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.