do wrestlers practice a match beforehand?

[The MAC]

so do they get in the ring and work out spots and finishes? I remember seeing a brief shot in wrestling with shadows of shawn rehearsing(he then played with brets son)

[Chavo Classic]

Not really. They tend to plan a few spots before hand and mostly 'call' the match. Calling is basically making it up on the fly when in the ring. Wrestlers will sometimes whisper a sequence of moves to each other when grounded or in holds. It depends entirely on the wrestlers involved.

However, there have been occassions when wrestlers have practiced an entire match beforehand. In his "autobiography" Ric Flair tells of his disgust of Randy Savage, who wanted Flair to practice a match over and over until perfect. Flair felt this took away from the psychology of the match.

[Stickman]

I'm sure they practice moves and holds and shit, but practicing the match would be terrible...mind you, some of the matches recently should've been practiced.

[Destor]

No. We might rehearse a complicated spot, but that's it. Now mind you before the show we usually a lot of us get in the ring and "play" so a lot of stuff comes from those sessions. But Chavo summed it up nicely.

[Xero]

Here's a related question: How much and what besides the big spots are planned? Are rest holds and fast-paced sequences and the like determined before-hand, or do wrestlers wing it?

I guess this has to do with planning the pacing more than anything else.

[Savio]

they usually practice at house shows but not the same day.

[Xero]

they usually practice at house shows but not the same day.
:y:

A lot of house show matches are almost mirror images of TV (although usually never PPV) matches.

[Avenger]

I'm sure there's not a lot that goes into a Test or Cena match to practice.

[Dave Youell]

Here's how I tend to plan things out:

I basically never get in the ring and plan out a spot, I hate doing that, much prefer to just talk it though.

I like to work out a begining middle and end.

The start is normally a bit of chain wrestling with a face shine at the end. Buidling towards and heel cut off. Then i'd let the heel ad lib for a while and just call moves as he goes.

Then the middle would be the face come back, normally a double down spot, or a reversal to get some heat back.

Then the end which is the finish.

I've done matches in the past when you work out every move before and they don't go as well, as you don't interact with the crowd as much as you should, cos your to concerned about what the next spot is.

So it's a little bit of both for me

[M-A-G]

No. They'll GO OVER the spots verbally (DDP is notorious for this) or sometimes, like people have already pointed out, try things out on house shows. But more often than not, the majority of what you see in the ring is called on the fly or carried by the more experienced wrestler.

[Dave Youell]

As I understand it as the WWE style is to have 4 moves of doom and a finish, most of the matches are pretty much planned out and then crituqed by the road agents

[M-A-G]

That's what they call "The Hogan Template".