{"id":40,"date":"2013-05-27T19:34:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T19:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ethanlewis.org\/icarus\/2013\/05\/27\/everything-i-needed-to-know-i-learned-from-pro-wrestling-pt-4-the-anti-american-all-american\/"},"modified":"2019-04-01T14:33:04","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T18:33:04","slug":"everything-i-needed-to-know-i-learned-from-pro-wrestling-pt-4-the-anti-american-all-american","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ethanlewis.org\/icarus\/2013\/05\/27\/everything-i-needed-to-know-i-learned-from-pro-wrestling-pt-4-the-anti-american-all-american\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything I Needed To Know I Learned From Pro Wrestling (Pt. 4–The Anti-American All-American)"},"content":{"rendered":"
If you’ve followed this blog over the past few years, you would know that professional wrestling is a huge interest of mine. \u00a0I’ve already written about cage matches <\/a>and about “the original Pearl Harbor job<\/a>“, but this post will focus more sharply on the aspect of professional wrestling characters, specifically those who are identified as “American Heroes”.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
While professional wrestlers are above all else, outstanding athletes, part of the appeal to “sports entertainment” is that each of the wrestlers portrays an easy to understand character. \u00a0Some are good guys, or “faces”<\/a>, while others are the bad guys, also known as “heels”<\/a>. \u00a0In rare cases, characters inhabit a middle ground, and thus are known as “tweeners” (bad guys who get cheers, or good guys who get boos). \u00a0Sometimes these personae are derived from the actions of the wrestler, such as when Stone Cold Steve Austin represented the blue collar worker against the treacherous, exploitative management of WWE owner Vince McMahon<\/a>. \u00a0But often times, a wrestler’s character comes from more primitive-level appeals, such as nationalism. I’ve previously linked to some articles about national\u00a0and ethnic\u00a0stereotypes in wrestling<\/a>, and how they can serve as a short-hand way to explain a wrestler’s motivations and actions<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\n

Over the years, a reliable way to get a wrestler “over<\/a>” (popular with the fans) has been to make him appear to be very patriotic. \u00a0Perhaps the best example is that of legendary wrestler Hulk Hogan<\/a>, whose theme song proclaimed that he was “a real American\/fighting for the right of every man”.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n