Greetings friends! I have emerged from the abyss with the fourth in my series of posts about the art of the fabulous Punkrockbigmouth. Check parts I, II, and III if you’re interested, and be sure to check out all of PRBM’s work on punkrockbigmouth.tumblr.com. The term “cartoon satire” doesn’t structure quite right for an -ism, but let’s get over ourselves. Not all -isms can logistically take on the suffix, and I’m just making all this…
Category: #Carnycorporate
On the Progress of Wrestling Theory in the Trump Era (and a Word About Our Stunning New Contributor)
I’ve given myself a bit of a complex about this moratorium on writing about WWE. It’s been great to force myself out of my comfort zone, seek out new wrestling to watch and figure out how to go about watching it and writing about it. The process has been slow and faltering, but highly rewarding. However, as a wrestling theorist, I simply cannot ignore a near monopolistic-sized chunk of the market that is my topic…
It’s impossible to separate pro wrestling from the culture that spawned it — whatever’s going on in one arena, you can find its reflection in the other. (Never consciously, though, because any time Vince McMahon attempts to get all #topical by incorporating anything zeitgeisty into his storylines, it universally ends in corny-ass tragedy.) Goldberg made his sweaty, meaty return on this week’s Raw. This annoyed me for lots of reasons, but it also got me thinking about…
You might have noticed I haven’t posted to this blog in like three months. AJ Styles has upended my theoretical stance on everything and thus, my affairs are a shambles. I’ve had to completely rebuild my worldview and it’s taken some time. I mean, I have been doing other things and not blogging, it’s true. Life has been on an extreme trajectory as of late. But in fact this hasn’t been writer’s block, I’ve written plenty,…
Image Credit: wwe.com Haters gonna hate, as the old adage goes. But I think it’s naive and kind of patronizing to get all shocked and judgmental when it’s revealed that a wrestler, even a supposedly upstanding one like Roman Reigns, violated WWE’s wellness policy, which is a euphemism for “probably took drugs.” Now, this wellness policy is apparently overly stringent when it comes to procedural compliance (which is well articulated here in an op-ed on turnheel.com) so it’s certainly possible that Reigns somehow ran…
Andrea here again. In honor of my hero defeating Ryback to become the new intercontinental champion and savior of that much embattled belt, here is a reblog of my thoughts on the ethics of Kevin Owens from May of this year. He’s done his best to be a real jerk, but I still think he’s a realist and a working class hero: I find myself with a contrary opinion in regards to the story we’re…
I’m thinking about writing a longer piece about the genre of contract signings in wrestling. Really, I never would have thought the signing of contracts could be such a compelling thing to watch, but I perk up every time I hear there’s going to be one. They represent the tension between WWE’s carny and corporate elements so perfectly: two employees meet in a ring-turned-boardroom to sign a legally binding document to fight for a prize,…
With all the kerfuffle about what Rusev says in his entrance, I just realized it’s been a couple months since Sheamus started yelling something when he enters the arena. I think Heel Sheamus is a marvelous douchebag, and yet somehow I never stopped to worry about his passionate battle cry. Me, the IWC’s resident linguistics nerd! A quick cruise around the internet uncovered a number of discussion threads about it, one of which pointed me…