Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2005 The operational aesthetic in the performance of professional wrestling William P. Lipscomb III Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Lipscomb III, William P., "The operational aesthetic in the performance of professional wrestling" (2005). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 3825. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3825 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. THE OPERATIONAL AESTHETIC IN THE PERFORMANCE OF PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Communication Studies by William P. Lipscomb III B.S., University of Southern Mississippi, 1990 B.S., University of Southern Mississippi, 1991 M.S., University of Southern Mississippi, 1993 May 2005 ©Copyright 2005 William P. Lipscomb III All rights reserved ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am so thankful for the love and support of my entire family, especially my mom and dad. Both my parents were gifted educators, and without their wisdom, guidance, and encouragement none of this would have been possible. Special thanks to my brother John for all the positive vibes, and to Joy who was there for me during some very dark days. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work and study in the Communication Studies department at LSU. The faculty, staff and graduate students have indelibly affected my life and I cherish my time there. Thanks to Dr. Andy King, Dr. Trish Suchy, and Dr. Michael Bowman for their scholarly insight, intelligence, creativity, warmth, and wit. All of you have had a tremendous impact on my life and I was truly fortunate to have you in my corner. Finally, I can barely find the words to express my deep appreciation, respect and admiration for Dr. Ruth Laurion-Bowman. You prodded, nudged, cajoled, and then dragged me kicking and screaming through this study. You are living proof that angels walk among us, and I am forever in your debt. Thank you, Ruth. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ………………………………………………………………iii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………...vi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………..1 Subject…………………………………………………………………….8 Method……………………………………………………………….......19 Significance………………………………………………………………27 TWO PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING: A HISTORY………………………….30 A Much Mixed Affair……………………………………………………31 Carnival Wrestling……………………………………………………….35 Muldoon and Gotch……………………………………………………...37 Wrestling in Decline……………………………………………………..45 The Gold Dust Trio………………………………………………………47 Stereotypes, Tag Teams, and Freaks……………………………………..54 Gorgeous George and the Age of Television…………………………….58 Organizers and Promoters………………………………………………..65 Wrestling’s Third Golden Age…………………………………………...69 Summary of Wrestling Trends…………………………………………...78 THREE WRESTLING LIVE!...............................................................................89 Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling, Dothan, Alabama………………. 89 Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling, Carrollton, Georgia……………...94 WWE House Show, Dothan, Alabama…………………………………105 Analysis…………………………………………………………………113 FOUR RASSLIN’ ON TELEVISION………………………………………….125 The Wrestling Space……………………………………………………125 Pyrotechnics…………………………………………………………….127 Video……………………………………………………………………128 Mic Work of Wrestlers…………………………………………………131 Mic Work of Announcers………………………………………………135 The Illusion of Violence………………………………………………..139 Fan Participation………………………………………………………..144 Camera Work…………………………………………………………...146 Analysis…………………………………………………………………154 FIVE WRESTLING FANS AND THE INTERNET…………………………..164 WWE……………………………………………………………………165 Lords of Pain……………………………………………………………168 Kayfabe Memories……………………………………………………...175 iv Gulf Coast Wrestling Magazine………………………………………...179 Wrestling Observer and Wrestling Perspective………………………...183 Analysis…………………………………………………………………185 SIX CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………193 Backyard Wrestling…………………………………………………….193 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………………..204 VITA……………………………………………………………………………………210 v ABSTRACT This study analyzes the relationship between professional wrestling as performance and its fans. For decades, professional wrestling has been characterized as a fraudulent sport of scams and illusion rather than actual and fair competition between athletes. Why then is wrestling so popular? I pursue the question by taking a close look at professional wrestling in four different cultural venues or sites of production: the historical archive, the live wrestling event, the televised event, and the Internet. In each site, I focus on what components define professional wrestling, how they operate, and what appears to be their purpose. Drawing on Neil Harris's concept of an "operational aesthetic," I feature components that expose rather than veil their operations and thereby invite the audience to scrutinize how they work. In addition to Harris, I call on several other theorists to articulate what operations are revealed, and the results or ramifications of the exposure. Roland Barthes and John Fiske help me understand the event as a "spectacle of excess." I also use Barthes' and Fiske's models of readerly, writerly, and producerly texts to analyze the relationship between the event and the fans. The theories and perspectives of Harris, Barthes, and Fiske summon aspects of Bertolt Brecht's aims for theatre. By means of devices that expose rather than veil the apparatus of theatre, Brecht hoped to provoke audience members to be like sporting experts in their passionate critical viewing of the event. The results of the study suggest that wrestling fans understand and value wrestling because it is a performance and because they play a part in producing it. Far from being duped by the wrestling illusion, fans are able to enjoy wrestling with a double voice, vi producing pleasurable meanings for themselves through critical detachment and critical detachment through pleasure. vii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION At its worst, a wrestling performance is an oversimplistic display of male bravado and vulgar social clichés. But at its best, wrestling is a sophisticated theatricalized representation of the violent urges repressed by the social code, of the transgressive impulses present in the most civilized of people. Most of all, wrestling activates its audience through a series of specific strategies. Instead of leaving passive onlookers in the dark, the wrestlers, through their play, make spectators an integral and essential part of the performance. (Mazer, “The Doggie Doggie World of Professional Wrestling” 97) Professional wrestling is an enormously popular form of entertainment in the US. Yet, mention professional wrestling in conversation and the response is likely to be a roll of the eyes, a groan of disgust, or “that stuff is so fake.” Nevertheless, professional wrestling is deeply entrenched in US culture. How popular is it? On the PBS current affairs program, Frontline, media critic Douglas Rushkoff claims, “Professional wrestling is the most popular form of entertainment among teenage boys in America” (“Merchants of Cool”). John Leland writes that the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) television show, Raw is War, is “watched by about 5 million households weekly” and “is the highest-rated show on cable; Smackdown! seen in another 5 million [households] is the top-rated show on [cable network] UPN” (46). In a ten day period, TV Guide Online lists over thirty-one hours of wrestling programming, including repeats of pay-per-view broadcasts. Subscribers can order a pay-per-view wrestling program through their local cable company and watch the live event as it airs or purchase the program to watch at their convenience. Further, thousands buy tickets to attend live wrestling events in person. In “Why America’s Hooked on Wrestling,” Leland observes that the popularity of wrestling extends beyond the live and televised events to consumer merchandise: 1 The WWF’s home videos routinely rank No.1 in sports, its action figures outsell Pokemon’s and its Web site is one of the first outlets to turn streaming video into profits. The autobiographies of two WWF wrestlers, Mankind (Mick Foley) and the Rock (Dwayne Johnson), are currently Nos. 1 and 3 on the New York Times best-seller list. Add in revenue from live ticket sales, pay-per-views, platinum- selling CDs and a new theme restaurant, all in turn promoting the shows and each other. (47) In short, professional wrestling has become a floating signifier popular enough to be applied to most any product and in turn consumed by the public. Of course, many US sports can make similar claims of popular commercial success, such as football, basketball, and baseball. A key difference is that professional wrestling is an “illegitimate” sport since the results of the matches are predetermined. While this pre-planned or, in wrestling parlance, “worked” aspect has played a part in professional wrestling since the late nineteenth century, it was not until the 1980s that the