Few professional wrestlers today embody the word “contradiction” more than Darby Allin. Indeed, Darby’s two-year journey into the world of independent professional wrestling is best understood as a series of contradictions between, on one side, his personal wrestling aesthetic and accompanying skater culture-infused world-view, and on the other, the wrestling business’s well-established rules and conventions. These puzzling contradictions, held together in dialectical tension, shape and inform exciting possibilities about what independent professional wrestling can be. Perhaps,…
Author: John Dvorak
On January 25th, 2018, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon made the unexpected announcement that he was re-launching the XFL, his failed football league from 2001 that ceased operations after only a single season. Reporters greeted the announcement with a combination of surprise, curiosity, and incredulousness. The mere act of a reboot in 2018 isn’t so surprising; after all, the past two years have seen classic TV series such as the X-Files, Twin Peaks, and Roseanne resume…
Photo Credit: Alan Rolette, RiverHorse Wrestling Photography Spectacle of Excess is delighted to interview the Ambassador of the World Wrestling Network, Trevin Adams. WWN is an umbrella organization that governs a network of independent wrestling promotions that include EVOLVE Wrestling, SHINE Wrestling, Full Impact Pro Wrestling, Style Battle, Viva La Lucha, WWN Supershow and American Combat Wrestling, among others. WWN produces and distributes streaming wrestling content that is available for purchase on WWNLive.com, which is…
The great Bobby “The Brain” Heenan has died, and as such I’m reflecting deeply on his life and exceptional professional wrestling career far earlier than I had ever wanted. As I type, I’m watching an astonishing amount of universally glowing tributes pour in across social media in Heenan’s honor—each one equally sincere and well-deserved—from a range of fans, friends, and former colleagues, past and present. In one sense, I feel sanguine in knowing The Brain’s…