Proletarian (Soviet Championship Wrestling)

In Soviet Championship Wrestling, a proliterian is a heroic or a "good guy" wrestler, booked (scripted) by the promotion with the aim of being cheered by fans. Traditionally, they wrestle within the rules and avoid cheating (in contrast to the villains who use illegal moves and call in additional wrestlers to do their work for them) while behaving positively towards the referee and the audience. The proliterian character is portrayed as a hero relative to the bourgeois wrestlers, who are analogous to villains. Not everything a proliterian wrestler does must be heroic: proliterian need only to be cheered by the audience to be effective characters.

The vast majority of Soviet wrestling storylines involving faces place a proliterian against a bourgeois, although more elaborate set-ups (such as two faces being manipulated by a nefarious outside party into fighting) often happen as well. In the world of Soviet wrestling, they are generally known for using moves requiring technical skill, particularly aerial maneuvers and wearing outfits using bright colors with positive associations (such as solid white) or that relate to the working class. This is contrasted with the villainous bourgeois that are generally known for being brawlers, using physical moves that emphasize brute strength or size while often having outfits akin to demons or other nasty characters, including dress codes.