The French essayist Roland Barthes wrote a seminal piece of wrestling literature in the 1972 collection Mythologies, entitled "The World of Wrestling." Barthes takes the seeming superficiality of professional wrestling very seriously, comparing it with classical theater. "What the public wants is the image of passion, not passion itself," he argues, which is the very motivation of people who see films, dramas, or operas (Barthes, p. 19). The central emotions to wrestling are "Suffering, Defeat, and Justice," and these emotions are presented in a logically intelligible context, creating rules for the applications of those feelings (Barthes, p.22). He also seizes upon the powerful religious imaging used in wrestling when he quotes a fan comparing a prone wrestler to Jesus, adding, "these ironic words revealed the hidden roots of a spectacle which enacts the exact gestures of the most ancient purifications" (Barthes, p. 23)
Barthes briefly compares professional wrestling to boxing, explaining that while boxing is future-oriented andcan be bet upon, wrestling consists of fleeting images of passions. ''[E]ach moment imposes the total knowledge of a passion which rises erect and alone, without ever extending to the crowning moment of a result," he concludes (Barthes, p. 25). Although participation and sympathy with dramatic scenes is very important to wrestling spectators, wrestling today in the WWF attempts to build suspense about the outcome of some matches. When a heroic wrestler attains a hoped for victory, the audience is able to breathe a collective sigh of relief and enjoy societal regeneration. In this respect only is the outcome of a wrestling match paramount. For the most part, wrestling finales are not surprising, and the appeal for the audience is to observe the familiar and powerful rituals of professional wrestling played out before them.
Above all, Barthes asserts, wrestling is concerned with Justice. Justice cannot be displayed powerfully without grave offense, and thus a climate of evil trickery is necessary to professional wrestling. He also makes a distinction between French and American heroic wrestlers, saying that French heroes are based on ethics rather than politics. However, in the WWF the great heroes are based on a combination of the two; morality and the flag exist side by side. In the last sentence of his essay, Barthes succinctly proposes that professional wrestlers are able to attain a transcendent iconic stature because they clarify ideals of good and evil, virtue and vice: (they are] the pure gesture which separates Good from Evil, and unveils the form of a Justice which is at last intelligible" (Barthes, p. 30).
"The Politics of Professional Wrestling" is the title of an article by Jeffery J. Mondak in the Journal of Popular Culture. Mondak's thesis is that the cyclical popularity of professional wrestling in the United States corresponds to periods of a confrontational foreign policy and political hostility to foreigners. These periods of popularity include the 1930s, the 1950s, and the 1980s, beginning with Hulk Hogan's first title victory.
The most recent popularity of wrestling occurred during a time of national patriotism as the United States bombed Libya. "Rambo: First Blood Part II" proved to be 1985's most popular film. Mondak cites hostile imaging of Russians and Iranians in the WWF at that time, adding that when America's reaction to political situations is "intense and militant, wrestling's dramatization of those events can transform a raging public into a raving audience" (Mondak, p. 145—46).
This is the logic the WWF and wrestling promoters in general have used over the years, but it is not always successful. If the "foreign" wrestlers are not compelling performers, or if the concept is so exploitative that it crosses that fine line of the acceptable among professional wrestling fans, the scenario can seriously backfire. Case in point is the promotion of the March 1991 "Wrestlemania VII," which featured a main event competition between challenger Hulk Hogan and the recent WWF champion, an Iraqi sympathizer. The Heel, Sergeant Slaughter, was managed by General Adnan, a Saddam Hussein impersonator, and invoked the name of the Iraqi leader, even burning Hulk Hogan banners. Additionally, Slaughter won the title at a pay-per-view event in January, a few days after the war in the Persian Gulf began. Hogan draped himself with the American flag, visited military installations, and labeled his own biceps "Patriot missiles." These images earned the WWF criticism in mainstream sports publications and hurt ticket sales for "Wrestlemania VII."
Mondak ultimately criticizes wrestling for fostering a xenophobic mood receptive to a militant foreign policy: "By eliciting unthinking support of its American heroes, wrestling discourages understanding of the subtleties of international politics" (Mondak, p. 146). Wrestling is indeed xenophobic, but Mondak gives a simplistic view of the complex process of symbol generation that is professional wrestling. Spectators of wrestling are mostly lower-class and middle-class, are not the decision makers in political society. They allow politics to exist and perpetuate political ideas, but do not create them.
Wrestling is a gross magnification of the political and cultural assumptions of its fans. The reasons for these assumptions are imposed from above. That is, the WWF did not decide that Iraqis are evil and an offense to all that is American. The White House decided it, and the vast majority of Americans in favor of the Persian Gulf War were filled with pride and personal empowerment. At the same time they are no better off in society, facing high taxation to pay for their victory; they are structurally disempowered. In the same way, the drama, symbolism, and iconography of professional wrestling empowers its fans and leaves them structurally disempowered. Additionally, as shall be seen in fan interviews in the next chapter, the most effective heels have not been political figures, but just plain mean and arrogant characters, a fact that further qualifies Mondak's argument.
An earlier essay by Jim Freedman entitled "Will the Sheik Use His Blinding Fireball? The Ideology of Professional Wrestling" gives an almost Marxist reading of the "sport." Freedman maintains that Heels win well over half of all wrestling matches, and when this happens, "liberal ideology loses" (Freedman, p. 71). What Freedman means by "liberal ideology" is the work ethic that he perceives to be central to the mostly low?income wrestling fans he studied, who lived in small Canadian towns. "Liberal ideology" claims that hard work can advance virtuous citizens, but frequent Heel victories imply that cheating truly advances one's social standing. "Cheating and dirty work in the ring, like cheating in the marketplace, is counter to all their ideals, yet it provides paradoxically the only exit from their own poverty," Freedman argues (Freedman, p. 73)
This harsh truth presents the subversive contradiction of Capitalism in Freedman's eyes, that all people are equal in the marketplace, yet honest people are at a distinct disadvantage. Heels use foreign objects and interference by managers to secure wins, and the symbol of authority, the usually inept referee, is powerless to act. At this point the audience acts as vigilante, hurling obscenities and plastic cups at the Heel, and calling warnings to the Face. The referee is a symbol of Justice, but fails the audience, leaving a moral gap to be filled by wrestling heroes. This seemingly revolutionary behavior occurs in the WWF also, but unfortunately does not carry over into real life. Passivity is encouraged by the fact that WWF fans must wait until the next pay?per?view extravaganza for painful conflicts and structural contradictions to be resolved.
The WWF also appeals to working class virtues through blue collar Faces such as The Big Boss Man, and speeches of Hulk Hogan and Jake "the Snake" Roberts decrying excesses of capitalism, as well as effective Heels like "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. However, in the WWF, the ideal of "liberal ideology" is replaced by the theology of Hulk Hogan's "Three Demandments of Hulkamania," requiring weight lifting, prayer, and vitamin ingestion.
Although Heels triumph not infrequently in the WWF, main event matches, especially in pay-per-view annual extravaganzas, rarely feature Heel victors. This is one of many stylistic differences between the WWF and smaller wrestling promotions. "The Immortal" Hulk Hogan was only pinned cleanly once, and that was by another Face. Evil and injustice are real in the WWF, but good will eventually triumph. Moments of outrage and injustice appear in all manifestations of professional wrestling, from small Canadian promotions to the WWF. They are confusing and clarifying at the same time, allowing contradictions of society and life to be displayed discretely, and offering a model to overcome structural dissonance, although the way of the Hulkster may not be the quickest or easiest.
Phenomenologist Bruce Lincoln analyzes professional wrestling in his book Discourse and the Construction of Society, arguing that its "ritual inversions ...help to preserve sociopolitical and economic structures intact in the face of potential challenges" (Lincoln, p. 149). Lincoln analyzes a typical television wrestling program in 1983 and notes that it begins with a heroic victory, followed by four Heel wins, ending with a decisive Face triumph. It is effectively a three-act play with a happy ending.
Lincoln presents a hierarchy of Heel traits derived from the middle four matches, and determines that elegant dress, speech, and the presence of a manager determines the most successful Heel. This hierarchy is also true for the WWF from 1984 for 1991. He discusses the idea of triumphant "Americanism" in professional wrestling. The victorious Faces Lincoln observed were a blond-haired Southerner and a marine sergeant, and the heels lacked identifiable racial identity (unlike their vanquished opponents). Lincoln does not fail to identify the appeal of wrestling, praising its “overarching dramatic structure that [is] not only utterly compelling, but elegant in the extreme” (Lincoln, p. 149). Lincoln's analysis is prescient and applicable to the stereotypical and ideological structure of the WWF.
The preceding scholars present thought?provoking ideas about aspects of professional wrestling. That such a variety of wrestling theories exist implies the complexity of the phenomenon. I submit that ritual and religious imagery is the glue that holds the structure of professional wrestling together and allows such theories to be argued. If a significant period of wrestling phenomenon can be isolated and systematically analyzed, it can be shown that wrestling harnesses powerful rituals and religious imagery to allow the lower-to-middle class wrestling fans to confront their deepest societal anxieties, to clarify life's contradictions, and to reintegrate the whole through the triumph of god-like wrestling heroes. This drama is fantastic and applies only to the very real reality of the wrestling ring. Its power resonates in the extra-wrestling lives of fans, but is not transformative outside of the wrestling arenas, live and on television.
Continue to Chapter 12