Arn Anderson Calls Out Wrestlers For Not Selling This Move Correctly

There has always been an art to selling in professional wrestling. Sell too hard and it may come off as cartoonish. Sell too little and it may ruin suspension of disbelief. Arn Anderson, who has been around the business since the early 1980s, knows a thing or two about selling. In fact, believability and credibility in the ring are two things he prides himself on the most. That especially holds true when it comes to realistic facial reactions, and he believes some wrestlers aren't selling a particular move the way they should.

"I have a theory: If you take everything offensively that is done to you and sell it the way it should be — not more, not less — our business becomes so easy to follow,"  Anderson said on  his "ARN" podcast

One of the founding members of The Four Horsemen, Anderson was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012. He currently serves as a manager with AEW. While the landscape of pro wrestling has changed plenty since his career began, selling believably has always been crucial. Sometimes, it's all about simplifying. Whether it's during a brief interaction backstage or taking a punch to the mouth, a wrestler's job is to sell. Of course, there's a difference between selling and taking your average bump, which he clarified.

"It's where guys don't sell at all," Anderson continued. "If I stick an elbow in your mouth and you take a textbook flat back bump but you come up off the deck and never feel for those teeth that you think are missing, you missed the boat. That's not selling."