10:40-11:00: “Mantaurs, Luchasaurs, and War Pigs: A monster cultural reading of wrestling’s ‘monster’ heels”
J. Rocky Colavito is a Full Professor of English and Taboo Studies at Butler University.
This WrestlePosium presentation is an application of Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s seven monster theses to the process of heel building in the world of professional wrestling. It analyzes the use of various monster tropes — such as physical, performative, and ideological — that promoters use to foster storylines and characters in the never ending process of enlivening the product and increasing market share.