ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the performance of intergender professional wrestling in Britain. This form of “sports entertainment” is historically dominated by men, and, like many sports, has been a place where male physical dominance can be displayed. However, intergender professional wrestling – where women compete with and against men – allows women to encroach upon this male turf. Yet this is not simply a Battle of the Sexes-style set-up, where acknowledged female sporting excellence is tested against men. This scripted performance of physical power is, on the whole, created by men – the “bookers” of the show, who decide upon storylines, and the promoters, who pay the wages. This means that women’s entrance into intergender professional wrestling is carefully controlled and depends not only upon the approval of these gatekeepers (a wellestablished concept in sports sociology),1 but also upon how they expect their audience to react to a man fighting a woman.
