Generally, I think it is handled very similar to football. Most red shirt their first or second year. There is less flexibility and depth in some weight classes over others so sometimes a wrestler will be pressed into service because their is only 9.9 schollies (1 per starter) whereas in football you have 85 which is like 3/4 deep at each position. Sometimes it is an injury situation. Sometimes it is to separate wrestlers in the same weight class.

The one BIG difference is a wrestler can still practice in the room and wrestle unattached while redshirting. A football player can't play at all.