Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that wrestling, as represented in the rings of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), can be considered to be a theatrical performance influenced by its neoliberal social context. To do so, I will begin by explaining how wrestling and its demonstrations of excess can be a collective cathartic event. Then, I will describe how this communal spectacle can be capitalized on by the WWE corporation through the exploitation of audience identification mechanisms. Through a case study of WWE character Dean Ambrose, I will examine the emotive dimension of wrestling and the codependent relationship between audience and athlete. In order to unpack my analysis, I will draw from Roland Barthes’ concept of the “spectacle of excess” and Pirkko Markula’s application of Foucauldian theory to the sports industry (Barthes, 1957; Markula, 2014). There is no other medium quite like wrestling, strange amalgam of reality television, sporting competition, and theatre. Wrestling not only hangs in the liminal space between reality and fiction, but also wholeheartedly thrives in this confusion of authenticity. And in an age of media plagued by fake news and increasingly explicit political performers, perhaps wrestling can be the tool to help us decipher the blurred codes of reality.