Populism and Professional Wrestling in the Sunbelt South: From Rasslin' to Sports Entertainment traces the history of professional wrestling in the South within the Trans-Mississippi Region between the 1950s-1990s. Examining professional wrestling through the lens of kayfabe, also known as the perception of the realism and the suspension of disbelief among fans, this book discovers that the dissolution of kayfabe occurred simultaneously with significant political, social, and cultural events in Southern history, including the Civil Rights Movement and technological and economic modernity. Christopher L. Stacey determines that the same political, social, economic, and cultural forces of modernity in the Sunbelt South reflected a new form of southern and national populism embedded within the professional wrestling industry. New forms of populism were reflected within characters, storylines, gimmicks, and angles of several territories in the Trans-Mississippi region. Through autobiographies, biographical information, and shoot interviews, Stacey provides a closer look into the business of professional wrestling during the mid-twentieth century and how it connects to racial, gender, class, and national identity.
Christopher L. Stacey is professor of history at Louisiana State University.
Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One: The Emergence of the Trans-Mississippi Region in the Sunbelt South, 1933-1983 Chapter Two: Rasslin' with Race: Race and Political Culture in The Memphis and Mid-South Territories, 1959-1992 Chapter Three: Populism and Kayfabe: Identity and Professional Wrestling in Southern Political Culture in the 1970s and 80s Chapter Four: Working, Shooting, Playing and Kayfabe: The Relationship between Professional Wrestling and 'Legitimate' Sports in the Trans-Mississippi Wrestling Region Chapter Five: "I Couldn't Carry a Tune in a Bucket': Music in the Trans-Mississippi Territories and the Transition from Rasslin' to Sports Entertainment Chapter Six: Life, Death, Violence and Kayfabe in the Trans-Mississippi Region Chapter Seven: The Hollywood Outside Agitator Vs. the King of Memphis: The Jerry Lawler-Andy Kaufman Wrestling Feud and the Political and Cultural Climate of the Post-Civil Rights South, 1981-82 Chapter Eight: The Death of Kayfabe: The Trans-Mississippi, the Rise of Corporate Wrestling, and the disappearance of the Territories, 1982-1995 Epilogue Bibliography About the Author
Coupling the nuance of a Bill Watts storyline with the power of a Terry Funk punch, Stacey brightly illuminates how pro wrestling provides a lens for understanding key issues in the evolving American South of the twentieth century. This is a spirited and long-overdue study of an important component of Southern popular culture. -- Scott Beekman, University of Rio Grande Stacey's work is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the intersections between professional wrestling and popular culture in the South. A must-read for both scholars and fans of professional wrestling. -- Aaron D. Horton, Alabama State University Christopher Stacey's Populism and Professional Wrestling in the Sunbelt South: From Rasslin' to Sports Entertainment provides a unique look at Southern professional wrestling (or 'Rasslin'' in regional parlance) that not only surveys the major promotions, wrestlers, and feuds of the territory era, but also looks at the deeper meaning behind the phenomenon of wrestling in the Trans-Mississippi region of the United States. Both entertaining and educational, this book will certainly be a welcome addition to the shelves of sport and cultural historians, as well as those interested in professional wrestling in the years prior to its homogenization as an internationalized and corporatized form of 'sports entertainment.' -- C. Nathan Hatton, Cape Breton University
