Professional Wrestling Studies Association
Studying the Past, Present, and Future of Professional Wrestling
Professional Wrestling: Politics and Populism Call for book chapter proposals Deadline for abstracts (250 words): 15 March 2018 Contact: Sharon Mazer (smazer@aut.ac.nz) Provoked by the disruptive performances of Donald Trump as candidate and president, and mindful of his longstanding ties to the WWE, this edited book will look at the infusion of professional wrestling’s worldview … Read more CFP: Professional Wrestling: Politics and Populism
In an age of bottom lines, stakeholder interests, global market competitiveness, spreadable media strategies, Internet social media and sports infotainment coverage, and political correctness, and of course, strategically placed press releases and media events in between the NFL’s championship and Super Bowl weekends, how could the company not book the Women’s Rumble last?
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
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?
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
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 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?
My first encounter with a War Games match came back in the early nineties. I can remember it well, even after all these years. I’d ensconced myself in the little attic bedroom at the top of the house, gathered around me a generous supply of feasting materials, and settled down to watch something new and … Read more War Games Revisited
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 following are two video presentations given at the Midwest Popular Culture / American Culture Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, from October of 2017. In this first presentation, Jack Karlis presents his thoughts on how the WWE has handled various scandals as it attempts to develop more of a corporate social responsibility ethos now that … Read more WWE Video Presentations