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Taking Back Today: Reconciling Subversiveness with Status Quo in Women’s Royal Rumble

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It began as anyone may have expected it would, with two solid workers from WWE’s women’s division, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch, getting the crowd hot for the first-ever women’s Royal Rumble. Both competitors are two of the most memorable women to ever step foot in a ring, with Banks as the biracial, purple-haired cousin … Read more Taking Back Today: Reconciling Subversiveness with Status Quo in Women’s Royal Rumble

A Softer, Wiser XFL?

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Vincent Kennedy McMahon has always aspired to take good ol’ “rasslin” and diffuse it into popular culture. Thinks of all the guest stars he has brought into the fold. He has always desired his product to be more than just a regional wrestling promotion and he always wanted to be bigger than just a wrestling … Read more A Softer, Wiser XFL?

Alpha Vs Omega

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Wrestle Kingdom 12 has come and gone, and New Japan Pro Wrestling picked up some new fans along the way.  This was largely due to interest in the Alpha Vs Omega dream match between Chris Jericho (Alpha) and Kenny Omega (Omega, obviously). The build for this match was beautifully done with the rivalry starting on … Read more Alpha Vs Omega

Wrestle Kingdom 12 Review

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Wrestle Kingdom is New Japan Pro Wrestling’s biggest event of the year, their “WrestleMania,” if you will (the similar name is surely no coincidence). Held every year on January 4 at the Tokyo Dome, the event dates back to a 1992 card headlined by New Japan legends Riki Choshu and Tatsumi Fujinami. In 2007, the … Read more Wrestle Kingdom 12 Review

AAW Windy City Classic XIII

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Before the dawn of 2018, AAW Pro Wrestling had one more show to put on. Every year, the Windy City Classic (WCC) is AAW’s crowning show. It is meant to be their WrestleMania. Their Wrestle Kingdom. Their top notch show with big matches. The first AAW show I ever went to was Windy City Classic … Read more AAW Windy City Classic XIII

Marketplace of Champions

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The people sitting near me in cheap(ish) seats in Boston’s TD Garden Sunday night for the 2017 Clash of Champions represented a cross-section of northeast WWE fans. I am a middle-aged academic who has been a wrestling fan on and off since childhood. I’ve been coming to the Garden to see wrestling since long before … Read more Marketplace of Champions

A League of One’s Own: South East Women Wrestlers

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South East Women Wrestlers (hereafter SEWW) are an artist collective in Athens, GA consisting of female and female-identified performers who seek to subvert patriarchy and the male gaze through spectacle and role play. Started in Summer 2017, SEWW has produced performance events — such as SumHERslam, Fall BRAwl, and HalloKWEENhavoc — as well an exhibit at the … Read more A League of One’s Own: South East Women Wrestlers

What the Audience Wants and What the Audience Gets: Clash of Champions and WWE’s Hindered 2017

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There is a popular meme within circles of the Internet Wrestling Community showing a still of Vince McMahon during the Stone Cold Podcast that aired on December 1st, 2014. Unlike most memes, this one’s humor is not placed in the image’s matching with a silly, unattributable quote, but in its attribution of a direct quote … Read more What the Audience Wants and What the Audience Gets: Clash of Champions and WWE’s Hindered 2017

Clash of Champions 2017: Jinder All the Way?

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Clash of Champions 2017 Review December 17, 2017 TD Gardens, Boston, MA Announcers Tom Phillips, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton US championship 3-way: Bobby Roode vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin (c) The build: This match was set up two weeks ago on SmackDown when Ziggler interfered in a match between Corbin and Roode. Roode returned … Read more Clash of Champions 2017: Jinder All the Way?

Theater of the Absurd: A Brief Hustle Retrospective

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Comic elements have featured regularly in Western pro wrestling for many decades. While presented seriously in its early decades (1890s-1930s), pro wrestling began increasingly featuring comedic angles or performers, perhaps first widely popularized by Gorgeous George, whose campy, prissy persona transgressed gender boundaries and expectations, infuriating most male and intriguing many, though certainly not all, … Read more Theater of the Absurd: A Brief Hustle Retrospective