Calling all wrestling fans! This week, we are joined by playwright, Chicano history and theater professor, and self-professed smark Beto O’Byrne to talk MASKulinity in wrestling. Not your Olympics wrestling—it’s WWE, baby!

• Is wrestling fake? How dare you ask that?! Beto sets the record straight.
  • Wrestling is simultaneously sport and theater. This scripted performance produces an over-the-top MASKulinity for its audience of mostly men to thoroughly enjoy. What are the implications for MASKulinity? We discuss.
  • Beto walks us through what that has looked like in the ring over time.
• Beto and Remoy share their mutual love of wrestling as youngsters and nerd out on their favorite moves.
  • Moonsault anyone? What’s a hangman? Get your Google out—lots of terms in this one.
• Beto walks us through wrestling history and its connections to theater performances.
  • Many sports often have that flavor of homoerotism in many ways, and wrestling is no different.
  • How did wrestling evolve from its carnival roots to the WWE we know and love?
  • Wrestlers meld their in-ring persona with their real-world persona.
    • Colorful characters Stone Cold Steve Austins and The Rocks bled into American pop culture with their larger-than-life personas informing MASKulinity in their own ways.
• Listen for the best quote on professional wrestling you’ve ever heard in your life from Vince McMahon’s unauthorized biography.
• Beto highlights the different “characters” in wrestling storytelling:
  • You’ve got your heel, your monster heel, your babyface—all different facets of MASKulinity in the ring.
    • We’ve gotta know! Which archetype do you love?
    • Samantha gets to guess who The Man is, and if your wrestling knowledge is as limited as hers, you may be surprised to find out who it is…
• Women wrestle too, but it wasn’t always that way…
  • Models used to be recruited to get in the ring?! How did we go from hyperfemininity in this MASKuline world to Chyna and Jade Cargill?
  • Beto gives us a portrait of the evolution of women wrestlers in the McMahon machine.
• In our UnMASKed Interview segment, we get a snapshot of luchador culture and performance and its impact on American wrestling.
• We reflect on the ways that wrestling lets men watch other men be close…something they’re way less allowed to do in real life.
  • Is it cathartic?
  • Beto reflects on his Southern culture around MASKulinity and the vicarious experience that the WWE offers.
• We go further in the theatricality of the WWE and what that looks like when performing for tens of thousands of people.

Referenced in this episode:

• Beto O’Byrne guest references Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America by Abraham Josephine Reisman
• Masculinity, explained by WWE
• Samantha reacted to this video
• For deeper dives on wrestling and its history, check out wrestling observer Dave Metzler or former wrestling manager turned podcaster Jim Cornette
• Samantha developed a new crush in this episode

COMPANION PIECES:

• When we talked with with Kirstin Cronn-Mills about women’s sports in Don't Let Them Play ⚽️⚾ Lest the MASK Fall Away
• Women’s impact in wresting
• The impact of lucha culture