim is due to what they see as the inherently dull nature of legit wrestling (possibly because of the lack of gimmicks and theatrics that are usually found in mainstream professional wrestling).

Wrestlers with a legit background

*Johnny B. Badd (Amateur boxer)
*Hacksaw Jim Duggan (American Football)
*Randy Savage (Baseball)
*Mike Tyson (Professional boxer, but was a celebrity heel)
*Kurt Angle (Amateur wrestler)
*Elijah Burke (Amateur boxer)
*Sylvester Terkay (MMA fighter)
*Akebono Tarō (Sumo, former Yokozuna)
*Akira Taue (Sumo)
*Jun Izumida (sumo)
*Alfred Hayes (wrestler) (Judo)
*Chris Adams (wrestler) (Judo)

ee also

* List of professional wrestling slang

References