IT WAS A LIVING.

Back in the day, televised pro wrestling had the headliners generally building up to the paid confrontations with each other by winning bouts against journeyman performers.  Thus Nick Bockwickel might make short work of Kenny Jay, and Da Crusher would beat George Gadaske, and then each of the headliners would use the post-bout interview to fulminate against each other, or perhaps against the Vachon brothers or Black Jack Lanza or Vern Gagne, hyping an upcoming event at the old Milwaukee Auditorium or what have you.  Meanwhile, you might see the journeymen refereeing other bouts on other days.  Those journeymen had a classification, Job Man, which you could read about.  And yes, their job was to make the headliners look good by putting up a good fight and ultimately losing.