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IDENTITY, MASCULINITY, AND THE ACT OF VIOLENCE IN PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING
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R. TYSON SMITH
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FIGHTING FOR
RECOGNITION
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FIGHTING FOR
RECOGNITION IDENTITY, MASCULINITY, AND THE ACT OF VIOLENCE IN PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING
R. TYSON SMITH This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
.—dc Frontispiece photo copyright Mark Stehle Photography
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Cover photo by R. yson Smith Accept All
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO ALL OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO FEEL COMPELLED TO FIGHT FOR RECOGNITION. WHETHER YOU ARE AN INDIE WRESTLER, VETERAN, INCARCERATED PERSON, OR ACADEMIC, MAY YOU FIND IT AS PAINLESSLY AS POSSIBLE.
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PROLOGUE
ix
xiii
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: Te Indies CHAPTER 2: Fighting
or a Pop: Wrestler Recognition
CHAPTER 3: Passion Work: Te Coordinated
Production o Emotional Labor
CHAPTER 4: “In Real Lie I’m a otal Homophobe”:
Wrestlers Managing the Male Gaze CHAPTER 5: Pain in This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and oremost, I thank all o the wrestlers who shared their lives with me. I am truly grateul or their openness, vital vitality ity,, and passion. I hope that they appreciate this work despite my critical stance. st ance. Afer the wrestlers, there is no one I thank more than Justine Stehle. She supported me in countless ways or what elt like a countless number o years. She’ She’s one o the sharpest and most oc ocused used in the bunch, and her insights were invaluable. Tank you, Justine, or always keeping things in perspective and or reveling in the wrestling world (almost as much as I did). Michael Schwartz changed my relationship to sociology and, subsequently,, lie itsel. I cannot quently c annot thank him enough or always believing in me. I have never known anyone as accomplished, influential, and skilled as he is (nor so lacking in the unortunate pretenses that ofen accompany these qualities). Tank you, Michael, or being a loving, atherly riend. I
hope day to be able to offer my students the devotion, wisdom, and This website stores data one such as cookies to enablelove essential thatsite you give yours. functionality, as well as marketing, No oneYou has done as much to help me bring this book b ook through to compersonalization, and analytics. may change your settings at any time pletion as Javier Auyero. Tank you, Javier, or being so attentive, so thoror accept the default settings.
ough, and so damn quick to write back—and or letting me take ull adyour great mind! You You have been the epitome epitome o reliability. reliability. You You Privacy Policy vantage o your inspired me to do ethnography and always to work harder and go urther. Marketing I’m very grateul or your mentorship and antastic energy. I I produce Personalization even a quarter o the high-quality high-quality scholarship you produce, I will consider Analytics mysel an academic success. Not sure what you run on (other than maté), Save but IAccept wantAll some. Tank you, too, to Michael Kimmel or his important
political work in this area. He loved the idea o this project, and the time and effort he gave to hypothesis and discussion are deeply appreciated. When I elt overwhelmed, he was great at getting me back on course with ideas, strategies, and enthusiasm. Tanks, too, to Bernard Stehle, who has read more o this book than anyone, or his love and support. Let’s continue to “discuss,” Bernard. I eel very grateul to have you in my personal and academic corner—but please resist the urge to read this book bo ok or errors! Tank you, Lucia rimbur, or all your openness and generosity. I appreciate our riendship tremendously, and I have great respect or your mind—one o the sharpest around. My colleagues Colin Jerolmack and David Grazian played a huge role in this book’ book’ss development. I am truly grateul or their time and insights. Teir close readings and supportive critiques improved the book immensely,, and I hope they are pleased with the outcome. mensely Te book also benefited rom the close readings o a gang o ellow ethnographers, including Jooyoung Lee, Erin O’Connor, Harel Shapira, and Iddo avory. Tey all know the challenges and wonders o ethnography, and I enjoyed our conversations. conversations. I am also grateul to a group o scholars affiliated with the Rutgers University Institute or Health: Owen Whooley, Kenneth MacLeish, Azure Tompson, Igda Martinez, Jason Rodriquez, and Zoe Wool. It was great being ellows together. Wanda Vega, Peg Polanski, Joan Picard, Pat Bremer, and Sharon Worksman all helped me over the past ew years in administrative, red-tapered-tape-cutting cutting ways. Many thanks to them all. al l. Suzanne Nichols at Russell Sage Foundation has been awesome. Tanks or your help, Suzanne. I am very grateul or the New Faculty Fellowship rom the American
This website stores data sucho as Learned Societies. Its generosity gave me the time and reCouncil cookies to enable essential site sources to finish this book. I also thank Social Psychology Quarterly , Qualfunctionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You y , and Contexts itative itat ive Sociology Sociolog Contexts or or publishing parts o this research, giving may change your settings at any time permission or accept the default settings. to publish it here, or both.
Tank you to various colleagues related to Rutgers University: Allan Privacy Policy Horwitz, David Mechanic, Debby Carr, Joanna Kempner, Chip Clarke, Pat Roos, Karen Cerulo, and Phaedra Daipha. All helped this Marketing Arlene Stein, Pat project in one way or another, and I am very appreciative. Personalization Readings by several other colleagues benefited the book: Matt GutAnalytics mann, Phil Brown, Gary Allan Fine, Jack Katz, Michael Kennedy, Don Save
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x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Levine, Douglas Hartmann, and David Gibson. I’m thankul or their insights and scholarly support. Several colleagues at Brown lent support: Lundy Braun, Greg Elliot, Margot Jackson, Nitsan Chorev, Josh Pacewicz, Dennis Hogan, Karida Johnson, Kristen Soule, Michael Kennedy, and the Contested Illness Research Group members—Alissa members—Alis sa Cordner, Meghan Kallman, ania ania Jenkins, Bindu Panikkar, Panikkar, Stephanie Malin, David Ciplet, Mercedes Lyson, and Liz Hoover. Tey’ve all been generous, wise, and kind. Working with them has been great un. Tanks to Naomi Rosenthal or her eedback, time, ideas, humor— and her oranges and sandwiches, too. Tanks to Valerie Milholland and Miriam Angress; their prompt, thoughtul replies always put me at ease and helped turn pages o text into an attractive book. A number o wrestlers were especially especi ally helpul over the years years:: Nick Dealy, Mark Rattelle, John Cursie, Luis Campos, Lou Savage, Rob Rampino, and . J. Sitrin. I appreciate their time and assistance with my research. In no particular order, I also thank various riends and mentors who have been supportive in one way or another on this journey: Susan Finch, Amy Steinbugler, Diane Barthel-Bouchier, Barthel-Bouchier, Eran Shor, Anna Sher, Amy raver, Dick Smith, Barsha Lloyd, Erik Love, Helene Lee, Matt Mahler, Dawn Weist, Weist, Mar Maryy Hopkins, Staci Newm Newmar ar,, Eva Stehle, Sarah Lipton Lipton,, Barbara Dundon, Nancy omes, Dana Valentine, Shelley Smith, Miles Smith, odd Sarandos, Jed Melnick, Nicole Pittman, Sam Briger, Gala rue, and Doc Hopkins. Austin Kelley Kelley and Brian Schwartz are close riends (and great writers) who know a hell o a lot about sports and culture. I thank them or demonstrating This website stores data such ashow to strike a healthy balance between sports criticism and Tanks to Mark Stehle or sharing some o his photos or this cookies to enableandom. essential site functionality, as well as marketing, book. Mark Mark’’s photographic skil skills ls are first-rate. first-rate. personalization, and analytics. You Big,atloving thanks to Teo and Laszlo. L aszlo. You You guys were very patient as I may change your settings any time or accept the default settings. fiddled away at a book bo ok that surely had way too many “alse finishes.” Last, thank you, Mom. More than anyone, you inspired my work in sociology Privacy Policy and my commitment to reducing inequality. I am eternally grateul, and Marketing I miss you every day. Personalization Analytics Save
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xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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PROLOGUE
THE MAIN EVENT: FEBRUARY 2004
At about a lanky, lanky, nondescript white guy in his early twenties, wearing a slightly oversized black suit and tie, makes his way to the center o the ring, holding a microphone in his right hand and a white index card in his lef. “Ladies and Gentlemen!” he begins. “Te moment you’ you’ve ve been waiting or—tonight’s main event. Te Interstate Championship . . . introducing, rom Hollywood, Caliornia . . . weighing in at pounds . . . ony . . . Lethal!” As the emcee finishes intoning the last syllable, a loud riff rom the heavy metal band Anthrax blares rom a tinny system. White smoke pours out rom behind a thin polyester black curtain that separates the wrestlers’ backstage area rom the audience. Hearing the first ew chords o Lethal’s signature music, the wide-eyed wide-eyed eight-yeareight-year-old old boy sitting next This website stores data such as to me yelps, “It’s Lethal!” Letha l!” Tree seconds sec onds later, a twentytwenty-twotwo-yearyear-old old white cookies to enable essential site male, arms raised, steps out rom behind the curtain. cur tain. Adopting a stance o functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You stoic assurance, he slowly surveys the crowd c rowd o about two hundred people. may change your settings at any time Hissettings. entrance music drowns out the scattered cheers or him. or accept the default ′
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At and and about pounds, Lethal is large but not so imposing that Privacy Policy he would turn heads. He has an angular ace ac e and short, short , blonde- spiked d ark Marketing hair that was dampened just moments beore. He wears a black and dark blue polyester wrestling singlet, black lace-up wrestling boots, and a pair Personalization al most a skip, in his step, he makes his Analytics o black kneepads. With a bounce, almost way around the ring counterclockwise, high-fiving high-fiving the young ans who Save Accept All have extended their arms over the metal railings separating the crowd rom the perorming perormin g space. He reciprocates this show o appreciation with
a slight smile that conveys to the ans that he is their guy, guy, a ace they can appreciate, i they don’t already. Afer completing one circuit o the ring, he slides headfirst under the bottom rope beore the emcee begins introducing Southern Bad Boy, Lethal’s opponent. Bad Boy, a twenty-threetwenty-three-yearyear-old old white man whose home town is “the South,” appears in ront ront o the curtains; he holds his signature torn Conederate flag on a short stick and wears a bandana with the same Dixie pattern. Bad Boy has a sof, round ace and wears long cutoff c utoff jean shorts, red lace-up boots, and a white -shirt. He stands about and and weighs pounds. He sneers at the crowd while, ironically, the heavy bass o commercial hip- hop plays. Despite D espite his clear disdain or the ans, ans, a ew kids still extend their undiscerning arms over the flimsy rails to catch a hand slap rom him. As he circles c ircles the ring, he waves his Conederate C onederate flag and rebuffs the young ans seeking a high five. Afer tossing the short flagpole into the ring, he hops onto the ring apron that edges the mat, about halway between the corner ring posts. Placing both his hands on the top rope, he uses the tension to vault into the ring. A ew dozen ans boo or hiss as he stomps to one corner post and climbs up. With eet apart on the middle rope, he spreads his arms wide. He nods smugly, smugly, slowly scans the audience, and wiggles the tips o his fingers back and orth as i to say, say, “Who’s the man? . . . Look at me!” A young emale spectator cups her hands around her mouth and shouts, “Go back to the South!” Bad Boy replies, “You shut your mouth!” Another woman jumps up and snaps a photograph. He looks at her, flexes his modest biceps, and yells, “Hope you got a wide-angle wide-angle lens on that camera!” A thirty-fivethirty-five-yearyear-old old man, who is sitting with a emale companion ′
″
This website stores data such as a ten-yeartenold boy, yells, “Y “You ou suck, Bad B ad Boy!” Bad Boy B oy retorts, “Yeah? “Yeah? cookies to enableand essential siteyear-old functionality, as well as marketing, Well, you swallow!” A man with a darker complexion, perhaps a Latino, personalization, and analytics. You won the war anyway?” may change your yells, settings“Who at any time or accept the default settings. onight’s main event is the culmination o a wrestling show held in the
gym o a ormer elementary sschool chool about an hour outside New York York City City.. Privacy Policy I have driven rom the city, passing through a handul o lower-middlelower-middleMarketing class white residential neighborhoods that eature cul-decul-de-sacs, sacs, Watch or Personalization Children street signs, and common suburban detritus—plastic toys, street Analytics hockey nets, and movable basketball stands. As I approach the final turn ontoAccept Deorest Save All Avenue, a brightly lit Community Center sign can be seen on the roo o the large, late-slate-s-designed designed building.
xiv PROLOGUE
′
′
Te ring sits in the middle o the x gymnasium, dimly lit by our florescent lights on the ceiling. Te ans in attendance vary in age and race; nearly a third are emale. Many young boys o ten or so have come with a amily member. Standing in various places, a dozen spectators with handheld video cameras and phones capture ootage o the show. show. A crowd o two dozen guys in their late teens sit with their girlriends. girl riends. Roughly ten younger boy and girl ans thrust upward handmade signs that say things like “Knock him out, Lethal!” in support o their avorite wrestler wrestler.. Around seven minutes into the title match between ony Lethal and Bad Boy, their brawl spills outside the building, and the perormers leave the gymnasium altogether. Fifeen eager spectators ollow them. Te wrestlers and these diehards all awkwardly reenter reenter a minute later through doors on the building’s other side. Te entire gym is now standing as the mayhem continues. Soon thereafer, thereafer, they resume their duel within the ring. L Lethal ethal is standing, though orehead is bleeding blow to his head with a old-up metal chair.his Bad Boy, who has justrom beena clotheslined by Lethal, is now lying ace down in the center o the ring, next to the dented chair that Bad Boy used to bash Lethal’s head. Bad Boy’s right leg is twitching slightly, but otherwise he lies motionless. Te ans on the ar side o the gym start to chant, “able! . . . able! . . . able!” Te chant spreads across the gym. With Wi th Bad B Boy oy incapacitated, Lethal climbs out o the ring and reaches underneath its near side. He pulls out a brown wooden x old-up table, yanks its legs down, and sets it on the floor alongside the ring. He then rolls back into the ring beneath the bottom rope. Standing up, he circles the ring while thrusting his arms in the air and stomping his eet to the This website stores data such as ′
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cookies to enablebeat essential site thunderous chanting o his name. o the functionality, as well as marketing, Meanwhile, personalization, and analytics. You Bad Boy has slowly come back to lie and is now on all may change your ours settingsin at any thetime center o the ring. He gets to his eet but remains slumped or accept the default settings.
over and drooping. Lethal strides toward Bad Boy B oy and, gripping him like a heavy bag o garbage, hoists him onto his shoulders. Te grimace on Privacy Policy his ace and slight wobble in his legs show he’s straining, but he is buoyed Marketing by his ans, who are now on their eet. Te “able!” chant has become a Personalization deaening roar. aking a little hop, Lethal repositions Bad Boy’s crumpled Analytics body so that it is now centered across his back. Pausing or a ew seconds Save Accept All beore screaming out a “Rah!!” he takes our large steps toward the near side o the ring and flings Bad Boy off his back, over the third rope, and
xv PROLOGUE
out o the ring. Bad Boy’ B oy’ss body drops eight eet and crashes onto the cenc enter o the old-up table, breaking it in hal. Bad Boy lies in a etal position at the eet o the nearside ans. Tere is a split second o hushed silence beore the ans start chanting, “Ho-ly “Ho-ly shit! Ho-ly Ho-ly shit! Ho-ly Ho-ly shit!” Looking down on the body o Southern Bad Boy, Lethal thrusts a metal chair in the air amid the t he wild roar o the t he crowd chanting his name.
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xvi PROLOGUE
INTRODUCTION
[I’ve got a] pinched nerve in my neck, several broken fingers, broken wrist. I have never seen the doctor about injuries in my knees, but they’re wearing down. I use to wear just pads, then went to knee pads, knee braces, and now it’s knee pads and k knee nee braces with tthe he springs in the sides. Eventually I’ll be moving up to hinges, I can oresee it already. I limp to work a lot o days. When it rains, it’ it’ss hard to get up. And or a young guy, that’ that’ss not something you hear. I have arthritis, torn rotator cuffs. TWENTY-EIGHT-YEAR—FISHMAN, TWENTY-EIGHTYEAR-OLD OLD INDIE WRESTLER
Your lie literal literally ly does a one- eighty, every everything thing tot totally ally and an d completely changes, and everything’s about wrestling. I mean, everything . —DONNY, TWENTY-THREEYEAR-OLD OLD INDIE WRESTLER TWENTY-THREE-YEAR-
I would rather be struggling to pay my bills wrestling two or three times
This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well asamarketing, month on the weekends, ew times a week during practice. Tat’s what makes me personalization, and analytics. You happy. You know? Tat’s what it comes down to. Tere’s very may change your settings any time ewatthings that make me eel like I do when I walk out [through] that red or accept the default settings.
curtain.
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—TONY, TWENTYTWENTY-TWOTWO-YEARYEAR-OLD OLD INDIE WRESTLER
Proessional wrestling is physical theater where spectators pay to Personalizationbe entertained by perormers who act out a fight. Te shows, esAnalytics pecially those produced by the most profitable company, World Wrestling Entertainment Corporation (), have made pro Save Accept All wrestling among the most watched sports in the United States,
capturing roughly million American television viewers every week.
Tis book, instead o analyzing why ans love pro wrestling or how the violent spectacle affects viewers, ocuses on the perormers who generate the spectacle. It ollows independent (“indie”) pro wrestlers—young wrestlers—young men like Fishman, Donny, and ony—or whom wrestling has become everything . It explains why this violent perormance is compelling and what it reveals about how young working-class working-class men understand their relationships, bodies, and identities as men. men. Independent wrestling is community-based community-based entertainment produced or local crowds at community centers, high school gyms, and similar modest venues. Although a orm o show business, these events are lowbudget. Tey involve neither television nor lucrative contracts—most indie wrestlers receive little to no pay or perorming. Like its highly profitable and televised counterpart, indie wrestling is a spectacle where perormers act out a hyperbolic fight. Te shows, typically produced every our to six weeks, are unded by ticket sales and advertising rom local businesses. From the standpoint o the perormers, the objective is not winning per se but winning the crowd over with a great story. As with certain other cultural phenomena—obviously theater (including such a refined orm as opera) but even certain sports—a contest’s outcome is predetermined. As vengeul, virtuous, or ribald characters, wrestlers physically settle the score with other perormers. Using Using ageage-old old narratives involving villainy,, jealousy, and justice, the contests embody stereotypes, that con villainy nection with simplification we ofen seek in stories. Despite this connective narrative and the sport’s immense popularity, proessional wrestling This website stores data such as cookies to enableis essential site or its violence, proanity sc orned scorned proanity,, and most significantly, akery. akery. functionality, as well as marketing, Indeed, akery is a dominant concern o pro wrestling’s analysts and personalization, and analytics. You may change your detractors. settings at any Troughout time this book I address the akery, but it is my beor accept the default settings. lie that the akery fixation fix ation distracts rom other important meanings. Besides, it is hardly unique. Fakery is part o numerous orms o our social Privacy Policy lie—entertainment, lie—entertainmen t, pleasures, cultural events, and everyday interactions. Marketing Whether consumed through a medium as ubiquitous as religion or as exPersonalization otic as opera, stories and encounters that help or allow us to suspend disAnalytics belie are what people crave. In opera, knowing the t he outcome is not central Save All to itsAccept interpretation as a cultural phenomenon. Contrary to wrestling, an opera’s outcome is never the ocus o critics or spectators. I contend that
goes beyond orm and content to consider the effect : What, i anything, makes the story resonate? How does it transport you out o everyday lie? Te fixation on akeness largely stems rom the act that the show is premised as a competitive sport. Sports compose a highly cherished sphere, with reverence reaching almost epic proportions. In US culture it is perceived as offering character building, authentic talent, and virtuous sacrifice. It is a presumptively meritocratic space, where hard work, talent, and skill allow the best to prevail; any evidence suggesting otherwise threatens the larger national narrative o individualism, hard work, and even upward mobility—the American Dream. Tus, when raudulence or akery in sports is uncovered—be it rom doping, corrupt officials, rule changes, colluding coaches, point shaving, or very unevenly matched teams—a public outcry usually ensues. Yet how, when, and why we heighten or lessen scrutiny o wrestling (or any other sport) is more important than akery, as ar as I am concerned. Even despite the akery, a kery, as Fishman’s litany o injuries (quoted above) makes clear, this “most lowbrow o activities” is intensely physical and ofen dangerous. Te pursuit batters perormers’ bodies, strains their personal relationships, jeopardizes their day jobs, subjects them to ridicule, and provides virtually no financial gain. So why do these young men choose to wrestle, and what sustains the appeal in the ace o so many costs? o answer this question, I spent more than two years (–) (–) conducting participant-observation participant-observation research among indie pro wrestlers associated This website stores data suchwith as the Rage Proessional Wrestling School, located in a New cookies to enable essential site Y ork City C ity s suburb. uburb. I wove mysel into the abric o the group by attending functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics.and You shows, talking with wrestlers ringside, giving them rides practices may change your settings at any time beore and afer events, running small errands (getting drinks or bringor accept the default settings. ing ice or injuries), taking and distributing photographs, and the like. As they practiced, most o my time was spent in the ringside training space Privacy Policy Marketing or behind the scenes, in the backstage space. On a show night, I was in the perormance space, alongside the other spectators, spect ators, or backstage in the Personalization Analytics locker rooms. I also conducted nineteen in-depth interviews. As the ollowing chapters reveal, the indie wrestling experience preSave All sentsAccept a set o contradictions. Te perormance celebrates combat, competition, and antagonism, yet the actual show is scripted and choreographed, choreographed,
making it, as already noted, more akin to theater or dance than to con3 INTRODUCTION
testation or conflict. Te story lines trumpet pain and suffering, yet the wrestlers organize their efforts around avoiding them. Aggressive dominance is the primary narrative, but protection, trust, and respect are the principles that guide the perormers perormers’’ relationships. Te show is perceived as hypermasculine and crude, but the backstage training involves learning and practicing maneuvers that may be airly described as effeminate, homoerotic, and intimate. While wrestlers strive to appear as big, nasty, brutes, real-lie real-lie success rarely derives rom body size or the inducement o terror. Perormers thrive on social recognition, but they dwell in an isolated world o derision and ridicule. Finally, although pro wrestling is show business, indie perormers receive no significant financial remuneration. Despite the contradictions within this unpaid or, at best, very poorly compensated world o raudulence and peril, young men orge, sustain, and affirm new identities. Much o what makes wrestling compelling to participants, even though it is an activity organized around entertaining ans, comes rom the endeavor’s pain, intimacy, and solidarity—and the recognition o ellow wrestlers as well as ans. Indie wrestling does not offer the uncontested, stable gendered identity that combat soldiers or pro ootball players acquire. Wrestlers flaunt and flex while “perorming” dominance and violence, but their act is raught with ridicule, injuries, and contentions that they are “gay.” Given these challenges and contradictions, why do Fishman, Mike, Donny, ony, and others like them so deeply immerse themselves in this world? This website stores data such as Te literature on the interrelationship o men’s bodies, physical labor, cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as identity marketing,has grown considerably in the last two decades. Unlike most and personalization, and analytics. You such ethnographic investigations, where dignity and virtue tend to derive may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings. rom discipline and hard work within a bona fide production, this book examines the experience o suburban men, mostly white and workingPrivacy Policy class, who reely choose a recreational pursuit that exacts tremendous fiMarketing nancial, bodily, and ofen career costs. For the most part, wrestlers do Personalization not ace bleak lie chances; they have not been backed into a corner by Analytics stubborn social structures, unemploymen unemployment, t, deplorable schools, or racism. While most are not likely to attain the same s ame prosperity and degree o class Save Accept All status their parents achieved, Rage School students and trainers, with ew exceptions, come rom backgrounds that are not riddled with street vio-
lence, homelessness, or the revolving door o the US criminal justice system. All but one o the study participants part icipants have some amily support, high 4 INTRODUCTION
school degrees, jobs, and a measure o white (and male) privilege. Tese biographical distinctions, combined with the unique attractions and costs o the wrestling practice itsel, distinguish this book rom earlier ethnographies o young men campaigning or respect. Indie wrestling ccaptiva aptivates, tes, nourishes, and punishes, but it is a voluntarily pursuit. Primarily this book examines why indie wrestlers are drawn to the pursuit, but its secondary ocus is an analysis o masculinity. A behind-thebehind- thescenes look at the production, risks, and rewards o wrestling reveals a metaphor or the everyday enactment o contemporary Western masculinity itsel. Wrestlers Wrestlers subject themselves to pain, risk, and violence or the rewards o solidarity, intimacy, recognition, and pleasure. Insights gleaned rom a backstage look at wrestling can allow us to better understand the dynamics o a variety o male perormances—be they behaviors o athletes, soldiers, men colluding while out on the town, or even proessors posturing among colleagues. ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK
o understand the world o indie wrestling, the book moves rom the onstage public perormance o the show—which includes an explanation o who indie wrestlers are and how their obscure world operates—to the backstage relations and interactions between wrestlers. As with most o social lie, the onstage perormance the audience experiences is dependent upon a backstage most cannot see or know. In the case o pro wrestling, there is a literal l iteral stage (ofen in the round) and a literal backstage. In This website stores data such as to these tangible spaces is a figurative backstage, which is concookies to enableaddition essential site functionality, as well as marketing, cealed—at least until there is a mistake. In this study, study, I report on all three personalization, and analytics. You may change your spheres settings ato anypro timewrestling’s wrestling’s production. My analysis moves rom tthe he stage, or accept the default settings. the public celebration o pro wrestling, to the less apparent backstage, where relations between wrestlers (and their ans, amily, and partners) Privacy Policy underpin the entire production. Marketing Chapter explains lesser-known lesser-known aspects o the world o indie wresPersonalization tling and who indie ind ie wrestlers are. Five individuals are profiled to provide Analytics a uller sense o who wrestles and what brings them to the mat. Te participants’ ticipants ’ intense attraction to wrestling is contextualized c ontextualized by the dearth o Save Accept All meaningul orms o community and recognition their larger social cir-
cumstances offer. offer. Despite affluence and a measure o continued opportunity, suburbia’s social problems in the first decade o the twenty- first century—alienation, under- or unemployment, ennui, poverty—requently 5 INTRODUCTION
overwhelmed even the rudiments o the promise o an idyllic existence. Indie participation became a means o redressing some o these shortcomings. Chapter turns to social recognition. Indie wrestlers strive or the thrill o experiencing violence without suffering the injury, trauma, or humiliation that it can readily entail. Recognition is undamental to the ormation o identity and a sense o sel. Wrestlers attain it with their bodies. An analysis o the rewards and perils o being on stage and at the mercy o an interactive crowd reveals the tools that help each participant recast personal narratives in the hoped-or hoped-or passage rom being a nobody to becoming a somebody. Wrestlers are recognized yet simultaneously ridiculed because, as critics and relatives complain, they participate in unpaid, raudulen raudulent, t, trashy entertainment. Teir quest or recognition comes in differen differentt orms; beyond the obvious sources—ans clapping, shouting, yelling, clamoring or autographs—are internal rewards. Tey find recognition or their technical skills, production acumen, and expertise with equipment and props. Some revel less in live cheers than in the more lasting recognition captured by videotape and photography. Tis chapter shows how, despite its subaltern status, indie wrestling becomes an all-encompassing all-encompassing devotion central to its participants’ participants’ identity. identity. Chapter looks at indie wrestlers’ actual bodily craf. I show how the men learn and execute what I call “passion work”—jointly perormed, highly physical work that amounts to a type o emotional labor. Fake violence, un like real vi violence, olence, is difficult di fficult to get right, and success suc cess reThis website stores data such not as unlike cookies to enable essential site quires a significant degree o collusion and communication. Te analysis
functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your o settings at any time techniques reveals wrestlers to elicit a particular eeling rom theirhow audience and work rom collaboratively rom one another. Most understandor accept the default settings.
ings o emotional labor dwell on its alienating and negative effects, but I demonstrate that within their high-risk high-risk setting, wrestlers’ passion work Privacy Policy generates a meaningul by-product, one neither tangible nor financial Marketing but social. A latent product o this violence, ironically enough, is a eelPersonalization ing o mutual trust and solidarity. As the “fight” requires highly skilled Analytics coordination and a measure o empathy or and rom an opponent, the Save All menAccept develop an unstated intimacy intimac y built upon empathy, empathy, trust, and protection o each other.
Chapter ocuses on what pro wrestling tells about the attractions, ambivalences, and pitalls o “doing masculinity.” Wrestling’s pugilistic
6 INTRODUCTION
and athletic associations are what initially draw most participants to it. Once they begin training and practicing, however, however, participants learn that pro wrestling is riddled with intimate touching, tanning, and ridicule. In pro wrestling’s backstage, literally and figuratively, we see the dynamics o masculinity’s act.and In act thisasspace, andculture ready themselves to look men. wrestlers Backstagecooperate, is rie withprimp, what our deems effeminate acts—intimate, homoerotic, vain, and choreographed behavior. Tis chapter shows how acting the part o a burly “man” is, counterintuitively, nuanced, delicate, highly sel-conscious, sel-conscious, and collaborative. I examine men’s simultaneous ear o other men and strong desire or their approval and detail how recasting understandings o their behavior reconciles this paradox. Participants develop an understanding o masculinity through achievements marked by duress, status, dominance, solidarity,, and proessionalism. solidarity proessionalism. Chapter details how pain is undamental to indie wrestling even though perormers strategically avoid pain and injury and explores how wrestlers’ interactions shape the ways they interpret the pain they avoid, inflict, and suffer. Pain Pain is part o both the punishment and the reward or those who devote their lives to this gritty, physically perilous, and poorly understood enterprise. By enduring suffering and making sacrifices or one another, pain acquires an attraction, a substantive meaning encompassing sel-realization, sel-realization, status, and solidarity. solidarity. I conclude by summarizing the book’s connection to masculinity and This website stores data suchTe as contradictory behaviors o wrestlers allow us to see the paridentity. cookies to enable essential site adoxical aspects o contemporary masculinity. Wrestlers’ behaviors, like functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time many other groups’, inherently depend upon a or accept the default settings. that contrast with the hypermasculine ideals
set o backstage relations the more public display flaunts and celebrates. In this respect the interactions examined in this Privacy Policy book serve ser ve as a metaphor metaphor that speaks to dynamics well beyond the squared Marketing circle o the ring. Men in a variety o contexts present a acade o strength Personalization and invulnerability when in act collaboration, c ollaboration, vanity, vanity, sel- consciousness, Analytics and ear are in operation. Appendix A explains the origins o my interest in indie wrestling and Save Accept All is an analytical summary o my methodology. Te study is based on ethnographic research done rom through . Te sources include
observations and conversations conversations at more than twenty-five twenty-five public wrestling events and more than fify practice sessions, in-depth interviews with fi-
7 INTRODUCTION
teen core wrestling participants and three promoters (indie and ), and numerous participant observations o stage and backstage interactions among wrestlers at their practice site and public shows. Te data were gathered through notes, photographs, photographs, e-mails, and audio and video recordings. Appendix B is a list o the study’ study’ss participants.
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Privacy Policy Marketing Personalization Analytics Save
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8 INTRODUCTION
NOTES TO CHAPTER 00
. Te is a publicly traded US corporation with annual annual revenue exceeding million. Te company owns and produces over live wrestling shows per year along with numerous entertainmen entertainmentt products, which include television shows, video games, movies, action figures, books, smart phone applications, magazines, websites, s, music, and calendars. Te company airs programs in languages in more than countries (Schneiderman ; see also Wall Street Journal ). ). . It is no nott uncommon or or shows to be staged in the sam samee space that the wrestling school rents or training. .data In asuch typical one ne wrestler dominates dominates or three to This website stores as script sketched by the booker, o our minutes and then is crushed by the t he subordinate wrestler or a ew minutes, cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as atmarketing, which point the originally dominant opponent regains control, maintains it, personalization, and analytics. You and at wins may change your settings any the timematch. As wrestlers might say, babyace shines, heel cuts off babyor accept the default settings. ace, heel delivers heat, babyace has a hope spot, heel cuts him off, then a alse finish, and finally babyace wins. . In the s, these moral categories were muddled, even inverted inverted in cases, and Privacy Policy the ’s “attitude era” was indicative o such a state o affairs. Story lines in Marketing the s began to eature perormers (e.g., Stone Cold Steve Austin and New Personalization World Order) whose rude defiance was celebrated and became the basis or an Analytics support. Stone Cold Steve Austin was known or wearing a -shirt with “Fuck ear, drink Save Accept All beer” on it. Nicholas Sammond suggests that the ormer “popular entertainmentt that spanned class lines, llike entertainmen ike vaudeville and variety television, has [now] come back as a representation o working-class working-class rebellion specifically tied
to youth culture: a antasy o improp impropriety riety that adolescent boys are meant to use to thumb their noses at the imagined descendants o June Cleaver” (, ). . See La Pradelle on the con contrived trived nat nature ure o excha exchanges nges at F French rench Fa Farmers rmers Mark Markets, ets, Grazian on the way urban nightlie transports the consumer, and Benzecry on
how opera transports tr ansports the audience () ().. In Grazian Grazian’’s work, consumers find th that at it is in their best interest to suspend disbelie because it is “all the better to enjoy the excitement o urban glamour, no matter how contrived” (, ). Michele de La Pradelle ound in her work on French armers’ mark markets ets that shoppers and armers collectively “produce the illusion that they are practicing a bygone type o social interaction. . . . [Tey create] a happy enclave in a world o tension, an island o asylum where whims and ancies may be indulged, in a universe o glum rationality” (, ). . New York Times columnist Times columnist Neil Genzlinger classifies indie pro wrestling as “most lowbrow” in his review o Slap Happy (). (). . Rage is a pseudonym, as are all the names o participan participants ts and school affiliates. Te design and methodology o the study are described in detail in appendix A. . “Pro “Proessional essional wrestling is at once like lie and like a lot o other things, theater and academic included: real and ake, spontaneous and rehearsed, genuinely elt and staged or effect, prodigious and reductive, prooundly transgressive and essentially conservative” conservative” (Mazer , ). Likewise, Matthew Gutmann, in his study o male identities in Mexico City City,, traces different catego categories ries o masculinity that are constantly renegotiated; in male identities there are “ambiguity, conusion, and contradiction,” all o which are characterized by inconsistency (). . O course, even these more icon iconically ically masculine identities are are never ully stable and are ofen raught with contradictions. See Aaron Belkin’s study o American military masculinity masculinity,, Bring Me Men, Men, or a great analysis o the gendered contradictions o soldiers in the US military (). . . Several exemplary ethnographies o recent ye years ars trace how workingworking-class class and working-poor workingpoor men cultivate identity, dignity, and meaning via occupational or This website stores data such as cultural practices. Investigations illuminate illuminate the resourceul ways that such men cookies to enable essential site find meaning and redemption in the ofen bleak US (and Mexican) postindusfunctionality, as well as marketing, trial landscape. Tey include studies o bodybuilders (Alan Klein ), drug personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time dealers (Philippe Bourgois ), Mexican men and athers (Gutmann ), or accept the default settings. boxers (Loïc Wacquant , Lucia rimbur ), gang members (Sudhir Venkatesh ), urban pigeon flyers (Jerolmack ), Minutemen at the US border Privacy Policy (Shapira ), and orest firefighter crews (Matthew Desmond ). Marketing . Sociology has contributed to an understanding o the ravages o the last thirty Personalizationyears o US penal policy. See Western , Devah Pager , Pettit and Western , Wacquant , and Goffman . Analytics Save
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.
. Te was ormerly known as the (W (World orld W Wrestling restling Federation), but