Narrative Theory in the Squared Circle

While significant work has been done on the cultural, technological, and political aspects of professional wrestling, less attention has been paid to the specific strategies and methods by which narratives emerge within and across wrestling performances. This essay argues that professional wrestling can be fruitfully studied through several frameworks afforded by narrative theory, specifically related to the narrativization of nonnarrative sporting events; the rhetorics of fictionality; and the overlaps between performance, drama, and narrative. To make the case for professional wrestling’s place as a fruitful object of study for narrative theory, I examine how wrestling tells its stories by identifying three primary rhetorical domains: the narrative domain, or the plot structures of matches; the fictional domain, or the creation and maintenance of invented, “kayfabe” universes; and the performative domain, or the physical moves that are vehicles for storytelling as well as meaningful actions in themselves. By examining how each of these storytelling domains work, I highlight how narrative theory’s existing critical approaches can help us better understand the rhetorical complexity of both the narration and the interpretation of professional wrestling’s stories. At the same time, a detailed examination of professional wrestling’s unique formal qualities provides the opportunity to expand and enrich those approaches and, in so doing, ultimately affirms professional wrestling as a narratively complex phenomenon worthy of further study.