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Bumps, Breakages, Bandages: The blood of professional wrestling as transdisciplinary optic.

Bumps, Breakages, Bandages: The blood of professional wrestling as transdisciplinary optic.

Authors :
Warden, Claire
Source :
Performance Research. Feb2023, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p5-10. 6p.
Publication Year :
2023

Abstract

For myriad legitimate reasons professional wrestling is often regarded as antithetical to sport. Despite the sporting tropes used by wrestlers, the spectacular characterization and fictionalized storylines mean this form is better categorized alongside contemporary performance practice. However, it sits oddly alongside theatre too as its athleticism undoubtedly resembles sport; in addition, its history of dubious taste and associations with reactionary politics counter the stage's typical progressive associations. This article does not try to solve wrestling's composite identity. Rather, it accepts and uses its unique liminal lexicon to unsettle typical understandings of sport and performance art. Unpacking the wrestling notion of blading through a famous match and an infamous sporting event, it rereads a specific moment in sports history, a moment when blood appears as a visual signifier as it might do on a stage. It connects this to the blood-letting of contemporary performance practice, using wrestling as a bridge. If read alongside a history of professional wrestling, the blood of the stage and the field are imbued with new meaning, destabilizing straightforward historiographies and disciplinary definitions, and the bodies that take part in them. This approach uses professional wrestling to question the easy demarcation of sport and performance art, engendering new, often disturbing, associations. It demands a reading of blood less as an unfortunate by-product of sporting endeavour and more as a striking, performative image that erases the typical barrier between sport and art. This article proposes, then, that understanding this (and comparable moments) through the lens of professional wrestling muddies definitions of sport and performance, opening up new cross-disciplinary dialogues and methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
13528165
Volume :
28
Issue :
1
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Performance Research
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
173272089
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2023.2222350