Stiff (professional wrestling)

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To be stiff in professional wrestling is to hit an opponent with force. This could be the result of a shoot, but some wrestlers have worked stiffly throughout their careers.

Stiffing can also be the act of a wrestler intentionally trying to cause harm to an opponent, often as a punishment or because they feel they have not been selling their offense enough to that point.

In Japan, especially in the promotions All Japan Pro Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and Pro Wrestling NOAH, "stiff working" exists in nearly every match. Dubbed "Strong Style" in NJPW and "King's Road" in AJPW, it is done to show that the wrestlers are fighting hard for their pride and honor, a tradition that originated with the Samurai.

1 Examples
2 Notes
3 References
4 See also

[edit] Examples

Throughout his career, Ric Flair has been known to be particularly stiff with his chops, to the extent of leaving red marks and even welts on opponents' chests.

Stan Hansen once delivered a blow so strong to Vader that it dislodged Vader's eye from its socket. Vader is also known for his stiff style of wrestling.^[1] He once broke the back of a young wrestler named Joe Thurman, who was paralyzed from the waist down for a couple of hours.^[2]

Another stiff wrestler is Low Ki. He is known for his brutal kicks and strikes.

NOAH's Tsuyoshi Kikuchi is infamous for stiffing younger wrestlers and wrestlers from other promotions during matches, seemingly as a way to tell them he is not to be underestimated despite his mid-division status; Bob Holly is an American wrestler notorious for similar behavior. Holly was filmed overly beating a trainee, Matt Cappotelli, with stiff kicks to the head during an exhibition wrestling match in the third series of WWE's reality show Tough Enough. For this reason, he received heavy criticism in the non-kayfabe wrestling media.