The Wrestling Episode 🤼
Bam Bam Bigelow (Photo Cred: WWE)
SUMMARY
Calling all wrestling fans! This week, we are joined by playwright, Chicano history and theater professor, and self-professed smark Beto O’Byrne to talk MASKulinity in wrestling. Not your Olympics wrestling—it’s WWE, baby!Is wrestling fake? How dare you ask that?! Beto sets the record straight.Wrestling is simultaneously sport and theater. This scripted performance produces an over-the-top MASKulinity for its audience of mostly men to thoroughly enjoy. What are the implications for MASKulinity? We discuss.Beto walks us through what that has looked like in the ring over time.Beto and Remoy share their mutual love of wrestling as youngsters and nerd out on their favorite moves.Moonsault anyone? What’s a hangman? Get your Google out—lots of terms in this one.Beto walks us through wrestling history and its connections to theater performances.Many sports often have that flavor of homoerotism in many ways, and wrestling is no different.How did wrestling evolve from its carnival roots to the WWE we know and love?Wrestlers meld their in-ring persona with their real-world persona.Colorful characters Stone Cold Steve Austins and The Rocks bled into American pop culture with their larger-than-life personas informing MASKulinity in their own ways.
We’ve gotta know! Which wrestler do you love?
Listen for the best quote on professional wrestling you’ve ever heard in your life from Vince McMahon’s unauthorized biography.Beto highlights the different “characters” in wrestling storytelling:You’ve got your heel, your monster heel, your babyface—all different facets of MASKulinity in the ring.Samantha gets to guess who The Man is, and if your wrestling knowledge is as limited as hers, you may be surprised to find out who it is…
Women wrestle too, but it wasn’t always that way…Models used to be recruited to get in the ring?! How did we go from hyperfemininity in this MASKuline world in this MASKuline world to Chyna and Jade Cargill?Beto gives us a portrait of the evolution of women wrestlers in the McMahon machine.In our UnMASKed Interview segment, we get a snapshot of luchador culture and performance and its impact on American wrestling.
We reflect on the ways that wrestling lets men watch other men be close…something they’re way less allowed to do in real life.Is it cathartic?Beto reflects on his Southern culture around MASKulinity and the vicarious experience that the WWE offers.We go further in the theatricality of the WWE and what that looks like when performing for tens of thousands of people.
Referenced on this episode:
Beto O’Byrne guest references Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America by Abraham Josephine Reisman
Samantha reacted to this video
For deeper dives on wrestling and its history, check out wrestling observer Dave Metzler or former wrestling manager turned podcaster Jim Cornette
Samantha developed a new crush in this episode
OUR GUEST THIS WEEK:
Beto O’Byrne
Beto O’Byrne is playwright from the pine forests of northern East Texas. He holds a BA in Writing from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the University of Southern California. As Artistic Director of Austin Latino Theater Alliance, he created the ALTA Performing Arts Showcase and directed the annual holiday tradition, La Pastorela.
His works have been performed in Los Angeles, Austin, San Antonio, and New York City. He is the co-founder of Radical Evolution, a multi-disciplinary performance group based in Brooklyn, NY.
