It’s pretty broad. On the one hand, you’ve got a lot of 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation wrestlers, raised in the business which has a very straight, white, conservative leaning. The standard tropes being tired and old racist and sexist stereotypes.
On the other, you’ve got a lot of outsiders, minorities and (for want of a better term) freaks who have worked all over the world in different settings and cultures. It’s a really weird demographic when the two combine. You get a really diverse group of people who work in a high-pressure, physically and mentally grueling environment, where you are literally trusting your life to your opponent. Mix in the stress of travelling together for months at a time and never seeing much outside of the locker-room, the ring and the gym.
And this is before you factor in all the various egos in a business that attracts larger than life characters and the need to impress the booker and get reactions from the crowd. The dynamics are absolutely fascinating.
3 Likes
Agreed. I think that pro-wrestling is yet another phenomenon that needs some serious historical analysis. Maybe one day…
3 Likes
Yeah, me too. It was theatre for the culturally deprived. It was also one of my first ‘counter culture’ experiences as a kid.
2 Likes
Roland Barthes, “The World of Wrestling”:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wrestlin.html
Actually more of a semiotic analysis than a historical one. Good read anyway.
4 Likes
Ah yes, I’d forgotten about that essay from Mythologies! Thanks for reminding me. But yeah, a good historical look at pro wrestling would be great, wouldn’t it?
1 Like
Sure would. 
I’ll happily admit to bias, but it’s a very over-looked and misunderstood subject, but one that has a big part in the cultural landscape throughout history. Greco-Roman athletes, catch-wrestling and fairground booths, hell, even Abe Lincoln had a go. Names like Gotch, Hackenschmidt and Thesz were front-page news, the territory days, right up to modern Era.
And that’s before you scratch the surface and look behind the curtain or touch on women’s wrestling, which is in itself something worthy of several books.
A properly done historical overview would be an instant shut-up-and-take-my-money for me.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
