Steel Chair to the Head: The Pleasure and Pain of Professional Wrestling [Paperback]

Nicholas Sammond (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 2005

The antagonists—oiled, shaved, pierced, and tattooed; the glaring lights; the pounding music; the shouting crowd: professional wrestling is at once spectacle, sport, and business. Steel Chair to the Head provides a multifaceted look at the popular phenomenon of pro wrestling. The contributors combine critical rigor with a deep appreciation of wrestling as a unique cultural form, the latest in a long line of popular performance genres. They examine wrestling as it happens in the ring, is experienced in the stands, is portrayed on television, and is discussed in online chat rooms. In the process, they reveal wrestling as an expression of the contradictions and struggles that shape American culture.

The essayists include scholars in anthropology, psychology, film studies, communication studies, and sociology, one of whom used to wrestle professionally. Classic studies of wrestling by Roland Barthes, Carlos Monsiváis, Sharon Mazer, and Henry Jenkins appear alongside original essays. Whether exploring how pro wrestling inflects race, masculinity, and ideas of reality and authenticity; how female fans express their enthusiasm for male wrestlers; or how lucha libre provides insights into Mexican social and political life, Steel Chair to the Head gives due respect to pro wrestling by treating it with the same thorough attention usually reserved for more conventional forms of cultural expression.

Contributors. Roland Barthes, Douglas L. Battema, Susan Clerc, Laurence de Garis, Henry Jenkins III, Henry Jenkins IV, Heather Levi, Sharon Mazer, Carlos Monsiváis, Lucia Rahilly, Catherine Salmon, Nicholas Sammond, Phillip Serrat, Philip Sewell

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Why do millions of pro wrestling fans spend their Saturday nights watching well-oiled, muscled and costumed men performing in a well-rehearsed stage play in which the winner is decided days earlier? What attracts devotees to this sport? Editor Sammond and a host of academics answer these and many other questions, explaining what they think really goes on inside and outside that ring (for Sammond, professional wrestling resembles burlesque more than sport). The writers, including a professor who wrestled under the name Professor Oral Payne, examine diverse topics: wrestling as masculine melodrama, female wrestling and its fans, the finances of the World Wrestling Federation and more. In a now famous essay, the late cultural critic Roland Barthes contends that the wrestlers are like good and evil gods battling to achieve a form of justice fans can understand. Of course, the writers take the sport much too seriously, exalting it as a cultural phenomenon whose mysteries can be uncovered by using the right academic jargon ("flesh—far from being the seed of meaning from which springs the signifying force of the wrestler, or the match, or wrestling itself—is but a node in a circuit of signification"). Regrettably, such language will limit this collection's audience. 31 b&w photos.
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Review

“Steel Chair to the Head is an exceptionally smart and well-crafted collection that will be a valuable resource for popular culture scholars of all stripes. From start to finish, there’s not a weak essay in the book. One of the best anthologies—on popular culture or anything else—that I’ve read in a long time.”—Gilbert B. Rodman, author of Elvis after Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend

“The mat is the place where sport and entertainment smack down. This excellent collection of greatest hits and latest memories of wrestling teases out the contradictions of this infinitely frustrating, excessive spectacle of domination and parody.”—Toby Miller, author of Sportsex

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press Books (January 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822334380
• ISBN-13: 978-0822334385
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,526,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not for the casual wrestling fan, it's a good book but from a more objective, journalistic perspective., January 25, 2006

By 

Miketheratguy (Wisconsin, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steel Chair to the Head: The Pleasure and Pain of Professional Wrestling (Paperback)

One thing can be said about this book: it's unique. Not just for the smarts but definitely not for the marks, this book falls into a third category: The curious onlooker who wants to study what wrestling's appeal is, dissect it from ethical, psychological and cultural perspectives, and interpret the results. That's not to say it's bad- it isn't, in fact I find it very interesting. But then again, I know a lot of people who would find it quite boring. It's written by psychology and sociology scholars, after all- but don't dismiss it just yet.

What the book does is examine what wrestling's impact is on the world- the female viewpoint, the way its masculine ideal is marketed, its approval of behavioral tendencies, its sometimes subtle racism, and so on. As stated, it's from more of a journalistic or scientific perspective.

This isn't to say it's not fun. It is, though for one to enjoy it one must step outside of wrestling for a while. The perfect audience for this book is an intelligent wrestling fan who not only has some knowledge of wrestling history but also an appreciation of the business side of things that make it tick- in other words, a fan who enjoys what he's watching but can then turn off the tv, step outside of the role of "fan", and learn more about the gears and joints that keep the industry churning.

I'll give a brief example: The book describes one of the lines of action figures, and how each figure was accompanied by an accessory such as a chair, metal piping, or other object with which to attack an opponent. It's pointed out that huge ex-WCW star Giant is accompanied not by such an object but rather a whole extra figure, small Rey Mysterio Jr. The packaging lists a feature which the book explains: "for fun one can slip Mysterio's tiny neck into the grip of the Giant's enormous right hand and then squeeze the larger figure's legs together to see him sadistically lift, lower, and strangle the hapless Mexican". They give an accompanying photo of said event which I find amusing, but that right there is what this book's all about: It goes on to examine why one would find such a thing amusing, and tries to figure out what led to this particular pairing of action figures in such a context, reaching pretty reasonable conclusions that range from potential racism to the size of wrestlers and how we're programmed to respond to them.

See, that's the kind of book this is- it helps to know some of the stuff they talk about, because then one's own familiarity, understanding, and enjoyment of the things dicsussed are enhanced. So in that way it applies to wrestling fans. At the same time, the book's goal- while not being combative- explores the very nature of the business/fan relationship and how it works, as well as when it does and doesn't. It's very well written and informative, and researched enough to make very few mistakes- these guys are definitely well-read on their subject.

So I guess it all comes down to a matter of how you answer the question "Why do you like wrestling?". If your answer is a perfectly acceptable "it's fun", "It's amusing", "it's entertaining", or something similar, then I'd have to say I agree but you won't want to bother with this book, you don't need to bother exploring all the cultural resonance. Now, if to that question you answer "Hmm, that's weird, why do I like wrestling? What makes me care about these guys, even though I know it's predetermined? Why do my minority and female friends watch? What's the point at the end of the day?", then this book will definitely be of interest to you. When all's said and done, it's essentially a bunch of smart people who got together to explore what wrestling does to (and because of) popular culture. A very interesting read for those who want to take the time to see what they've come up with.