ABSTRACT
The business of professional wrestling is the business of theatre. Even if on the surface professional wrestling seems anathema to theatrical sensibilities, it is hard to deny the formal similarities. After all, professional wrestling is scripted entertainment performed live in front of an audience by actors portraying characters. Indeed, professional wrestling bears many similarities to other theatrical forms such as vaudeville, melodrama, commedia dell’arte, and musical theatre (characters break into fights, not songs). Setting aside the specific content of professional wrestling, however, it is also possible to examine the economic and institutional formations that it shares with more distinguished forms of live performance. In this sense, professional wrestling is an exemplary case study for the ways that theatrical performance is produced, consumed, and circulated widely, even globally. Specifically, WWE can be considered a model, yet surprisingly under-examined, example of a publicly traded, transnational theatre company.
