Professional Wrestling: Sport and Spectacle (Performance Studies Series) - Softcover

Mazer, Sharon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1578060214 ISBN 13: 9781578060214

Publisher: University Press of Mississippi, 1998

Synopsis

Professional wrestling is often seen as a suspect sport and marginal entertainment. It is also one of the most popular performance practices in the United States and around the world, drawing millions of spectators to live events and televised broadcasts. That its display of violence is at once simulated and actual is part of the appeal for the fans who debate performance choices with as much energy as they argue about their favorite wrestlers. Its ongoing scenarios and presentations of manly and not so-manly characters--from the flamboyantly feminine to the hypermasculine--simultaneously celebrate and critique, parody and affirm the American dream and the masculine ideal.

This book looks at the world of professional wrestling both from the fan's-eye-view high in the stands and from the ringside in the wrestlers' gym. It begins with a look at the way in which performances are constructed and sold to spectators, both on a local level and in the "big leagues" of the WWF and the WCW. A close-up view of a group of wrestlers as they work out, get their faces pushed to the mat as part of their initiation into the fraternity of the ring, and the dream of stardom follows. The second half of the book explores professional wrestling's carnivalesque presentation of masculinities ranging from the cute to the brute, as well as the way in which the performances of women wrestlers almost inevitably enter into the realm of pornographic. Finally, it explores the question of the "real" and the "fake" as the fans themselves confront it.

The game of wrestling may indeed be fixed, but no more so than the game of life. The real power may rest with the invisible money men, but at least in the arena, fans know the rules by which this particular game is played and are free to insist that the action meet their expectations.

About this title

About the Author

<b>Sharon Mazer</b> is professor of theatre and performance studies in Te Ara Poutama, the Faculty of Maori and Indigenous Development at Auckland University of Technology. She is author of <i>I Have Loved Me a Man: The Life and Times of Mika </i>and editor of <i>The Intricate Art of Actually Caring, and Other New Zealand Plays.</i>

From the Inside Flap

A provocative and personal study of professional wrestlers in training and in performance

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1578060214
• ISBN 13: 9781578060214
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 277