Rezy
Rezy is the term used for Gylian professional wrestling. Since its introduction to Gylias, it has developed into a unique form of the genre.
Rezy incorporates influences from Miranian martial arts, Akashian puroresu, Megelanese folk wrestling, and Cacertian erotic wrestling. It is characterised by theatrics, colourful characters, agility, and high discipline. The emphasis is on entertainment rather than violence.
Developed during the Golden Revolution, rezy has attained notable success as a distinctively Gylian variation of an existing sport. It is a popular sport in Gylias and enjoys notable public familiarity, both reflecting and having a degree of influence on Gylian culture.
Terminology
The term is abbreviated from rezlyn, the Gylic transcription of "wrestling". Wrestlers are known as rezloi (the plural Gylic koine term, singular rezlyá), or rezlistes (the Francised term, singular rezliste).
The character types portrayed by rezloi, prota and anta, are abbreviated from the Hellene terms protagonistés (πʀοταγοɴιςτές) and antagonistés (αɴταγοɴιςτές).
History
Folk wrestling has been practiced among Gylic peoples since antiquity, with Hellene Gylians making a notable contribution to its development through Hellenic wrestling and the ideal of kalos kagathos.
Cultural contact through Kirisaki later introduced martial arts to Gylias, providing an important element for the subsequent emergence of rezy.
During the Free Territories, rezy was mostly a regional phenomenon. Various scenes developed with their own characteristics, incorporating different influences. It spread during the Liberation War, being easy to get into and requiring little equipment. The war also drove the shift in emphasis away from fights and towards entertainment first.
Rezy was codified and organised after the war, yielding its well-known ritualised good sporting conduct. The growth of the Gylian media and television significantly increased its popularity.
The sport's first breakout stars were Irène LeRoi and Remi Ďana. They became the most popular rezloi in Gylias, and their legendary rivalry helped both turn rezy into a national pop culture phenomenon and shape the sport's contemporary incarnation.
Organisation
Rezy is governed and organised by the Gylian Rezy Federation, which is part of the Gylian Sports Confederation.
As a competitive contact sport, all rezy matches are legally obligated to employ medical professionals standing by.
As with other Gylian sports, rezy promotions are all independent cooperatives with an amateur or semi-professional character.
Rules
Rezy is a hybrid of full contact and semi-contact sport. Strikes and physical force are allowed, but there are limits on their application, and the norm is to simulate full-power techniques.
Certain holds, moves, and strikes are illegal due to risk of injury.
Grounds for disqualification include using illegal moves, weapons, committing fouls (particularly hitting opponents in forbidden areas such as the groin), using outside interference, and attacking the referee.
Using the ropes for leverage is illegal. If a rezliste is on the ropes, their opponent must release any holds and cannot pin them.
Matches can be won by pinning the opponent to the mat for a count of three, making them submit, failure to return to the ring by a count of ten, or by disqualification. The latter risks incurring a stigma for breaking the rules and spirit of the sport.
Characteristics
Rezloi portray characters in the ring, and customarily adopt colourful identities and flamboyant gimmicks. Irène LeRoi and Remi Ďana set a precedent for use of extravagant or formal outfits during matches. The use of outfits also allows rezloi to wear protective gear underneath them, to defend from injury.
The two character types of rezy, prota and anta, correspond to the role of hero and adversary. A prota is portrayed as an upstanding and virtuous character, conforming to a romantic ideal of honourable fighter. By contrast, an anta is portrayed as "wicked" and larger than life, generally arrogant and convinced of their superiority.
The sport adheres to a notion of code of honour and fair play, and the referee accordingly has a significant role in matches. Accordingly, antas limit themselves to attempts to cunningly bend the rules instead of breaking them.
A significant degree of advance planning and staging occurs in rezy matches, with rezloi cooperating beforehand on choreography and broad structure with the aim of entertaining the audience. The result is rezy's characteristic tension between its combat elements and theatrical adherence to strict discipline. Many rezloi cooperate not just on staging but devise theatrics and banter between their characters.
Arguably the inventor of the modern anta archetype, Remi Ďana observed that it is a more demanding role than a prota: anta must make their audience enjoy disliking them, without crossing the line into being perceived as "evil" and actually hated. The standard means to do so is by cultivating a flamboyant image and a persona of witty self-confidence bordering on arrogance, seemingly impervious to insults or jeers, so that the audience favours the prota whose victory is more satisfying.
The storytelling of rezy is a prime example of Gylian culture's wicked–evil distinction and adversary–enemy distinction. Complementing the ritualistic fair play element are elements drawn from the spiritual dimensions of martial arts.
Protas and antas are generally portrayed as evenly skilled, with the antas applying the discipline and skills gained from their training to "wicked" ends. Both employ formal styles with complex, spectacular, and athletic moves, rather than straightforward brawling. Often, antas are depicted as actually superior in skill to the protas, but undone by the flaw of vanity, pausing or letting their guard down to boast about impending victory and thus leaving openings for the protas to exploit.
Rezloi maintain strict separation between the ring and their private lives. They do not appear out of character outside of matches, match-related broadcasts, or guest appearances as themselves. Some rezloi have embraced the contrast between their rezy personas and more prosaic day jobs as a source of humour.
In popular culture
Rezy is nationally popular in Gylias, and there is wide public familiarity outside of its core audience. It is a notable expression of the wicked–evil distinction and adversary–enemy distinction in Gylian culture.
It is common for Gylian martial artists and other contact sport practitioners to use rezy as a way to keep fit and practice without having to worry about injuries. Roller derby has a notably strong relationship with rezy, the two sports sharing a colourful and theatrical aesthetic.
Several commentators describe rezy as part of a Gylian tendency to attempt to devise healthy outlets for socially troublesome impulses, similar to crime fiction instead of actual crime.
The character of rezy reflects Gylian preferences towards athletic and graceful fight choreography, and has influenced Gylian action and martial arts cinema such as Chikageki and Dreamwave Productions films. Its aesthetics have also helped shape Gylianime, leading to jocular comparisons between rezy and anime fight scenes.
The success of Marie-Agnès Delaunay's persona as a caricature of a media proprietor at 5 is based on her embodiment of an anta-like image with "wicked" traits.