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The Materiality of the Pro-Wrestling Stage and Sites of Tragedy
Lizzy Hogenson (University of California Santa Barbara – PhD candidate)
>This paper reflects upon the design, construction, and interaction (collision) with the physical wrestling ring as a site where grander narratives about labor rights collide with entertainment, shedding light latent power structures. Stage, I contend, becomes a physical manifestation of the power structures playing out both for the crowd and behind the scenes. Through critical examination of how the stage and material constructions of the environment are read, presented, and omitted, using the cases of the death Owen Hart 1966–1999) and the infamous 1998 Hell in a Cell match, this paper hopes to make a case for the material object (stage) being an important critical lens for media histories and furthering our understanding of the the squared circle. Piecing together the narrative from oral histories, autobiographies, and news coverage, I’ll engage in critical confabulations as method, drawing inspiration from Saidiya Hartman’s Venus in Two Acts. Armond S. Towns in On Black Media Philosophy theories of Material Marxism, cultural theory, and Black bodies form the basis of or critical analysis of the collision of the stages, labor/power, and bodies.
