page_title: Professional wrestling
section_title: Tag rules
hierarchical_section_title: Professional wrestling / Rules / Tag rules
caption_attribution_description: Jeff Hardy performing a low dropkick on Umaga. Taken during the WWE Raw - Survivor Series Tour, at Rod La &amp; Triple H; the match was won by Triple H pinning Orton following a pedigree.
context_page_description: Professional wrestling is a form of theatrical performance wherein athletic performers portray prizefighters competing in matches with predetermined, scripted outcomes. It is based on classical and "catch" wrestling, with modern additions of striking attacks, acrobatics, feats of strength, fast-moving athleticism and occasionally, improvised weaponry. The performances are all planned to maximize the entertainment value to the audience, and reduce the chances of the performers suffering real-life injuries. Professional wrestling also liberally incorporates melodrama. Much like some of the real prizefighters they imitate, the characters in professional wrestling have large egos, flamboyant personalities, and turbulent interpersonal relationships. These personas are generally scripted, the same as the matches. Performances mainly take place in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing. In the modern age of televised entertainment, many additional "backstage" scenes are also recorded to supplement the drama in the ring.
context_section_description: In some team matches, only one entrant from each team may be designated as the "legal" or "active" wrestler at any given moment. Two wrestlers must make physical contact (typically palm-to-palm) to transfer this legal status. This is known as a "tag", with the participants "tagging out" and "tagging in". Typically the wrestler who is tagging out has a 5-second count to leave the ring, whereas the one tagging in can enter the ring at any time, resulting in heels legally double-teaming a face.
  The non-legal wrestlers must remain outside the ring or other legal area at all times (and avoid purposeful contact with the opposing wrestlers) or face reprimand from the referee. In most promotions, the wrestler to be tagged in must be touching the turnbuckle on his corner, or a cloth strap attached to the turnbuckle.
  Some multi-wrestler matches allow for a set number of legal wrestlers, and a legal wrestler may tag out to any other wrestler, regardless of team. In these matches, the tag need not be a mutual effort, and this results in active wrestlers being tagged out against their will, or non-legal wrestlers forced to enter the battle.
  Sometimes, poly-sided matches that pit every man for himself will incorporate tagging rules. Outside of kayfabe, this is done to give wrestlers a break from the action (as these matches tend to go on for long periods of time), and to make the action in the ring easier to choreograph. One of the most mainstream examples of this is the Four-Corner match, the most common type of match in the WWE before it was replaced with its equivalent Fatal Four-Way; four wrestlers, each for himself, fight in a match, but only two wrestlers can be in the match at any given time. The other two are positioned in the corner, and tags can be made between any two wrestlers.
  In a Texas Tornado Tag Team match, all the competitors are legal in the match, and tagging in and out is not necessary. All matches fought under hardcore rules (such as no disqualification, no holds barred, ladder match, etc.) are all contested under de facto Texas Tornado rules, since the lack of ability of a referee to issue a disqualification renders any tagging requirements moot.
  Regardless of rules of tagging, a wrestler cannot pin his or her own tag team partner, even if it is technically possible from the rules of the match (e.g. Texas Tornado rules, or a three-way tag team match). This is called the "Outlaw Rule" because the first team to attempt to use that (in an attempt to unfairly retain their tag team titles) was the New Age Outlaws.
caption: A tag team match in progress: Jeff Hardy kicks Umaga, while their respective partners, Triple H and Randy Orton, encourage them and reach for the tags
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