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Integrity pro wrestling6/10/2023 However, the mapping of category to wrestler isn’t always as you’d expect.Ĭonsider Dalton Castle, a wrestler who describes himself as “unique, different, and ostentatious” (the least subtle signifiers since the green carnation) and whose attire is Liberace meets Lycra. The “face” is the hero, the wrestler whose merchandise the audience wants to buy. The “heel” is the villain, the wrestler whom the audience wants to lose. Professional wrestling trades in archetypes, and with each match, there are several roles to fill. (As with weddings or Rocky Horror, somehow everyone knows when to stand up and sit down.) The competitors enter the ring, and the matches commence. Once the crowd is sufficiently riled, the wrestlers parade down the aisle toward the ring, and the audience leaps to its feet. Imagine the following spoken without any inflection: “We are going belt to belt,” or “I don’t care about winning I care about justice,” or “There will be blood on the hands of the red dragons as we kick the addiction.” The dialogue and delivery are as you would find in Star Wars prequels. Soon enough, the lights go dark, the audience falls silent, and a video introduces the wrestlers. I was not of aware of this requirement, so the only text on my shirt was “Xanadu: National Tour.” These messages include the admonitory (“There Can Be Only One”), the imperative (“You Gotta Beat the Man”), and even the dada (“Hot Tub Watch Rinse Repeat”). Most of the audience wears black shirts with messages in a large white font. There sit the faithful, veteran and novitiate alike, all seeking guidance from very large men in very small swimwear.Įvery temple has a dress code, and ROH is no exception. Around the ring are the pews, metal folding chairs arranged in concentric squares. Heavily padded and triply roped, it’s designed to contain the physiokinetic sermons that will occupy the evening. The central altar, the wrestling ring, rises from the middle of the floor. ROH holds its New York events at Terminal 5, a warehouse turned temple of manliness. Accordingly, wrestling-WWF changed its name to WWE both to resolve the lawsuit and to stay ahead of panda-WWF in the phonebook.) Off-Broadway Wrestling A decade ago, the World Wrestling Federation was sued by the World Wildlife Fund over the acronym. As it turns out, WWF and WWE are the same thing. In fact, if you were me, you may have subscribed to their magazine in 1992. (A note on nomenclature: you may have heard of the WWF. It’s for those who find the WWE “too commercial” and desire more artistic integrity in how men in speedos fake-punch each other. As I understand it, ROH is the Off-Broadway of the professional wrestling scene. This summer, that I might finally attain masculinity, I attended my first pro wrestling event, “The Best in the World” hosted by Ring of Honor. American culture communicates these requirements in many ways-Hollywood, men’s magazines, gym teachers-but perhaps no vehicle is more effective than that hallmark of pay-per-view: pro wrestling. We must be hairy of head and voluminous of bicep. We should like large quantities of meat, as well as drinks that double as drain cleaner. We males are supposed to be aggressive yet easygoing, equally adept with a slap on the back or a punch to the kidney. When it comes to masculinity, America has feelings.
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