Fighting for Recognition: Identity, Masculinity, and the Act of Violence in Professional Wrestling

237 Pages·2014·1.41 MB·English

by  R. Tyson Smith

 FIGHTING FOR 

RECOGNITION

 FIGHTING FOR 

RECOGNITION
IDENTITY, MASCULINITY, AND THE ACT OF
VIOLENCE IN PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING
R. TYSON SMITH
Duke University Press Durham and London 2014
© 2014 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ∞
Typeset in Minion Pro by Graphic Composition, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, R. Tyson.
Fighting for recognition : identity, masculinity and the act of
violence in professional wrestling / R. Tyson Smith.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8223-5709-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-8223-5722-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Wrestling—Social
aspects—United States.
2. Wrestlers—United States. I. Title.
gv1196.4.s63s65 2014
796.812—dc23
2014005681
Frontispiece photo copyright Mark Stehle Photography
Cover photo by R. Tyson Smith
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO ALL OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO FEEL
COMPELLED TO FIGHT FOR RECOGNITION. WHETHER YOU ARE
AN INDIE WRESTLER, VETERAN, INCARCERATED PERSON, OR
ACADEMIC, MAY YOU FIND IT AS PAINLESSLY AS POSSIBLE.

CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
PROLOGUE xiii

INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 1: The Indies 9
CHAPTER 2: Fighting for a Pop: Wrestler Recognition 37
CHAPTER 3: Passion Work: The Coordinated
Production of Emotional Labor 62
CHAPTER 4: “In Real Life I’m a Total Homophobe”:
Wrestlers Managing the Male Gaze 89
CHAPTER 5: Pain in the Act 115
CONCLUSION 147

APPENDIX A: How It Began 155
APPENDIX B: Rage Wrestlers/ Participants 167
NOTES 171
REFERENCES 197
INDEX 211

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost, I thank all of the wrestlers who shared their lives with
me. I am truly grateful for their openness, vitality, and passion. I hope that
they appreciate this work despite my critical stance.
After the wrestlers, there is no one I thank more than Justine Stehle.
She supported me in countless ways for what felt like a countless number
of years. She’s one of the sharpest and most focused in the bunch, and her
insights were invaluable. Thank you, Justine, for always keeping things in
perspective and for reveling in the wrestling world (almost as much as
I did).
Michael Schwartz changed my relationship to sociology and, subse-
quently, life itself. I cannot thank him enough for always believing in me.
I have never known anyone as accomplished, influential, and skilled as
he is (nor so lacking in the unfortunate pretenses that often accompany
these qualities). Thank you, Michael, for being a loving, fatherly friend. I
hope one day to be able to offer my students the devotion, wisdom, and
love that you give yours.
No one has done as much to help me bring this book through to com-
pletion as Javier Auyero. Thank you, Javier, for being so attentive, so thor-
ough, and so damn quick to write back—and for letting me take full ad-
vantage of your great mind! You have been the epitome of reliability. You
inspired me to do ethnography and always to work harder and go further.
I’m very grateful for your mentorship and fantastic energy. If I produce
even a quarter of the high-q uality scholarship you produce, I will consider
myself an academic success. Not sure what you run on (other than maté),
but I want some. Thank you, too, to Michael Kimmel for his important