The Grappling Arts Podcast

A special edition of Grappling Arts bring you this event from the LU Arts/Loughborough University festival Interface.

Sport and artistic performance have a long, intertwined history. Despite this, they are so often regarded as separate.

This roundtable event brings together five academics/practitioners with a view to reimagining that most potent of presences in sport and performance: the body.

The contributors are Tom Dawkins (wrestler, as Cara Noir, contemporary performer and fitness coach), Claire Heafford (former UK gymnast and bobsledder, wrestler and performer), Dominic Malcolm (Reader in the Sociology of Sport and author of The Concussion Crisis in Sport), Gareth McNarry (Para-swimming lead at Loughborough Sport with a doctorate in swimming embodiment) and Claire Warden (Senior Lecturer in English and Drama and co-editor of Performance and Professional Wrestling).

They discuss a range of interests and concerns including pain, discomfort, the fraught notion of work, touch and haptic communication.

This event is part of Interface: a week of discussions and events that showcase interdisciplinary practice

Welcome to the grappling arts podcast. Joining Claire and myself is the professionally unladylike writer and performance artist Heather Bandenburg.

In her own words, Heather grew up wanting to be a writer, and then accidentally became a Lucha libre wrestler aged 21. Since then, she has launched herself fully into a series of adventures, including writing feminist narratives on wrestling; and bringing jovial violence to London's cabaret scene.

We talk about anger as a creative force, wrestling as a form of feminist resistance, comedy, and of course Heather’s obsession with Cher.

This episode with Heather was both fascinating and joyful to record and we hope you enjoy listening to it.

Just a word before you listen into the episode, for those that may find such topics triggering, that the conversation contains reference to the experience of sexual assault.

This episode focuses on the many fascinating intersections between wrestling, physical culture and bodybuilding.

Conor Heffernan is a formerly Assistant Professor of Physical Culture and Sport Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. In September he will start a new role at Ulster University in Northern Ireland.

Conor’s research focuses on the meanings of the body in nineteenth and twentieth century Europe and the United States. This includes the study of gender, race, nationalism, food and childhood.

Away from Academia, Conor is a regular contributor to health and fitness websites. At present, he contributes regular articles to Barbend.com as well as his own history of fitness website Physical Culture Study.

We hope you enjoy the episode. If you do, please subscribe and leave a review!

Welcome to another episode of the Grappling Arts. The guest for this episode Sam Benjamin.

Sam Benjamin is an award winning actor known for his role in The War of the Worlds (2019), and his guest turns in Doctor Who (2005) & Peaky Blinders (2013). Recently he stared in the Netflix action movie I Am Vengeance: Retaliation (2020) along side former Wrestler Stu Bennet.

As well as acting, Sam is also a writer, director, and of course a massive wrestling fan! We discuss Sam’s career, the intersections between acting and wrestling, and a selection of Sam’s favourite matches, including Goldberg verse Hollywood Hulk Hogan!

Sam and Claire are joined by independent wrestling globe trotter Sugar Dunkerton! They talk about the movie Gladiator, the differences between national wrestling styles, and Dunkerton's time in the UK.

After far too long a hiatus, Claire and Sam return with a new guest - Dr Tunisha Singleton. Dr Tunisha Singleton is a strategic insight and innovation Consultant who's work spans fandom, Culture, sport Entertainment, and communications.

As well as Tunisha's fascinating work and varied research, they discuss two of this years standout matches from WWE and AEW: Brit Baker and Thunder Rosa's Lights Out Match, and the first WWE WrestleMania Main Event to feature two people of colour - Sasha Banks and Bianca Blair.

This episode is the first in a new line of interviews where we will be joined by people working in and around the wrestling space, such as academics, actors, artists and film makers.

Welcome to a brand-new season of the Grappling Arts podcast. After a short hiatus Claire and I are excited to be back bringing you some of the most in-depth wrestling performance discussion you are likely to find anywhere! For the first episode back, we are joined by wrestler, actor, and film maker Charles Crowley to discuss his celebrated film ‘You are Cordially Invited’, which premiered on New Year’s Eve 2020, and starred many of British Wrestling’s finest independent performers.

Over the course of around 90min we talk about the ideas behind the film, the making process, and various other topics including genre, style, and the differences between wrestling for the screen and wrestling for a live audience.

Sam and Claire are joined by their fellow Resurgence founder John Kirby for a look back at the history of the Resurgence project. They discuss Being Human Festival 2017, the event that brought them together and laid the groundwork for what would follow. They also reflect on their standout moments from the last three years.

Welcome to the 6th episode of the Grappling Arts, the podcast dedicated to celebrating the art of professional wrestling, on this week’s episode myself and Claire are joined by one the UK scene’s most acclaimed, and compelling villains. Spike Trivet.

We discuss Spike’s acting background, the origins and inspiration for the Trivet character, as well the intersections between wrestling, cinema, and theatre. We also cover Spike’s seminal feud with Cara Noir in Resurgence, as well as his work for Brighton promotion Riptide.

Spike has some fascinating takes on wrestling, especially regarding character development, storytelling, and the importance of collaborating with wrestling promotions. I would highly recommend this episode to any wrestlers looking to develop their in-ring persona.

We hope you enjoy the episode as much as we enjoyed recording it. If you do, please subscribe, and leave a review.

In this episode Claire and Sam are joined by one of the most popular wresters on the UK independent circuit today, That Damn Dirty Dog, Gene Munny. They look back at Gene's run as Resurgence Champion, as well as discussing comedy, character, and storytelling.