"Pro Wrestling is real, its life thats fake"

The socio-political semiotics of Professional Wrestling

by Brett Ramsey.

Contents

I Introduction

II WrestleMania

III Hulk Hogan

IV The Edge of reality

V Working Class Values

VI The Monsters

VII Extreme Championship Wrestling

VIII On your Marks!

I Introduction

On March 29,1987 a world record indoor attendance of 90,873 people packed into Detroit's Pontiac Silverdome. They and countless thousands across the globe had come to see the final act of a classic tale of envy, deceit and blind

ambition. The epic struggle between good and evil, the story book blonde haired hero and the hideous monster. The chance to achieve victory over seemingly insurmountable odds. The event was Wrestlemania 3 and the match Hulk @Hogan vs. @André the Giant. It was as the publicity claimed: What the world was watching.

Throughout the 1980s and on into the nineties

pro-wrestling reimerged as a major form of popular entertainment. The catalyst for this transition from regional minor league entertainment to a multimillion dollar industry came mainly as result of two men: World Wrestling Federation head Vince @McMahon Jr. and Hulk @Hogan and in the fine tuning of a formula that had endured since medieval times.

Wrestling is an ancient sport the roots of which can be traced back to before Roman times. Many primitive tribes and traditional cultures still use wrestling as an important part of ritual and celebration and wrestling is one of the sports that featured at both the ancient and modern Olympics. In its gentrified amateur forms wrestling is a stable of the college athletics system in the U.S.A. While in Japan Sumo is the national sport. In the west there was once a time of real

pro-wrestling. The matches were long, brutal and for the spectator very boring affairs as the two combatants battled for supremacy. Exactly at what time or who was responsible for wrestling's mutation from a genuine sport to today's festival of excess is not known. But from the late 1800s in the carnivals and county fairs across the USA the basic formula for a worked pro-wrestling had been set.

Pro-wrestling became a major attraction in halls and travelling shows across the USA and also spread into Europe, Asia and Australia. The formula was simple and universal. The struggle between good and evil, the real life manifestation of the classic passion play. But pro-wrestling's development owes as much to the tradition of Carnival and The Comedia as it does to genuine sport. In his book Understanding Popular Culture Professor John Fiske uses Bahktin's Theory of Carnival to illustrate several concepts inherent in the style and execution of modern pro-wrestling.

In the introduction to his book Rabealais and his World, Russian author Mikhal Bakhtin outlined many of the elements of traditional Carnival that can easily apply to modern

pro-wrestling. Bahktin's 3 main elements of Carnival quoted by Fiske in his book are:

1 Ritual Spectacles.

2 Comic (verbal) compositions, inversions, parodies,

travesties, humiliations, profanation's, comic crownings and uncrownings.

3 Various genres of billingsgate, curses, oaths, popular

blazons.

In these terms it is easy to see why Fiske would choose pro-wrestling to illustrate his point. Indeed there would be few forms of modern entertainment whose roots can be traced back so clearly to the tradition of the carnival as

pro-wrestling. Modern pro-wrestling is all about spectacle. From the elaborate ring entrances of the sports biggest names, the grandiose excesses of their costumes and the stylised battles in the ring, pro-wrestling thrives on spectacle. And in pro-wrestling there is no bigger spectacle than

Wrestlemania.

II The WrestleMania experience

In the early 1980's as pro-wrestling was staging a

popular comeback mainly through the emergence of cable TV.

The head of Titan Sports, the parent company of the WWF, Vince @McMahon decided that as every main stream sport had it's blue ribband event pro-wrestling needed a Super Bowl ; a Wimbledon, a once a year celebration of it's own importance. That event was Wrestlemania.

First held at New York's Madison Square Gardens. @McMahon provided the event with all the trappings of a serious major league sporting event. From a patriotic rendition of America the Beautiful (Note: not the National Anthem) by a well known recording artist to studding the audience with celebrity 'fans' - Danny @DeVito, @Liberace, Muhamed @Ali even Andy @Warhol- through to endowing the title with a roman numeral. @McMahon gave Wrestlemania an instant sense of history.

The first Wrestlemania was a fairly modest event but evolved to such an occasion that @McMahon decreed that

Wrestlemania II would be held at 3 separate arenas across the U.S.A, it was also televised around the world including

Australia where it was shown in prime time on Network TEN. Once again @McMahon filled the audience with token

celebrities and further blurred the distinction between fantasy and reality by inviting several of the NFL's 5 biggest names to participate with full time wrestlers in a 20 man Battle Royal.

By the time Wrestlemania III arrived the event had

assumed epic proportions and with the avowed intention of creating a world indoor attendance record @McMahon booked the gigantic Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit Michigan the heartland of Americas auto manufacturing industry. Wrestlemania III was an enormous success and the record crowd and huge TV ratings marked the high point of an extraordinary period of popularity and acceptance of pro-wrestling.

In all this success the two constants were @McMahon and Hulk @Hogan. @McMahon's undoubted business and promotional skills and @Hogan's unparalleled drawing power. In Fiske's book, he raises the Greek ideal of Kalagathon, in which the beautiful male body was linked to social and political power and in pro-wrestling there is no better example of this than Hulk @Hogan.

III Who is Hulk Hogan ?

Born Terry Gene @Bollea, @Hulk Hogan was a part time body builder, part time bouncer, very part time musician and full time bank teller. The story has it - and separating fact from reality is difficult in the world of pro-wrestling - that one night while working as a bouncer @Hogan met up with wrestler Jack @Brisco who immediately saw the potential of this golden

haired 6ft 5 inch 300 pounder.

@Hogan trained with legendary Japanese wrestler Hiro @Matsuda and made his debut in 1978 as Terry 'The Hulk'

@Boulder. For a short time he was joined in tag team matches by his 'brother' Eddie @Boulder (Ed @Leslie), an old friend of @Hogan's who later became better known as Brutus @Beefcake - a.k.a. The @Butcher, a.k.a. The man with no name, a.k.a The @Zodiac.

In 1979 @Hogan joined the WWF as a heel yet in spite of this fact, the crowds loved him, and in pro-wrestling there is nothing of less value than a heel who isn't hated, so he left the WWF to tour Japan. @Hogan was a huge hit in Japan. He

fulfilled his desire to be a rock star by recording an album, he starred in a comic book and made nineteen successful tours of the country. In 1981 @Hogan returned to the USA to wrestle for the struggling AWA. Once again he began as a heel but with the incredible response he drew from the crowd the promoters had no option but to turn him face. @Hogan's popularity was such, that it was only a matter of time before he would be snapped up by one of the two main promotions @McMahon's WWF or the Crockett family's NWA.

Like circus, pro-wrestling tends to be a family affair and the McMahons and Crocketts ruled the two biggest promotions in the USA. It was also a regional thing with each family having clearly defined borders which were respected by the other promotions. In 1981 all that ended thanks to Hulk @Hogan and cable TV.

Pro-wrestling was made for Television, it is relatively cheap to produce, takes place in a confined space, mostly indoors and has its own self created cast of colourful

characters of the type that television loves. And unlike most sport pro-wrestling leaves nothing to chance. In the early days of television in both the US and Australia pro-wrestling was part of the staple diet. Now in 1981 for all the same reasons pro-wrestling became major part of the rapidly growing cable industry and Vince @McMahon Sr. and son Vince Jr. saw it as a way of expanding the WWF across the US and then on to the rest of the globe.

It was the time of the Iranian hostage crisis, the

spectre of Vietnam was still fresh in their collective memory. America was down. For blue collar America this was compounded by the raising rate of unemployment and the take over or disappearance of many US companies in the face of foreign

competitors. In pro-wrestling @McMahon Sr. had installed as WWF champion 'The @Iron Sheik' (Khosrow @Vaziri) a former Iranian Olympic wrestler whose character complete with

traditional Arab head dress and curled up pointy toed shoes raised heat right across the USA via cable and in the

stadiums.

The @Iron Sheik not only beat his American opponents, he humiliated them and their country including desecrating the holy of holies the US flag. Enter Hulk @Hogan, Recently

returned from his huge success in Japan. @Hogan's new found face character was perhaps best summed up in the words of what

was to become his theme song.

"I am a real American, fight for the right of everyman

I am a real American, Fight for what's right, fight for your life."

On January 23 1984 in Madison Square Gardens @Hogan

bearing the US flag and a crucifix dangling around his neck ran into the ring and to the accompaniment of a fanatical capacity crowd easily defeated The @Iron Sheik to win the WWF world championship.

Blue collar America needed a hero so one was invented. He spoke of his pride in being American reinforcing the almost xenophobic national pride of his fans. He urged the "little hulk-a-maniacs" out there to "work hard, be honest and say their prayers". It was just what a jaded blue collar American

audience wanted to hear. America was still great and if they all worked together and fought for what they believed in then the USA was still the greatest nation on earth.

@Hogan transcended wrestling. He became a regular on the talk show circuit, preaching his `commandments': "train hard, eat your vitamins and sayyour prayers". He appeared in cartoon form on Saturday morning television and in movies. @Hogan was articulate, witty and effortlessly maintained character. This maintenance of the Hulk @Hogan character is yet another link with the tradition of carnival.

IV The Edge of reality

Like the participants of the carnival wrestlers straddle the fine line between reality and fantasy.

In his book Bakhtin says:

"they (the participants of carnival) were

not actors playing their parts on stage,

as did the comic actors of a later period,

but remained fools and clowns always and

whenever they made their appearance. As

such they represented a certain form of

life, which was real and ideal at the same

time. They stood on the borderline between

life and art in a peculiar mid-zone as it

were ; they were neither eccentrics nor

dolts, neither were they comic actors."

This description could equally apply to the world of Wrestling many wrestlers, especially those of the old school, pride themselves in their total emersion in this "second life" Several wrestlers have gone so far as to legally change their name to that of their wrestling persona. Former body builder Jim @Hellwig is now legally known as "The @Warrior", while former NWA world champion Richard @Rood now carries the name "RAVISHING RICK RUDE" (including capitalisation) on his

drivers licence. Many wrestlers including Hulk @Hogan and Roddy @Piper (Rodney @Tombes) have carried their wrestling

names into non-wrestling movies and television work and in Mexico where masked wrestlers are the stars, several wrestlers like the legendary El @Santo were buried in their mask so as to maintain their air of mystery.

Another link with this carnival culture lies in the

politics of pro-wrestling. The carnival celebrates and

acknowledges many basic working class values. It triumphs in its vulgarity and holds those of power and privilege up to ridicule. Indeed the the carnival was a powerful tool for

social change and as quoted in Fiske's book:

"there were literally thousands of acts of

legislation introduced which attempted to

eliminate carnival and popular festivity

from European life."

Indeed even today such celebrations can still be seen as a tool of protest such as Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

The politics of pro-wrestling is somewhat confusing. On the surface most would see it as right wing almost fascist in its vilification of various ethnic groups and it's racial

stereotyping. Asian wrestlers are usually dishonest, sadistic and always masters of mysterious martial arts. Black and

Polynesian wrestlers always seem to possess harder than usual heads which are used against opponents and in various comedy set pieces. Even sexuality gets a spot with a long history of gay or effeminate heels like the late @Gorgeous George and Adrian @Adonis.

Once again this stereotyping caters directly to the prejudice of the predominantly white male blue collar audience. Many are racist and probably even more are homophobic and this provides the promoters with an easy means of generating heat.

But while the text of American pro-wrestling seems so right wing, its sub-text is essentially left wing or even anarchic. Certainly most of the faces in pro-wrestling strongly reflect working class values.

V Working Class Values and Blue Collar Battlers

In the late 80's (WWF) came wrestlers like Hacksaw Jim @Duggan. @Duggan a brawling ring worker came to the ring carrying a length of 2x4 which hinted at the fact that he may have been a carpenter or building worker though this was never clearly stated. What was known was @Duggan's unashamedly

working class background and his patriotism. A typical Hacksaw Jim @Duggan interview usually went along the lines of:

"Yo! friends it's your old pal Hacksaw Jim @Duggan

here. You know, I ain't had much learning, no

fancy college diplomas or the like. But I know

what's right and I know what's wrong and I know

that sometimes you gotta fight for what you believe

in. And that's why Ol' Hacksaw is here."

The fact that Duggan used his 2x4 as a weapon to threaten opponents highlighted the fact that sometimes it was all right to break rules if it was in the greater good. In spite of the fact that Duggan often wrestled in a rule breaking mode his character was seen as honest, hard working and virtuous, and in spite of his lack of in ring skill he remains a popular

figure amongst certain fans to this day.

A similar angle was worked on veteran wrestler Dusty @Rhodes (Virgil @Runnels, Jr.) when he entered the WWF.

@Rhodes who in his youth had been a plumber was seen in a number of promo pieces unblocking toilets, mopping out stables and collecting garbage. Like @Hogan his ring entrance music summed up his character:

"He's just a common man, working hard with

his hands. He's the American Dream."

And most recently the WWF introduced a trash collector character called Duke "The Dumpster" @Droese (Michael @Droese) who in an edition of the WWF's in house magazine stated that he was proud to represent the blue collar workers of America in the ring. These working class heroes contrast markedly with the many heels whose characters are upper class, intellectual or authority figures such as "The @Million Dollar Man" Ted @Dibiase.

@Dibiase is like many in the world of pro-wrestling a second generation wrestler. A skilled in ring worker,

@Dibiase came to the WWF with the @Million Dollar Man

character and quickly became one of pro-wrestling's most hated heels. He was seen in a series of promos using his vast wealth to exploit and humiliate working class people. In the ring he would humiliate his vanquished opponent by sticking a wad of

cash in their mouth, and proudly announcing that everybody had a price for The @Million Dollar Man.

The most obvious example of @Dibiase's character was his black bodyguard cum valet @Virgil. @Virgil was used and abused by @Dibiase in a number of angles, and on the few occasions that he lost-usually to @Hogan, it was @Virgil who copped the blame often accompanied by physical abuse. The whole angle looked at a number of socio-political issues. The abuse of

power by the wealthy who could simply buy what they wanted or needed without earning it. The exploitation of the poor by the wealthy and the conflict between Black and White America. Ultimately this angle was resolved when @Virgil turned on @Dibiase eventually beating him in the ring once again

reinforcing the belief that moral right would win out over

privilege and power in the long run but only if you are

prepared to fight for it.

Another interesting heel was "The @Genius" (Lanny

@Poffo). Like @Dibiase a second generation wrestler The

@Genius would come to the ring in Mortar board and gown and read poetry to his totally disinterested audience. Often

chiding them on their lack of culture and breeding The

@Genius also became increasingly effeminate over several months and when he became a manager of the wrestler @Mr.

Perfect (Curt @Hennig) their relationship heavily implied

homosexuality. This yet again catered to the long held view by many working class people that intellectualism and an

appreciation of art and culture went hand in hand with

homosexuality. The @Genius character was also portrayed as being rather ridiculous and comical, prancing around the ring with excessive - even for wrestling - facial gestures as if to display the underlying irrelevancy of higher learning and culture in the real world of the blue collar worker. A world where appreciation of art and culture and the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake is a luxury which only the rich can afford.

This portrayal of the upper class as fools is of course another link to traditional carnival as is the practice of mocking the ritual and station of royalty. In wrestling many heels have adopted royal persona's like "Lord" Steven @Regal a pompous and arrogant English heel who treats the fans and opponents with contempt and American Jerry "The King" @Lawler. Also much of the terminology of pro-wrestling is monarchical. The World Champion is said to hold the crown during his title reign and apart from the Battle Royal the WWF holds major events called the Royal Rumble and the King of the Ring.

In Fiske's book he provides the example of Lord Alfred @Hayes an ex wrestler now commentator with the WWF.

"His name, his, dress, and his accent all parody

the traditional English aristocrat ; he is a

carnivalesque metaphor of social power and status

who is there to be laughed at."

Fiske also raises the point that the grotesque appearance of many wrestlers is in itself a political statement:

"Being defiantly fat, can, therefore be an

offensive and resisting statement, a bodily

blasphemy. Blue collar men are more likely than

white collar to be overweight, and to sport a

defiant "beer belly": the norms of class-and

gender based social power are intextulated into

the everyday body of the individual as they are

into the body politic of society. The ugliness

of many male wrestlers is thus a form of class

speech, an accent on the subordinated."

An extreme form of this grotesqueness can seen in a class of wrestler that I call "The Monsters".

VI The Monsters

Wrestlers whose extreme physical appearance highlights the concept of pro-wrestling as Freak Show. The most widely

known and extreme example of this Monster class was @André the Giant.

Born André @Rousimoff in Grenoble France. @André the Giant was until the arrival of Hulk @Hogan the most

recognisable face of pro-wrestling in the world. @André

suffered from acromegaly, an over secretion of growth hormones that resulted in his huge hands, head and feet. Although always announce as being 7 foot 5 @André was actually "only" 6 foot 10 and at his peak weighed about 340-385 pounds although by the time he met @Hogan at Wrestlemania III he had blown out to over 500 pounds. Throughout his long career @André wrestled almost exclusively as a face except in Japan where he engaged in a long series of matches with Japanese wrestlers such as Antonio @Inoki and Japan's own wrestling giant the 6 foot 8 inch Giant @Baba (Shohei @Baba). @André was a specialist in the battle royale and seldom ever lost, his huge size able to mask his lack of any real wrestling ability. Yet in spite of his high profile and popularity around the world @André was never "given" wrestling's ultimate status symbol The World

Heavyweight Championship. He was painted as a gentle giant who often won matches almost by accident rather than any huge desire to win or aggression on his part.

All this changed in 1987 when @André turned heel and challenged @Hogan for the title. Now the gentle giant, almost a figure of fun, became a fully fledged monster.

Monsters are a part of our darkest fears, the monster lurks on the dark side of our psyche. Vampires, Werewolves, distortions of humanity that in there extremeness seem to celebrate our own 'normality'. But most monsters are myths, stories in a book or tales passed from generation to

generation.

Wrestlers are real. They are flesh and blood. While what they do may well be faked, no one can deny that they themselves exist and in the flesh many seem to defy our concepts of reality. Some like the 400 pound plus @Vader (Leon @White) and Bam Bam @Bigelow (Scott @Bigelow) add to this sense of

unreality with their uncharacteristic agility even

gracefulness for men of such enormous size.

Monsters are not only physical in nature. Some like the legendary Tag team The Road Warriors become monsters by deed and attitude. Like Hulk @Hogan, The Road Warriors, @Animal (Joe @Laurinidas) and @Hawk (Michael @Hegstrand) were body builders. But unlike @Hogan who cultivated a classic

appearance. @Animal and @Hawk distorted their looks by shaving the heads in a bizarre reverse Mohawk fashion, they painted their faces with outlandish colours and designs and wore

menacing SM style leather outfits studded with metal spikes.

(Note: The characters and the name "Road Warriors", together with other names in Pro-Wrestling, like

"@Lord Humongues", and clones like "Demolition" or "The Nasty Boys" etc., are also going back to the "post-nuclear war" movies, like "Mad Max", with Mel @Gibson).

But it was in their interviews where The Road Warriors

excelled. Billingsgate is the third part of Bahktins Theory and in modern pro-wrestling a wrestlers skill in verbal combat is often as important as their work rate in the ring. The Road Warriors were masters of this with their interviews often being as violent as anything that occurred in the ring.

"You see there are boys, there are men and there

are monsters!"

This verbal attack on opponents is in direct

contradiction to the established norms of sporting etiquette. A real world where we pride ourselves on the good nature of the loser in the sporting contest. But pro-wrestling is a corruption. A corruption of sport, of the truth and of the standing social order. As Fiske says in his book:

"Wrestling is a parody of sport: it exaggerates

certain elements of sport so that it can question

both them and the values that they normally bear."

Fiske argues that sport serves as a metaphor for life and reinforces established social norms and folkways. Sport was appropriated by the middle class and made respectable. They applied their morality to it, set down rules and regulations upheld by their designated officials. Thus modern sport

reinforces a set of bourgeoisie values designed to subordinate the working class. They are told that both sides are on a level playing field and that victory is usually gained by not only the most skilful, but also the most dedicated, the one that worked hardest. The loser is told to except defeat

gracefully, to respect the umpires decision, i.e.: don't

question authority.

Yet pro-wrestling is all about questioning and defying authority. In wrestling the public faces of the sports

administration are as fake as the wrestlers, they are most often portrayed as at best incompetent and at worst totally corrupt. Their agents of authority, the referees frequently

cost face wrestlers big matches through their apparent

stupidity and lack of diligence. Yet again they uphold the belief of many in the audience that those in positions of authority are corrupt or stupid and that the system that they preside over is inherently stacked against them.

Even promotions themselves can be politically defiant. A case in point being the Philadelphia based Extreme

Championship Wrestling ECW.

VI Extreme Championship Wrestling

While both major U.S promotions the WWF and WCW have tailored their product to a mainstream audience. ECW is by its very nature a savage attack on conservative values and

traditional moralities. In ECW the traditional face versus heel scenario of most US wrestling has been in the main cast aside by ECW and it's booker Paul E. @Dangerously

(Paul @Hayman). @Dangerously is a former manager with WCW and since leaving that promotion, under none too pleasant

circumstances, he, and owner Todd @Gordon have turned a small independent local promotion into one of pro-wrestling's most talked about organisations.

As its name implies ECW is extreme with matches featuring baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire, canes, bottles, chairs, frying pans just about anything short of thermo nuclear

weapons. It also has attitude. Unlike the mainstream

promotions which go to all sorts of extraordinary lengths to deny each others existence, ECW not only acknowledges their opposition but makes use of their angles in its own. When former WWF and WCW wrestler Shane @Douglas won the NWA belt, a title that can be traced back to the early 1900's he openly acknowledged its former holders and its history. He then trashed the belt to display his and ECW's total contempt for the "tradition" of the sport and all it represents. ECW also have taken another carnivalesque tradition to its extreme. In carnival the

delineation between performer and audience is blurred.

"Carnival does not know footlights, in the sense

that it does not acknowledge any distinction

between actors and spectators...Carnival is not

a spectacle seen by the people: they live in it". (Bakhtin 1968)

In pro-wrestling the action often leaves the ring with the action spilling out into the crowd, but in ECW the

audience are actively encouraged too become involved. They bring foreign objets with them that they give to their

favourite wrestler, they are encouraged to hold up chairs so that wrestlers can use them as weapons. They can leave the arena knowing that they did not merely support their hero morally but in a tangible physical way.

Wrestling's popularity may well have peaked in the mid 80's but it still gathers many fans to this day. For most pro-wrestling is simply a mindless piece of escapism, a chance to switch off from our real existence and become a part of another world. A world which in spite of all it's extremes

is in so many ways more real than reality itself. In

pro-wrestling there are two kinds of fans: Marks and

Hardcores.

VII On your Marks!

Marks are the life blood of the mainstream

promotions, people who either don't know or more likely choose to ignore the worked nature of the sport. The Marks play their role as enthusiastically as the participants. They cheer the faces and boo the heels, they support a vast merchandising

industry of T-Shirts and other apparel and they buy the

popular "Mark"-magazines like Pro-Wrestling Illustrated or the promotions own propaganda like the WWF magazine.

These magazines are like the sport itself a work. They carry fictitious interviews with wrestlers all designed to fuel that wrestlers current angle. They usually refuse to acknowledge a wrestlers past and are generally supported by the mainstream promotions.

A much smaller group of fans the Hardcores have their own publications too. Hardcore fans are well aware of the worked nature of wrestling. They do not mindlessly cheer or boo on que but show their support to those wrestlers that display genuine skill in the art of pro-wrestling both in the ring and

out. They usually know the true names and background of the sports participants and take as much interest in the out of rings politics of the sport as they do of the matches

themselves. Their publications are not glossy commercially produced like PWI but photo-copied labours of love by

dedicated individuals. The most widely read of these is

produced by Dave Melzer.

Melzer's fanzine has a global readership of thousands and he has become one of the more influential of the Hardcores. The Internet has also become a major means of communications for hardcore wrestling fans. The Usenet Pro-Wrestling

newsgroup has a world wide readership in the tens of thousands and it's growing daily. There are Pro-Wrestling Web sites

available as well as a weekly electronic fanzine

<ringreport@aol.com>The Ring Report available via e-mail. In fact much of the international success of ECW can be put

down to a group of fans who attended matches in its home base of Philadelphia and used the net to spread the word of this exciting new promotion around the world. Now even the

mainstream promotions are openly acknowledging the RSPW group as an influential force in the sports development.

For those journalists and others who claim to uphold the 'truth'. Those who hold sport to be a noble activity or

something approaching religion, pro-wrestling is an attack on their values. But ignoring pro-wrestling or treating it with disdain and ridicule simply indicates a lack of

understanding, a failure to grasp its underlying text. Many

journalists seem to delight in shocking exposes where the truth about the worked nature of pro-wrestling is revealed to a breathless populous. The fact that most wrestling fans either know or simply don't care is in itself an affront to

the journalists concept of their own importance and in the job that they do.

But in spite of the socio-political nature of

pro-wrestling, it is the colour, the spectacle and the sheer entertainment value of it that continues to bring in tens of thousands every year. Pro-wrestling may never hit the heights of Wrestlemania III again but it has been a survivor and in

the years to come it will continue to entertain, challenge, subvert and distort and take its legion of followers on a constantly changing never ending road.

Fiske J. (1989) Understanding Popular Culture. Allen and Unwin

(Australia)

Stallybrass P and White A (1986) The Politics and Poetic of

Transgression. Ithca, New York: Cornell University Press. As quoted in "Understanding Popular Culture."

PileDriver Magazine Ed, Laz Dobelsky Melb.

Rec. Sport Pro-Wrestling FAQ Internet news group

Wrestling Observer Newsletter ,Ed. David Meltzer

Barthes Roland Mythologies , Noonday, New York 1972 pp 54-58

Mazer, Sharon, The Doggie Doggie world of Professional

Wrestling. TDR-The Drama Review V34, N4, 1990 pp.96-122.