Sell (professional wrestling)
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In professional wrestling, the sell is the element of making the action appear to be at least somewhat realistic to the crowd, or at least the marks within the crowd. In other words, it has to do with the acting necessary to sell the storyline. Reactions to moves are often exaggerated, or "oversold", for maximum crowd effect.
The rise of a significant number of "smarks" (fans who are aware of the staging of pro wrestling and many of its other conventions), has changed the "selling" process somewhat. As these audience members are aware of the element of acting, they tend to judge the worth of a match and its opponents largely upon the acting (selling) not being either over or underplayed. Along with booking, the caliber of the sell has much to do with the success of a promotion.
Certain wrestlers have long-established reputations for "no-selling" (generally refusing to sell) or overselling the opponent's moves. Many smarks consider The Undertaker to be a no-seller especially in the first half of his WWE career, although in his defense, his longtime gimmick of an undead individual has limited his ability to sell while keeping the character believable. Many fans have pointed to his match with Kurt Angle at No Way Out 2006 and his American Badass character as proof that he can legitimately sell offense if needed to.
Overselling (or showing too much reaction to a wrestler's moves) was a trait notably done by Curt Hennig. More often than not, however, inexperienced rookie wrestlers trying to sell their opponent's moves are guilty of this (e.g Randy Orton). Another example is The Rock who oversells the Stone Cold Stunner by performing a backflip when one isn't needed. However, oversells can also be used for a humorous reaction from the crowd (e.g. wrestlers overselling the pimp slaps of Human Tornado).
Mick Foley played on this term after watching a match with Al Snow (whom he has a well established love/hate relationship with) involving Snow no-selling several chairshots. Foley, later in the same show, claimed Snow landed a lucrative deal with La-Z-Boy, which was odd, as Snow never "sold chairs". Foley also used the term in a semi-kayfabe breaking statement when referring to the ludicrousness of The Rock's transitional move turned finisher The People's Elbow before a match against him saying, "If you expect me to lay down and sell that abortion, you're about as dumb as I look."
It is believed that on the taped October 16th episode of Raw, special guest star Steve-O of the Jackass movies was not selling the moves that Umaga attacked him with, laughing after several attacks, forcing Umaga to repeatly come at him in an attempt to stiff him. Other notorious no-sellers (in the eyes of the smark community) include Koji Kanemoto and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi of Japan, who often don't sell for other junior heavyweights in their promotions. Scott Steiner has also been known not to sell for cruiserweights either.
