Professional Wrestling

‘Ballyhoo!’ Professional Wrestling’s Wild West-Like Origins

‘Ballyhoo!’ Professional Wrestling’s Wild West-Like Origins

Professional wrestling’s Wild West-like origins kick up a lot of dust in Jon Langmead’s history of the sport’s rough housers and con artists, Ballyhoo!

Vince McMahon and the Damaging Impact of Failing Upward

Vince McMahon and the Damaging Impact of Failing Upward

WWE’s Vincent McMahon has brazenly failed upward over and over again, profoundly impacting (and damaging) American culture along the way, argues Abraham Riesman in the biography Ringmaster.

Muhammad Ali and the Day Fans Pelted the Ring With Trash

Muhammad Ali and the Day Fans Pelted the Ring With Trash

In his new book, Ali vs. Inoki, Josh Gross untangles the complicated history of the 1976 meeting of two legends -- and a failed experiment.
Professional Wrestling, Racism, Transracial Identity, and Why We All Need to Lighten Up

Professional Wrestling, Racism, Transracial Identity, and Why We All Need to Lighten Up

In contrast to our ossified conceptions of race in other aspects of life, race in professional wrestling is a gimmick, a performance of an identity, which one can adopt or drop as part of the game.
In Defense of Openly Enjoying Professional Wrestling

In Defense of Openly Enjoying Professional Wrestling

All it took was a trip to the Royal Rumble to see how similar the warped reality of the WWE is to The Kardashians. Or The Real World. Or Duck Dynasty. Or Honey Boo Boo.

In Defense of Billy Corgan’s Foray Into Professional Wrestling

When Superheroes Die

The World of Lucha Libre by Heather Levi

Wrestling Babylon by Irvin Muchnick