Billed And Reality

[Vega]

t's no secret that wrestling companies increase their wrestler's physical attributes to give them a larger-than-life-appearance.

You sometimes find very different information about wrestler's sizes and weights an that kept me puzzling once in a while.

Ferbian said in that Cruiserweight Division thread that the heights are verified (I guess he means they're real). That confused me because I thought it was public knowledge that wrestlers are usually smaller than what they're made and I know Ferbian as a well-informed poster.

I once read about a "two inch rule", which means wrestlers are billed about two inches taller than they're in reality and that around 15 to 30 pounds are added to their weight, depending on what effect should be achieved. Some heights even changed over time. I also heard that they hire smaller referees on purpose and have other procedures to strenghten that effect.

There are some stats where I really wondered, for example the Miz being eight pounds heavier than Morrison, ten pounds heavier than Punk and only nine pounds lighter than Cena, all at he same height. And I seem to remember a 5'3"-Mysterio and a 7'-Undertaker, now being 5'7" and 6'10". I have read that Cena admitted being only 6' tall, although billed at 6'2". MVP being heavier than Trips seems to be a bit odd, too. But maybe that's just me.

The questions:
Can you say something about WWE's practice to announce wrestlers' attributes, for example common rules of adding weight or height and how extremely they fake?
Do you know about visual aids they use to let their stars appear taller?
Or are you informed about different handles in different promotions?
Are you aware of wrestlers that changed the promotion and immediately grew or shrunk?
Or do you even know real heights or weights of wrestlers which vary strongly from the real values or did you personally meet wrestlers where you were astounded by their real height?

 

[Sora/roxas]

They should really try to keep things accurate. They should really compare sizes and muscle mass before actually posting weights. Plus i dont think they realize the casual fan doesnt care about weight difference unless its obvious likt big show vs Rey(or big show vs anybody for that matter).

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Well, wrestlers are supposed to be larger than life characters. They're supposed to be mostly bigger, tougher, faster and stronger than your "ordinary" person is. It's all part of the mystique and persona.

I don't think the WWE takes very many liberties with the height and weight of its wrestlers. Mysterio is advertised about 175 pounds and I'd say he's legitimately around that area. He's certainly heavier now than he was back in his days in WCW. The Undertaker is advertised at 6'10.5" but I think he's actually about 6'8" and I remember reading a few years back that he was legitimately around 285. He's billed at 299 lbs and has been for the past few years. Batista, back in his days in Evolution, was noticably larger than he has been the past few years. I'd say he was legitimately around 320 lbs around the middle of this decade. He's been billed at 290 for a long while and I'd say he's somewhere close to that. He's at least 275. I think that Kane used to wear different wrestling boots back in the day when he was still wearing the mask to give him a few inches in height over The Undertaker, as they're actually about the same height. They've billed Kane at 323 lbs for most of his career and I'd say he's probably a good 300lbs.

You'll notice that most WWE refs are considerably less muscular than the wrestlers? It's one way of having the wrestlers look far above average by having them be in the ring with "average men". When's the last time you saw a muscular or even a chubby referee in the WWE? I think Tim White may have been the heftiest ref the WWE's had and he's not been with the company for a very long time.

However, to be fair, the WWE doesn't make as much of a deal about the wrestler's height and weight as they used to. For instance, take a look at Kaval and Bryan Danielson before him. I think the WWE uses both their actual heights and weights for things. If you look at the WWE and how they bill a lot of their wrestlers, you'll find that most of them are billed at being under 250 lbs. Truth is, most of them probably are under 250. Look at Edge, Kofi Kingston, Cody Rhodes, Christian, The Miz, Randy Orton, R-Truth, John Morrison, Chris Jericho, Matt Hardy, Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins, Tyson Kidd, CM Punk, Evan Bourne, Rey Mysterio, and some others are all billed being under the 250 pound mark and I'd say that most of them, if not all of them, legitimately are. You'll notice also that, since the Benoit Tragedy, the WWE has purposely signed and pushed a lot of the smaller guys into high profile positions. You know, guys that don't have the look that fits the stereotypical image that people have of juiceheads.