User:Jtalledo/pwbio
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As seen on Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Mick Foley/archive1:
| “ | A problem (insurmountable?) with so many articles on wrestling figures is that there is difficulty in seperating the character from the preformer... for instance, shouldn't there be an article on The Undertaker and one on Mark Callaway? In reflection of pro-wrestling's reality skewing maleability, these elements are often combined in our articles, being less about the men and women that portray the fantastic and larger than life people, and more about the characters they play. This is seen in this article's structure: it is a littany of developments over Foley's character's career(s), more distressingly the stuff seen by most people (the WWE stuff). His pre-WWE years garner several choppy paragraphs seperated by brand, and then expands when he gets to ECW/WCW/WWE. Did foley spring into existance upon becomming a wrestler, or did he have, you know, a childhood? And its not like there is a dearth of information about Foley's past and pre-wrestling years: He wrote TWO very large, very clear, very well-written and comprehensive memoirs. There needs to be greater balance, and in its current state, there is no balance at all. There is almost nothing on his personal life, scant information on his non-wrestling career, and most distressing, one paragraph on his writing career. ONE PARAGRAPH? This is not just a man who is rightfully reveared as a hardcore legend, this is a man who has written two well-recieved, best selling memoirs, several children's books, and with his latest novels, is gaining increased respect and notability as a fiction author for adults. That just scratches the surface here - the article is poorly written, has no real references, too many damned links, too much cruft and not enough craft. And worse yet, this is probably one of our better pro-wrestling articles. Do NOT send to peer review, do NOT attempt to re-write or build, do NOT pass go or collect $200. Start from scratch. Do not look at it as a wrestling article, but an encyclopedia article. | ” |
This an essay regarding formats for articles about professional wrestlers on Wikipedia. It's currently a work in progress, so feel free to chime in on the discussion page about ways to improve it.
Contents |
[edit] Rationale
The rationale behind this bio format comes from one of the Pro Wrestling WikiProject's goals of getting an article featured, or at least to features article quality. The idea is to make the wrestler bio accessible to people who aren't big pro wrestling fans, make it relatively stable (no week-by-week results) and distinguish wrestling storylines from real-life. This format can similarly be used for tag teams. Below is a possible format, with the sections in the order that they should be placed in the article.
[edit] Infobox
The pwbio-infobox has become the de-facto standard for most pro wrestling bios. The picture used in the box would ideally be a free image. Beware of lame edits wars over stuff like the wrestler’s height and weight. Be sure to include both major units as measures for both.
[edit] Lead
This is the section that should answer the reader's question - "Why should I care?" It should conform to standards outlined in Wikipedia:Lead section. The first sentence should include the wrestler's nationality and the promotion/brand he/she has last worked in. The rest of the lead, about two or three paragraphs, should mention some major championships, events or awards won. It should also mention any unique accomplishments or distinctions inside or outside of the ring. A brief description of the gimmick or gimmicks the wrestler has been best known for should also be there. Remember to word it so even someone who doesn't know about anything about professional wrestling can understand it.
[edit] Career
The career section is the meat of the article and the most contentious one. The career section should be written using summary style. Events should be mentioned in chronological order. Sub-sections can be created, either using years or significant events/eras in the wrestler's career as titles, but try not to create too many. Events that are worth mentioning:
- Early career, training - how the wrestler came into the business, training etc.
- Debuts - debuts with professional wrestling promotions should be summarized, including date of debut etc.
- Changes in career
- Gimmick changes - gimmick changes are also worth mentioning briefly, with the new gimmick being described
- Pushes - pushes and de-pushes should also be mentioned briefly
- Turns - turns should also be mentioned briefly, including how the turn was received by fans
- Allies - allies can also be mentioned briefly, including managers
- Injuries - including what happened after the injury
- Title contention and runs - title contentions and runs should be summarized as well
- Any significant real-life events - any real-life events that affect the wrestler's career may also be mentioned, i.e. Ric Flair's run-ins with the law and WCW management
Generally, angles should not be mentioned in any significant detail. Current events should not normally be mentioned, but should be summarized after the fact (when a feud ends for instance). While people may come to Wikipedia looking for past and latest storyline info, it's not very encyclopedic to go into detail about every single fictional storyline, particularly in a biography for a real person. They also make articles really long and it's hard to find the main details in them. Angles and such can be put in a supplementary article linked from the career section with a note, possibly using a template - an article naming convention like "Character history of X" can be used. A reasonable level of detail can be placed in this article regarding storylines that the wrestler was involved in, with a link to the main article and note about kayfabe on top. There still shouldn't be week-by-week edits on the character history article though - storylines and feuds should be summarized, since it's still an encyclopedia entry.
A comment at the end of a section can be placed (substituting a template is an idea) telling people not to add week-by-week events.
[edit] Wrestling facts
Wrestling facts are basically a list of vital information of a wrestler. Sections include but are not necessarily limited to:
Moves - Two or three past/current finishing moves should be listed. As for signature moves, there should be a list of three-five signature moves - in other words, moves wrestlers use in almost every single match the "stuff" of the "get my stuff in" quote. This also covers moves that the wrestler has innovated or modified to make the move more unique to him/her. Anything beyond five signature moves isn't "signature." “Generic” moves like “small package” aren’t signature moves.
Other sections include nicknames, managers, taunts, theme songs etc. Try to keep things short - if anything is already mentioned in the career section they need not be mentioned here. Kayfabe quotes should be in Wikiquote - generally, Wikipedia articles use real-life quotes to illustrate certain points about the person they are describing. Wrestling quotes don't really do that.
[edit] Other media
Or a similarly titled section - can mention film and television appearances, books written, etc.
[edit] Personal information/life
Family info, hobbies and other information of a personal nature should be here.
[edit] Championships and accomplishments
Championships and accomplishments should really be written as prose in the career section. Lists create too many clutter, especially if detailed succession info is on the list.
Succession boxes are nice looking, but they get cluttered if the wrestler has many reigns so they should generally be avoided.
[edit] References
Say what you want about how it's hard to find good references on wrestling, the fact remains that it's necessary to cite stuff on Wikipedia: WP:CITE provides a good guide to using references. In-text citations should be used whenever possible so individual claims can be easily checked. Sources should be reputable, reliable sources for info. Obsessed with Wrestling is okay, but they do have their share of errors. WWE.com is an official source, but tends to mix kayfabe with real life when it suits the promotion. Slam! Sports (http://slam.canoe.ca/) is a pretty reliable source too. Some reputable print papers do wrestler interviews and articles one in a while, so those are good sources.
[edit] External links
All links should be directly related to the wrestler. Profiles from web sites of promotions can definitely be linked here, as well as an official site. IMDb is not a very reliable source, but it should be linked for info on the wrestler's film or television career. One and only one fan site can be linked to, according to WP:EL. Fan sites tend to be interchangeable, so a site with a lot of information/content is preferable. Fanlistings are generally uninformative and should not be linked to, as are forums. A few links to news articles not used in the reference section can also be used.
[edit] Categories
Remembers to categorize wrestlers in proper categories. Three categories that should be added:
[[Category:(Year of birth) births]] [[Category:(Nationality) professional wrestlers]] [[Category: Living people]]
[edit] No trivia
“Trivia” sections listing random stuff and their ilk should be avoided. They get way too large and there’s no filtering of what can be added to the list. If it’s worth mentioning, it’s worth mentioning in the other sections of the article as prose or in the “accomplishments” section. Wikipedia:Embedded lists says lists make Wikipedia worse, not better. See Wikipedia:Trivia for more information.
