Sami Zayn, Professional Wrestling Studies Association

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

January 31, 2020December 20, 2017 by prowrestlingstudies_21lb3c

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?

January 31, 2020December 19, 2017 by prowrestlingstudies_21lb3c

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?

WWE’s Survivor Series Dialogic Recap: The Art of Interbrand Manipulation

January 31, 2020November 20, 2017 by prowrestlingstudies_21lb3c

By Garret Castleberry and Kristine Weglarz With Survivor Series headed to Houston, WWE once again experiments with the traditional team-up versus team-up formula. A couple of years ago, WWE completely abandoned the traditional four-on-four tag team format when the abrupt injury to WWE heel champion Seth Rollins led to a rushed together tournament designed to … Read more WWE’s Survivor Series Dialogic Recap: The Art of Interbrand Manipulation

The Co-Construction of Kayfabe

January 31, 2020May 27, 2017 by prowrestlingstudies_21lb3c

This blog post expands on the ideas of the co-construction of kayfabe, an idea I presented at the Popular Culture Association 2016 conference in Seattle. For this post, I reflect on a live wrestling event I attended in an attempt to define what my partner, Christopher Olson, and I mean by “convergent wrestling.”

The entire presentation can be heard on Soundcloud, but I will sum up the idea here to address a recent experience with a live wrestling event: AAW‘s “Take No Prisoners” on May 6th, 2016.

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