The Spectacle of Excess Posts

February 23, 2019 /

The Golden Lovers – neither of whom have officially self-identified as queer, or straight, though Kenny’s made a lot of references to dating both men and women – have, over nearly a decade, made queer romance the center of their professional personas in a way no tag team ever has.

There are very few wrestling romances with happy endings, let alone queer romances. However, the Golden Lovers have avoided this cliche, treated their relationship with total solemnity and sincerity – even when they were on opposite sides of the ring.

February 14, 2019 /

(Part 2 of a series putting together Sami and Kevin’s timelines in 2013-2014: Part 1 is here). Putting together the beginnings of Kevin and El Generico’s story is like assembling a crazy quilt: scraps of cloth in a dozen different colors and shapes that sometimes don’t fit together quite right anymore because some of the pieces have gone missing. So many snippets and loose ends, such a challenge to piece them together. 2013-2014 are a…

February 10, 2019 /

Wrestling is haunted and one of the things it’s haunted by is racism. The convenient shorthand of racial stereotypes have always had currency in wrestling. The way Eddie Guerrero handled this in all his markets was to lean in.

January 20, 2019 /

On January 9, 2018 at 9:00pm GMT, the Oxford English Dictionary entered the word jabroni into their grand log of linguistic posterity. My initial excitement quickly faded into what I can only describe with an Office Space gif— via GIPHY —when I realized the OED had completely phoned in their etymology, which conflates two words with a glaring missing link and neglects crucial, well known instances of its use.  It’s readily apparent that the whoever’s…

January 12, 2019 /
January 7, 2019 /

Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are going to be back in action again in the next few months, and everything is going to be great. That’s what Kevin thinks, at least, and we know because he’s told us so. When Sami Zayn went out with injuries to both of his shoulders in May 2018, Kevin spent the next five months reminding us of his best friend, Sami Zayn over and over again. If Sami were…

December 28, 2018 /

This is a story about one of the greatest feuds and rivalries in wrestling, the story of the relationship between a man and one who hurt him so deeply he carried the grudge like a live coal for years until he could achieve his bitter vengeance. It’s the tale of a relationship full of abuse and degradation, leading to utter annihilation. It’s a story of hatred and revenge. Strange as this may sound, it may…

December 5, 2018 /

It makes a busy wrestling blog proprietor’s day when a stranger shows up out of nowhere offering a shrewd critical take on the art of blading. Please enjoy this piece by new contributor Kid Mankind, and be forewarned: there is blood. There are three ways to bleed in a wrestling ring. There is an accidental split of the skin – maybe a baby face landed a lucky hit on someone’s nose, maybe the jagged edge…

November 26, 2018 /

It’s February 2013, 2:12 AM, and Kevin Steen is sitting in front of a red curtain and a sign with red block letters taped to it spelling out “The Kevin Steen Show.” A Kane mask, pilfered from the Highspots warehouse, perches on the sign and glares down at him. On one side of Kevin is a wrestler who goes by Cheeseburger, who is kind of supposed to be Kevin’s co-host, but who will spend most…

November 15, 2018 /

Creating a sudden heel turn is easy: all you need is a steel chair. Or a kendo stick. Or a window. In a pinch, in fact, you need nothing but two treacherous hands and a darkened heart. Admittedly, for a heel turn based on betrayal it helps to have a friendship to betray, and those are harder to come by. Those take time to build: months or years of effort, dozens or hundreds of happy…