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…
Category: Guest Posts
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…
I’m pleased to present our first Impact analysis, and on such an important wrestling topic: shoot trauma invading kayfabe. Thanks to Rory Garon for their shrewd insight into the perilous Eddie Edwards storyline! –Andrea You’ve probably heard about how Sami Callihan broke Eddie Edwards’s face with a baseball bat. Even people who haven’t watched a second of Impact wrestling have heard about that incident. News of injury spreads like wildfire through the world of online…
The revolution is upon us, and I am so grateful for the first submission of AEW analysis to the Spectacle of Excess! Guest contributor Denali W. has taken a deep dive into the layers of story in the Double or Nothing Rhodes Brothers match. Take a look: All it took to sell this match to me was exactly four sentences from a four minute promo that I saw in gif form at the beginning of May:…
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…
I am so excited to present to you this essay by guest blogger LB Teufel about the origins of The Golden Lovers and a wild match that I now need to go pore over, as I have recently caught the Kenny Omega pheromone and know the thirst and awe of his divinity, oh yes! Enjoy this cool essay, and let’s hope we hear more from LB in the future. –Andrea In August 2012, El…
I am thrilled and honored to present this guest post by Tom Breen, from whom I very much hope we will see more in the future. It was Tom who just a couple months ago turned me onto Joey Janela, the indie talent whose brilliant carny antics have reinvigorated my love of professional wrestling in a major way. Tom articulated so much here about a wrestler whose work I’m just scratching the surface of how…
A big welcome to guest contributor Sawyer Paul, who has laid out a thoughtful theory of a not so straightforward question: what exactly is it that makes professional wrestling “good”? Sawyer’s piece gets at the core of what we’re trying to do here at Spectacle of Excess, and that’s to clarify and celebrate the artistry of this pretend sport. So a big thanks to Sawyer (and all the other recent guest contributors) for the help keeping…
Image Source: wwe.com It is a thrill and an honor that Tim Kail of the Work of Wrestling has written a piece for The Spectacle of Excess! And what a great thing, he took on the concept of spectacle in wrestling, put his own brand on the underlying idea that inspires this blog. Enjoy Tim’s musings (a manifesto, almost) about the nature of spectacle in professional wrestling. –Andrea * We will not remember most of our lives. This is because the…