ABSTRACT
Taking seriously the physical work of wrestlers, this chapter examines wrestlers as performers who labor both in the ring and in every other area of their lives as they maintain their physiques through training regimens and special diets. The chapter takes up a close consideration of wrestlers as workers, whose images, names, and gestures are often trademarked property of the wrestling promotions for which they labor. The chapter introduces the legal concept of likeness as a potentially useful analytic for considering a wide range of performance and theatre. Likeness and its legal protections allow celebrities to guard their visage, name, and identity, and are particularly important in making the images of wrestlers saleable and tradeable through current trademark law. The discussion attempts to make legible the various ways that theatrical performance can be replicated and sold in a global economy. In addition to professional wrestling, this chapter draws on a number of examples from US case law, which offer further illustrations of how live entertainment circulates globally today.
