Booking in the sense used in professional wrestling is the process of laying out in advance the general storyline of the match, to include what the eventual outcome will be. Booking may be very detailed and include a more-or-less precise length for the match and what moves, techniques, and holds will be employed by which wrestler or wrestlers and at what point in the match each will happen.

The power of a group or individual to set matches and angle is said to have booking power. A promotion's creative team has booking power by definition, but official bookers are not the only people said to have booking power; a wrestler with a lot of backstage clout, who has allied with other wrestlers backstage to assert influence (see The Clique), who is friends with members of the creative team, or whose contract gives them creative control over their character, may be said to have booking power. Backstage politics may play a large role in who gets to control the direction of matches and storylines.

See also

• booker
• professional wrestling slang