Sourcing is a major part of expanding wrestling articles. Only use reliable sources to verify facts and claims in articles; if a claim is not verified by a source in the first two lists below, it is probably best not to add it as it will likely be challenged and removed. The sources in the third list should be used only to cite uncontroversial material, such as attendance. Websites in list four should be avoided altogether.
Click here to search reliable secondary sources for professional wrestling. For searching on common names or events, consider removing the first two websites of newspapers The Baltimore Sun and The Independent from the search bar if they bring up false results.
- WWE.com – WWE replaces the contents of PPV match previews on their site with the match results when they are available. This means that any content taken from these articles should be archived using Archive.org or WebCite. Archive links can be added to {{Cite news}} templates using the archiveurl, archivedate, and deadurl parameters.
- Impact Wrestling.com – TNA
- ROH Wrestling.com
- Official websites of other promotions
Websites proven reliable
- Industry specific
- Pro Wrestling Dot Net – This website was founded in 2008 and has an established staff.
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated – The magazine and website has an established staff of writers and the organization has been in operation since 1979.
- Pro Wrestling Torch – This organization has an established staff of writers and newsletter, and has been in operation since 1987.
- PWInsider – This website was founded in 2004 and has an established staff – writer Richard Trionfo has a knack for inventing names for finishing or signature moves – "IEDDT", "Blackpool Slam", "Fandangobama Jam", etc. – so don't use his reports to cite move names.
- The Masked Man via Grantland – Columnist David Shoemaker is an author of a book on professional wrestling with worldwide reviews. However, this does not mean other Grantland columnists are reliable.
- WrestleView.com – Founded in 1997, this source is marginally reliable, its use is strictly for television and pay-per-view results.
- Wrestling Observer/Figure 4 Weekly – The newsletter released by Dave Meltzer; reliable for results and historical information but not to be used to source speculation and rumors
- Mainstream
Other websites (not yet proven)
- Use with caution, mainly for uncontroversial claims such as the attendance of the event, as these sites do not have proven fact checking.
- 411mania – This site has reports on many PPV and weekly events (dating back to mid-2000), as well as numerous columns.
- CageMatch This site has an extensive list of wrestling events and matches which a wrestler has wrestled, which can be filtered by ring name / promotion / year or whether it occurred on or TV/PPV.
- Classic Wrestling Articles – This source provides articles from newspapers and magazines dating from 1852, but since it is a blog, it is recommended not to directly cite it, but instead use it to find the original articles to cite from.
- Diva Dirt – This source provides niche coverage on the more obscure aspects of women's wrestling. Although its writers lack prestige, few reliable sources listed above provide its niche coverage (women's independent wrestling, TNA Xplosion, DVD reviews and interviews). However, if any information is able to be sourced by the reliable sources listed above, use them over Diva Dirt.
- Internet Wrestling Database – Only reliable for match results, and not for other BLP information. Has results for various wrestling promotions in the world, including WWF/E, NWA, WCW, ECW, TNA, ROH, NJPW, AJPW and NOAH.
- Online Onslaught – This source has detailed results of every WWE/F PPV, along with results of Raw, SmackDown, Heat and Velocity.
- The History of WWE – This source has results of every single WWE, WCW and ECW program. Has full-detailed results of some shows and matches.
- Online World of Wrestling – Has profiles on thousands of wrestlers, as well as results of mainly every promotion in the world
- Pro Wrestling History – This site list results of matches, pay-per-views, tournaments, history of promotions, buyrates, and attendance for events.
- Solie – This site has exhaustive listings of title histories
- WrestlingData – Largest database of wrestlers and results on the web, extensively cross-referenced.
Unreliable sources
- Avoid using these sources.
- Authors
- Websites
These are some examples of unreliable sources that should be avoided when writing articles. They report rumors, speculation, and have no reliable sourcing (where they get their information from).
General websites
- Archive.org – The Wayback Machine is a great way to find information by a reliable source that may have been removed by the promotion, but can be found using the archive of the internet. This website can also be used to archive websites.
- Find Articles – This is not related to wrestling in any way, but typing in the event you're working on in the search box may come up with some very good results.
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