Introduction to considerations of medical humanities in the context of professional wrestling, followed by an overview of the contents of the issue

Beard, David

English

St. Cloud State University

Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine Volume 8 Issue 2 Health, Illness and Injury in Professional Wrestling Article 1 2022 Introduction to Health, Illness and Injury in Professional Wrestling: A Special Issue of Survive and Thrive David Beard University of Minnesota, Duluth Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/survive_thrive Recommended Citation Beard, David (2022) "Introduction to Health, Illness and Injury in Professional Wrestling: A Special Issue of Survive and Thrive," Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine: Vol. 8: Iss. 2, Article 1. Available at: https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/survive_thrive/vol8/iss2/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Repository at St. Cloud State. It has been accepted for inclusion in Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine by an authorized editor of The Repository at St. Cloud State. For more information, please contact tdsteman@stcloudstate.edu. Introduction to Health, Illness and Injury in Professional WrestlingA Special Issue of Survive and ThriveDavid Beard, University of Minnesota DuluthProfessional wrestling is an athletic performing art where the winners of the matches areprearranged. Wrestlers require skill and physical training: be very careful in telling a pro wrestler thatwhat he or she does is "fake." Such a claim would be like telling Sir Ian McKellen that what he doesis fake. In this special issue of Survive and Thrive, we will examine professional wrestling through thelens of narrative medicine, and we will look for lessons from professional wrestling (and the lives ofprofessional wrestlers) that will inform narrative medicine and the health humanities.What is Professional Wrestling?Pro wrestling in the US traces its roots to regional circuits and carnivals and fairs in the urbanizingUnited States of the mid 19th century (Stone, 1971). In Illinois, Abraham Lincoln wrestled againstother men in his youth and won a championship (Stone, 1971). Wrestling matches then werecontests between two men trying to prove their strength and masculinity.  Betting was widespreadand wrestling was considered a sport with no predetermined outcome (Stone, 1971; Maguire, 2005;McBride & Bird, 2007). By the early 20th century, professional wrestling started to become apredetermined, entertainment activity because pro wrestlers wanted to avoid injury and becausescripted matches proved to be more entertaining and profitable (Maguire, 2005). All pretense ofwrestling as a sport was gone by the 1930s (Stone, 1971).Today, wrestling has been called a form of theatre (Rinehart 1998, Craven and Moseley 1972). Whileeach match appears to be a competition, the goal is not to win, but to perform. Theatricality isvisible when wrestlers adopt a gimmick or character used to tell a story and to build drama andinterest. Matches are staged between the audience favorite, known as a “babyface” or "face," and anantagonist (or “heel”). The rivalry is given an underlying plot: the wrestlers may be competing forlove or avenging a wrong (or perceived wrong). Plots or storylines range from personal grudges tometaphorical conflicts (e.g. between anti-Americanism and patriotism). Longer story arcs result frommultiple matches over time – long-standing feuds build interest in future matches. The goal is tocreate a reason for fans to come to the next show and see what happens next and become hooked.This issue of Survive and Thrive opens the door to a conversation between (a) fans, scholars, andpractitioners of professional wrestling and (b) practitioners, scholars, and survivors of health andmedicine whose work is informed by the medical humanities. As a co-editor of this journal(founded by the late Rex Veeder, currently co-edited by Suzanne Black, Julia Brown, and Steve Katz)and as a founding member of the Professional Wrestling Studies Association, I am excited for thisopportunity to create conversations across these communities. Both communities value possiblecontributions to knowledge from the passionate layperson (whether the fan or the survivor), fromthe practicing professional (whether the wrestler or the healthcare provider), and from the scholar.Professional wrestling is of interest to readers of Survive and Thrive for three reasons:Introduction to Health, Illness and Injury in Professional WrestlingA Special Issue of Survive and Thrive1. Professional wrestling is a site for the performance and representation of health, injury, illness, andaging. Accounting for the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) alone, wrestling reachesinto five million homes a week through broadcast television. That’s five million families wholearn about injury, illness, health, and aging from professional wrestling.2. Professional wrestlers are themselves injured, become ill, or age – sometimes on screen,sometimes hidden from the audience. The unique textures of a wrestler’s experience of health, illness,injury and aging are worth examination. The experience of professional wrestlers is worthexamination for two reasons:a. Professional wrestlers occupy a near-unique position among performers or athletesbecause they are hurt in nearly every performance. Wrestlers are unlike otherathletes or dancers, who hope not to be hurt in the practice of their craft.Professional wrestlers intentionally place themselves in a position to be hurt as partof a successful performance. Their experience of injury and illness is unique amongother performers.b. Professional wrestlers are, by another metric, not unique at all. They are like far toomany other Americans: they are underinsured, without access to adequate healthcare. A professional wrestler is a laborer who loses income if they allow their injuryto keep them from working; that is a position far too common among all Americans.We are interested, then, in the stories professional wrestlers tell us about injury, aging, andillness in the ring. We are interested, too, in the stories of professional wrestlers as theyexperience injury, aging, and illness.In this issue, we present several pieces across this spectrum of interests. The first of the essaysspeaks directly to the fan experience of the work in the ring.● In “Let’s Talk Wrestling: Perspectives on Age, Injury, and Illness in Sports Entertainment,”Nevena Martinovic, Jovana Martinovic, and Frank Tomcik explore the experiences of fansfrom three disciplinary perspectives: kinesiology, psychiatry, and theatre/performancestudies.Two of the essays speak to the performance of wrestling and the ways that such performance can betheorized.● In “Blood as Currency in Professional Wrestling,” Lisa S. Butler conducts a Hobbesiananalysis of professional wrestling that uses the characteristics of the lexicon as outlined inLeviathan (1651) to understand kayfabe (a term of art in wrestling for its status as a fiction) asboth a performance and community practice.● In “Mick Foley's Mankind and the Performance of Mental Illness in Professional Wrestling,”Danielle Johannesen asks what the performance of mental illness in one professionalwrestler’s body of work looks like – and what impacts that may have on the audience. Usingthe language of stigma, Johannesen reflects on the implications of stage presentation inprofessional wrestling for broader discussions of mental illness.Finally, two contributions look at the work of professional wrestlers themselves.Introduction to Health, Illness and Injury in Professional WrestlingA Special Issue of Survive and Thrive● “Notes on the Pervasiveness of Injuries in Professional Wrestling in the Atlantic CanadianCircuit, as Seen from Ringside,” by Fred Mason, traces select cases of injury of professionalwrestlers on the Atlantic Canadian circuit to consider how frequently wrestlers are injured,and how injury affects their lives and careers.● In “When was the last time that you heard of Ian McKellen blowing out his knee,” ClaireWarden brings us the results of the Health and Wellbeing in Professional Wrestling project (whichconducted seventeen long-form interviews with wrestlers, medics, trainers, promoters andreferees). This project, funded by the British Academy, works across the divides thatseparate artists, wrestlers, and scholars, and could be the most important and innovativeresearch collaboration in this area today.We close this issue with a “coda,” excerpts from an interview with Terrance Griep. Griep wrestlesprofessionally in the Twin Cities and has been celebrated as the first openly gay (inside and outsidethe ring) professional wrestler. Griep offers some insight into the distinctions between “hurt” and“injury” in professional wrestling that connects with the broader literature on the normalization ofpain in professions – including, we think, healthcare professions.We hope you enjoy this issue.● We hope that readers interested in professional wrestling who discover this issue willreconsider whether the insights of narrative medicine may inform their work.● We hope that readers who follow Survive and Thrive for insights into narrative medicine willconsider whether the implications of professional wrestling as a case study can crack opentheir own work.And we invite more essays picking up the threads begun here, as submissions to Survive and Thrive.

Introduction to Health, Illness and Injury in Professional Wrestling: A Special Issue of Survive and Thrive

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Introduction to Health, Illness and Injury in Professional Wrestling: A Special Issue of Survive and Thrive

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