Author: Professor Kayla Fabienne

February 27, 2023 /

Oh, for a muse of fire! It’s about damn time a faction of brooding heartthrobs emerged in Area Code Pro Wrestling. Like really, why has the patriarchy been so squirmy about appealing to the thirsty demographic? WIth the exception of a certain refrain about a fairly tame wrestler who hails “straight from your baby-mama’s DM’s,” the local wrestling promotion has been a downright prudish affair in the year and a half it’s been running. Money…

January 9, 2023 /

At long last, I present to you the second chapter of independent wrestler Jerry Bishop’s oral history. If you haven’t read Chapter 1, you can find it right here. Jerry started wrestling in 2008, and wrestled all over the midwest before moving to Alaska. He currently wrestles for 907 Pro Wrestling and WrestlePro Alaska. He’s also a trainer for the magnificent Fairbanks Ladies of Wrestling. –KF I’ve been really, really grateful for the opportunities I’ve had in the past…

December 26, 2022 /

Oh, that this too solid flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Because in November, right as the deep abjection of my seasonal affective disorder was cranking into high gear, the local booking unfolded into a biting allegory of Alaska’s colonial history.  I was deeply unsettled by this turn of events. I did not expect such depth of concept from this little dog and pony show. As I descended into my scheduled…

October 10, 2022 /

I can’t remember exactly when my old colleague Scott and I became aware of our shared passion for professional wrestling. It may have been when I wore my vintage “Hustle Loyalty Respect” cap for our school’s hat day. We exchanged a few obscure references that only seasoned smart marks would recognize and were allies in the trenches until I got a transfer to a different school and rode off into the sunset.  Scott told me…

October 1, 2022 /

. It took me a couple weeks to listen to this conversation I had with Tim Kail about ring announcing, writing about wrestling, and our shared passion for studying this unique artform. I was super busy–not too busy to listen to a podcast, but too busy for the emotional roller coaster I feared might launch after listening to myself spill my guts about various things. But in fact it was a very cathartic listen and…

September 6, 2022 /

Independent wrestling veteran Jerry Bishop and I are collaborating on an oral history project, and I couldn’t be more excited about it! My only disappointment is that no pictures exist of ‘White Trash Jerry’. Just wait till you get to that part. Jerry started wrestling in 2008, and wrestled all over the midwest before moving to Alaska. He currently wrestles for 907 Pro Wrestling and WrestlePro Alaska. He’s also a trainer for the magnificent Fairbanks…

August 7, 2022 /

Three teenage girls ran up to me while a match was going one time when I was the ring announcer for the local wrestling promotion. They asked if they could take a picture with me. It was only my third show as ring announcer, and I was still figuring out all the dynamics of my role. If you’re doing it right it’s a very busy job, announcing for a professional wrestling show. My voice was…

July 16, 2022 /

“Hell hath no fury like a woman fashion policed by a man who looks like Fred Flintstone.” —Proverb The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough was, I shit you not, the song Pandora chose as I rolled up on the quaint craft fair out front of the 907 Pro Wrestling venue last weekend. “LFG,” I said to the voices in my head about this cornball synchronicity, because Cyndi Lauper of all people would understand the very niche existential…

July 11, 2022 /

Sometimes strangers roll up and ask if they can write something for the Spectacle of Excess. I always say yes, but mostly they don’t deliver. No shade for them, by the way! It’s quite challenging to write something that clicks in the niche of the old Spectacle here. Now, often these submissions need revisions and edits. The English teacher in me says this one could use some tidying and tightening, but the unhinged mystic in…

July 6, 2022 /

I was thrilled when my old friend Tim Kail of the Work of Wrestling podcast said he wanted to write another essay for the Spectacle of Excess. Tim and I were pioneers of blogging about wrestling as art (in our minds, at least!) in the mid twenty-teens, and he wrote another great piece about the virtue of spectacle for this blog way back then. This jumble of wrestling concepts and how we navigate them—entertainment, art,…