Wrestling Darkness: origin story

As I prepare and research for episode 4 of the Wrestling Darkness podcast, I thought I'd share how and why the project began.

When I used to watch professional wrestling as a child, I paid little attention to female wrestlers and the other women who infrequently appeared. Even Cyndi Lauper, whose music I enjoyed, drew from me barely a shrug.

My interest as a 9-year-old boy was all the different models and standards for how a man should be — muscular, brave, and, of course, violent.

When I watched the pro wrestling docuseries "Mr. McMahon" on Netflix, childhood fascinations flooded back into my mind. I was startled by how exactly and how clearly certain moments had been etched into my brain. For instance, when Bob Backlund brought Hulk Hogan out from backstage to help him deal with too many Wild Samoans.

All the racist tropes and storylines, which I had already recalled and reflected upon as an adult, came back to me as well. As a half-Chinese kid growing up in Virginia in the 1980s, I knew of only 2 other interracial students throughout my elementary school years, and one of them was my sister. It impacted my psychologically to be so engrossed in a TV show where evilness was so often defined by a wrestler's (supposed) foreign origin — usually Asia and the Pacific, but also Africa, the Soviet Union, and Iran. But I’d come to terms with that a long time ago.

What really horrified me about the Netflix series was the way women were depicted in professional wrestling from the 1990s on — something of which I had not been aware because I stopped watching wrestling in 1987.

At the time, I didn’t realize how deep this investigation would go. My primary concern was that generations of young men had been exposed to storylines that encouraged them to hope and expect to see women physically and sexually abused.

There are only two women shown in Mr McMahon series who were never part of the wrestling industry. One was a journalist who exposed some of Vince McMahon’s sexual misconduct and the hush money payments that had previously kept it from coming to light. The other was an academic named Dr. Sharon Mazer. I contacted her and read her book, Professional Wrestling: Sport and Spectacle in preparation for our interview.

It was a very fun read and it was even more fun to talk with the author one-on-one, starting at midnight because Sharon lives in New Zealand. At the time, I was planning an audio-only podcast, as evidenced by the fact that, as viewers can see at times, I am wearing pajama pants.

I have a video recording of our Zoom call only because Sharon said, “Let's turn on the video so we can see each other.” Then, when I started editing the podcast, I realized that the visual component of professional wrestling is extremely important. So, I asked Sharon if it would be alright to release the episode with a video component and she agreed. So what if I’m wearing pajama pants!?

Our conversation continued via email, and it was all so interesting that I knew I would have to do at least one more episode. For one thing, Sharon kept citing another book, Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America. She had high praise for its author, Abraham Josephine Riesman (Josie). She introduced us and once again I quickly read the text before interviewing the author. The result was episode 2:

Episode 3 came about quite accidentally. During my years in Australia, one of my closest friends was a man named Michael Johns. His nephew, Jacob Johns, would be visiting the U.S. not long after we moved here, and he asked if I could assist him in learning about the U.S. political system as part of his university studies. I helped him get into a Trump rally — which required a U.S. phone number in order to register — and when he began telling me about his experience over the phone I said, “Stop, don’t tell me this now. I want to interview you for a podcast.” A few days later, he was in my home along with his friend Oscar Keohan. Thus was born episode 3.

Mentioned in episode one, my interview with a couple in West Virginia concerned about chemicals that can turn frogs gay: