I'm having trouble starting a written assignment

[Oly J]

Hi everyone, I'm currently in my 2nd year of uni studying Performing Arts, and I've been given an individual research assignment, basically the only criteria being that I need to choose a form of performance and analyse a change or paradigm shift within it, I decided I was going to do it on Professional Wrestling and how a spectator sport was taken and changed into what the mainstream public now knows as Pro Wrestling, which is much more physical theatre than sport.

Pro wrestling was one of my obsessions for a huge part of my life that I only recently began to lose interest in, but it is something that I think I know a lot about, so I figured I could probably do a really good report on it.

but now I'm stuck on resources, there have been a lot of books published on pro wrestling that theoretically I could cite, but most of them are autobiographical, detailing one wrestlers career or another, and I need something about the beginnings of Pro Wrestling as it is, and I need as many resources as possible, also I'd like to avoid spending money, I'm expected to use journal articles and I plan to cite quotes from interviews to support whatever argument I end up making, but I'm just not sure where I can find sources on the beginnings of pro wrestling as a staged event as opposed to a sport.

If anyone knows of anything that can help me out I'd really appreciate being pointed in the right direction

 

[Frezzato]

I'm not a wrestling fan, but I do enjoy podcasts. One such episode of The Dork Forest podcast was about wrestling [http://traffic.libsyn.com/tdf/TDFEP200_-_AndyPetersMikeSchmidt.mp3]. That probably won't help you, but maybe it would provide an entertaining two hours for you.

They mention a documentary called Beyond The Mat. I'm not sure if watching it will help, but it should be a trip down memory lane at least:

Spoiler: Beyond The Mat

.

References taken from a paper titled "Fake Rules, Real Fiction: Professional Wrestling and Videogames [http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/09287.48172.pdf]".

They all seem interesting, but you'll have to check them yourself. Hopefully you'll have access to these titles using your university's systems and credentials:

Morton, Gerald W.; O'Brien, George M. :
"Wrestling to Rasslin: Ancient Sport to American
Spectacle". Popular Press 1985

Ball, Michael: "Ritual Drama In American
Popular Culture: The Case of Professional Wrestling".
University Microfilms International, Michigan 1991

Barthes, Roland: "The World of Wrestling", in
"Mythologies" trans. Annette Lavers. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux 1972 [1957]

de Garis, Laurence: "The 'Logic' of
Professional Wrestling", in "Steel Chair to the Head",
edited by Sammond, Nicholas. Duke University Press
2005

[hr]
Found some more, taken from "Wrestling Audiences:
An Ethnographic Study of Television Viewers", by Barbara Ruth Burke:

References

Ball, M. R. (1989). Ritual drama in American popular culture: The case of professional wrestling. Dissertation. Lincoln: University of Nebraska.

Birrell, S. (1981). Sport as ritual: Interpretations from Durkheim to Goffman. Social Forces, 60, 354-376.

deGaris, L. (1999). Experiments in pro wrestling: Toward a performative and sensuous sport ethnography. Sociology of Sport Journal, 16, 65-74.

Dempsey, J. (2001, Mar. 26). WWF's McMahon puts a hammer lock on WCW. Variety p. 7.

DeVine, M. J. (2000). The education of a public historian: A case study with reflections on professional wrestling. Public Historian, 22, 10-16.

Hendricks, T. (1974). Professional wrestling as moral order. Sociological inquiry, 44, 177-188.

Katz, R. (1999, June 14). Grappling with success. Variety, p. 17.

Katz, R. (2000, February 7). Why America's hooked on wrestling. And Anatomy of a family business. Newsweek [2000, February 7].

Kranz, C. (1999, April 1). Pro wrestling's really got a hold on us. The Cincinnati Enquirer p. ARC.

Mazer, S. (1989). Professional Wrestling: Sport and spectacle. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.

Mondak, J. J. (1989). The politics of professional wrestling. Journal of Popular Culture, 15, 139-149.

Rosellini, L. (1999, May 17). Lords of the ring. U.S. News and World Report, p. 52.

Stone, G. P. (1971). Wrestling--The great American Passion Play. In E. Dunning (Ed.), The Sociology of Sport. (pp.301-335). London: Frank Cass.

Stracham, A. (1999, Aug. 25). Character, story and a lead pipe to the head. The Vancouver Sun, p. 5C.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Does your university have access to a journal index? This seems like the kind of area where you're more likely to find journal articles than books.

That said:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ringside-Hi...d_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0W5KXEWGR3FP4QZMPEK4

Seems to be pretty much what you're looking for.

Try and get it through a library. If you genuinely can't do so.. there are other ways, but try to avoid them.

 

[Fox12]

Start with JSTOR. It should have online books available, but you can always order books through the mail through inter-library loan. This will be an important site for future projects as well. It should have books, photos, and journals available.
http://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=professional+wrestling&prq=proffesional+wrestling&group=none&so=rel&acc=off&fc=off&hp=25&wc=on

Alternatively there's always the library of Congress.
http://www.loc.gov/search/?in=&q=professional+wrestling+&new=true&st=

Most online books should have the publishing information for your bibliography readily available.

 

[f1r2a3n4k5]

Barthes, Roland: "The World of Wrestling", in
"Mythologies" trans. Annette Lavers. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux 1972 [1957]

I second this. Here's a link to the relevant text: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wrestlin.html

This is the article you need. EXACTLY this article.

I've read it before even though I'm not a wrestling fan. Very interesting. Moderately entertaining.