The Misunderstood History of American Wrestling

In the 1980s, as the company then known as the World Wrestling Federation reached new heights of national success, there was a brief surge in mainstream press coverage of professional wrestling. Pundits and reporters were understandably drawn in by the cartoonish spectacle, the synergetic crossover with mainstream celebrities like Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper at the first WrestleMania, and the mystery of a sports universe governed by arcane rituals, vaudevillian jargon, and shadowy business executives like Vince McMahon, a man who embodied wrestling’s contradictions—a slick corporate suit and a carny to the bone.