Reading Wrestling

In this week's episode, our ragtag(-team) group of podcasters discusses the biggest, the most powerful, the longest-standing champion in professional wrestling history: the crowd. 

Far from being passive spectators, the crowd actively makes the event through its participation. When you're at a show, you're temporarily more than yourself as an individual, you become a part of the Crowd. As Chris puts it, "It's sort of like when you're struck in traffic: you simultaneously are in traffic, but you also *are* the traffic." Maybe that's not a great metaphor for the thrill of being at a show, but you get the point...anyway....

Of course, there was the surreal moment in 2020 when the crowd's vanished, making pandemic-era wrestling an altogether different kind of show. We structure our episode as a continuum through this period, thinking about how the crowd historically worked to shape wrestling, what happened when the crowd had to stay home, and now, the return of fans to arenas. 

We take some time to enumerate key events in wrestling that were forced take place without a crowd, or as we call them, pops without a pop. Chris discusses the introduction of Sting at AEW, which would have brought the house down if there were fans in the arena. Noell agrees and compares the introduction of Brodie Lee. 

We also stop to ask which wrestling gimmicks are most shaped by the crowd. Dave brings up Stone Cold Steve Austin here, and you won't want to miss Chris' performance the New Age Outlaws' opening monologue. 'Cause if you're not down with that, we've got two words for you...fast forward. 

Crowd in and join us as we break the fourth wall on this week's episode of Reading Wrestling.

Following on our episode on entrance music, we move on to the voices of wrestling, and for some, the voices of our childhoods. Commentators like Tony Schiavone, Gorilla Monsoon, and early Vince McMahon are the omniscient narrators of wrestling. Their job is both to guide the viewer through a story and also to describe the action in all of its lush detail. As we say in the episode, "It's the grain of these voices that shapes wrestling, just as much as any feat of athleticism done in the ring." 

This is the first episode where we open with a sketch featuring our wrestling alter-egos, Miss Noell (cf. Miss Elizabeth), Ravin' David, and Chris as the Matcha Man. If you can make it through this intro without rolling your eyes, then you are the true champion.

You'll enjoy Noell's History Corner, where she tells us about the very beginnings of commentators during televised wrestling matches of the 1950s, including a sketch of the earliest, commentator-less wrestling broadcasts of the 1940s, which were early technical experiments in broadcasting. 

Chris talks about how the Macho Man, in his role as a commentator, narrated one of the most harrowing events of Chris' childhood, the Ultimate Warrior's visit to Paul Bearer's Funeral Parlor. 

You won't want to miss this brawl down memory lane, as we discuss commentators like AEW's Excalibur, Mid-Atlantic's Bob Caudle, WWF's Jesse "The Body" Ventura, and several others. Hang out with us for another episode, and we promise to see it like we call it.

Now that you know us, it's...surprising that you're still here. But we thank you for not having had enough already! Our first thematic episode is on a topic near and dear to the hearts of wrestling fans: entrance music. Chris, Noell, and Dave take on the showtunes of Ring Pan Alley.

The episode opens with Chris' dramatic reading of "Real American," and you won't want to miss the...poignancy of Dave's reading to close out the show. In between, we talk about our favorite entrance music--music that served to make the characters we hold so dear--our least favorites--music that just didn't quite fit--and some songs that were altogether bizarre. 

Reading Wrestling is the first podcast to examine wrestling as a performing art, and our episodes are structured like an encyclopedia of the art. This week's entry is the first part of many on the topic of entrance music (we'll be sure to return to this topic again in future episodes).

Our first episode introduces you to our ragtag group of wrestling nerds. Chris, Noell, and Dave talk about how they first got into wrestling. We each pick a singular moment in wrestling history that we found to be the most memorable and moving.  

You'll hear the amazing story of how Noell, a lifelong dancer and choreographer, who never watched a minute of wrestling before July 5, 2019, got swept up into a whirlwind fascination with it. She'll tell us how that all happened and set the scene for what is a recurring theme in our podcast: the relationship between wrestling and other staged arts. She notes, "Wrestlers are dancers, and dancers are wrestlers," which seems both true and surprising at the same time. 

This theme--wrestling as a staged art--will structure future episodes of our show, which will be organized around an aspect of wrestling (entrance music, commentators, etc.). We hope you will enjoy meeting the gang and that you will write to us and let us know about some wrestling moments that are important to you and why.