How Do WWE Decide Who Wins The Matches?

It has been an open secret for years that wrestling is a fixed sport.

While WWE admitted so in 1989, it was nearly a hundred years prior to that that fans and newspaper reporters began to question whether or not it was a real fight as advertised.

In the end it was admitted that the whole thing was rigged and that the winners of the match were decided prior to the fight taking place. But who decides who wins pro-wrestling matches? Do the WWE choose who wins their matches?

Do WWE Decide Who Wins Matches?

In the WWE, Triple H decides who wins the matches. The wrestling matches are predetermined, with the victor being decided before either man has made his way to the ring. The head of creative is the one who ultimately has the decision on who wins the fights in the WWE.

In previous years, Vince McMahon was the chairman of the WWE and the head of creative. He had a team of writers behind him, to help him craft storylines and decide what each character was going to do next.

This always led him up to a match between the wrestlers, the winning gaining some measure of victory, whether it be bragging rights, a championship belt or even shaving off the hair of their opponent.

Vince McMahon was ultimately the decider on who won the match, but he did have a booking committee during his times at the head of the WWE.

Throughout the Hulkamania Era to the Attitude Era, he had a select few close colleagues that would go to his house to help book the shows and decide the winners.

Over the years, former WWE employees like Pat Patterson, Jim Ross and Jim Cornette have all been part of the committee and have shaped the landscape of the WWE from beside McMahon’s pool.

The man who decides who wins the matches is called “The Booker”. This is also called “having the book” or “having the pen”, as they are the ones who book the wrestlers to perform in the shows and ultimately who would win.

Once the booker has decided who wins, it is up to the writers, agents and wrestlers themselves as to who will be the winners and the consequences of that victory.

The reason for a wrestler winning a wrestling match may vary. Usually they will be declared the winner, so they can go on to fight for a championship match, attempting to mimic real sports.

Other times, it will be to further a storyline. Winning matches consistently is called a push, and wrestlers can be pushed for a variety of reasons.

Selling lots of t-shirts, being popular online or having the office see something big in their future are all things the likes of Vince McMahon and Triple H may push somebody for.

Vince McMahon stepped down as head of creative and booker for WWE in 2022, when some very credible sexual misconduct allegations came out that forced his and the boards hand.

He was replaced by son in law and 14 time world champion Triple H, who is the new booker and decides the finishes the matches.

This article is about professional wrestling, the art form popularised by the WWE in modern times in the United States.

This is different to amateur wrestling, the combat sport that can be seen in the summer Olympic Games. While these are two sports, wrestlers have competed in both disciplines, such as former WWE Champion and Olympic Gold Medallist Kurt Angle.