Wrestling Darkness

About Wrestling Darkness

How did the lowest standards for accuracy and authenticity, like those of professional wrestling, become the standards for cable news, politics, and government? World leading scholars and historians offer insights and clues in this "cultural forensics" investigation into how professional wrestling and its imitators transformed media, and thus all aspects of American life that depend on media. Wrestling Darkness (available with video via https://ericbyler.substack.com) begins with cultural shift that began with the runaway success of the World Wrestling Foundation (WWF) in the 1980s. Wrestling's engrossing approach to melodrama — reflecting current political conflicts with scripted scenes and violent choreography prescribing good guys, bad guys and avenues for fan participation — was then emulated by the Fox News channel, countless reality TV programs, and TV talk shows, also with meteoric success. Social media platforms have since deployed addictive algorithms that exploit social and cultural insecurities, turning thousands of influencers into wrestlers with more (or sometimes less) clothing. Artificial intelligence (AI) now generates artificial "content" further compounds deep divisions and spreads conspiracy theories that weaken our country, our culture, and our democracy. Cultural literacy in 2025 requires a basic understanding of wrestling, its parlance, and its history. It helps explain how we became the society we are, and provides insights and guidance for those who wish to change it. Every American, even those who have never seen professional wrestling, is living in the world that wrestling made possible. ericbyler.substack.com (https://ericbyler.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Eric Byler

Category

news · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

27 Sept 2024

Latest episode

28 Sept 2025

Latest episodes

17 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   28 Sept 2025

   The truth about Hulk Hogan — Episode 12

   Host Eric Byler interviews media critic Sarah Kurchak and scholar Dr. Sharon Mazer about the life and legacy of Hulk Hogan, examining his impact as an American hero and controversial figure in wrestling history.

2. 

   19 Jun 2025

   Trump's genocide fable inspires mockery in South Africa, but for us it's hard to laugh —Ep.11

   Sisonke Msimang explains how the "white genocide" narrative, fueled by activists like Kallie Kriel and Ernst Roets, impacts South Africa's political landscape and U.S. foreign policy in this interview episode.

3. 

   11 Jun 2025

   Arguing about racism is fruitless unless it leads to healing — Ep.10

   Author Sisonke Msimang discusses her memoir and reflects on race, class, and moral responsibility in South Africa and North America, emphasizing the importance of human connection over societal divisions in an interview with host Eric Byler.

4. 

   4 Jun 2025

   If we don't speak up, the Senate will kill my child

   Courtney Hester-Green, a military veteran, passionately advocates against Medicaid cuts that threaten her daughter's life and the lives of countless other children, emphasizing the dire consequences of prioritizing tax cuts over healthcare in this interview.

5. 

   3 Jun 2025

   Remarks prior to arrest at the U.S. Capitol by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II

   Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II's arrest at the U.S. Capitol for civil disobedience highlights his ongoing fight against unjust policies and his commitment to moral action, as captured in this episode.

6. 

   29 Apr 2025

   This molten thing about interracial sex

   “This molten thing about interracial sex” was always at the core of fights about integration and equality, explains historian and author Dr. Timothy B. Tyson. And thus, the most interesting discovery I’ve made on this Wrestling Darkness journey was revealed to me. This modern incarnation of oppression and abuse of women online, which was the subject of the previous episode (https://ericbyler.substack.com/p/deep-fake-porn-crowdsourced-sexual), has thematic roots that can be traced back to Reconstruction. “The Southern Rape complex” was the political strategy that fueled each of the murders we discuss in this episode. It made white dominance of our nation’s political process sustainable for most of the 20th century. But this racist lie and gender covenant was gradually vacated by white women, and the simmering rage of “the Southern rape complex” is now turned against women in general, as well as nonwhite men. A ritual of sexually charged political violence echoes throughout this episode, and continues to deform the American psyche and culture. History catches up with us Tim Tyson is a dear friend of mine. He taught me to like whisky, something I never would have expected, honestly. And, he showed me that a loving and moral man can love his culture and his country without being blind to its sins. This episode is, on one level, two friends catching up after a period of separation caused by my six years as a family man living in Australia. But this friend happens to have written two New York Times best-selling books, the first of which was impelled by his confusion and pain during a “late-model lynching” that took place during his childhood. The resulting book, Blood Done Sign My Name (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blood-done-sign-my-name-timothy-b-tyson/1100617948), lured one of the vanishing ghosts of the Jim Crow Era to come out of hiding. After reading it, she summoned Tim to her home for a private confession about the most infamous hate crime in American history, the murder of Emmett Till. Tim wasn’t planning on writing a book about the Till case. But Carolyn Bryant — the woman who accused Till of having sexually harassed and touched her at the family store — had given him the only two interviews she had granted in the five decades since Till’s death. And she had entrusted him with the pages of her unfinished memoir, which he agreed to one day furnish to the appropriate historical archive, but until then keep under wraps. He spent the next seven years researching the case. When The Blood of Emmett Till (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Blood-of-Emmett-Till/Timothy-B-Tyson/9781476714851) was published in 2017, Tim was contacted by the Mississippi Attorney General and the FBI. Under subpoena, he turned over all his research materials, including the unfinished memoir for a renewed investigation, that could potentially charge Carolyn Bryant with a crime. We discuss this during the episode, but the bulk of it is devoted to the myth of “the Black Beast Rapist” which was engineering by politicians and media moguls to incite the wave of terrorism that violently overthrew the democracies of each of the former Confederate states between 1875 and 1898 — and how this evil but ingenious narrative echoes in this, the era of Trumpism. Watch all episodes of Wrestling Darkness on Substack (https://ericbyler.substack.com/) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gojae5-vn8&list=PL-3rkJCyh1bol-UxC89huJtfu12BpdTkB&index=2), and hear them on all the usual podcast apps such as Apple Podcast (https://apple.co/3BNwlG9) and Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2CZtbjqG9RA4FK4jsYy9sa). Tim Tyson appears in The Headless Klansman of Selma (https://ericbyler.substack.com/p/watch-the-headless-klansman-of-selma), a short film I co-directed with Annabel Park. Get full access to Wrestling Darkness at ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe (https://ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

7. 

   22 Apr 2025

   Deep fake porn, crowdsourced sexual abuse & how women will take back the web

   Without hiding her pain or her vulnerability, Nina Jankowicz (https://www.americansunlight.org/team) shows tremendous strength as she describes how hundreds of thousands of grotesquely sexual and violent online assaults have hurt her, frightened her, and impacted her life. In this episode, she talks about her book, How to Be a Woman Online (https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/how-to-be-a-woman-online-9781350267589/), which declares that “our rights as women to free expression online are just as valuable as our abusers.” We talk about why we haven ‘t gotten there yet, and how the Take It Down Act (https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/4569), legislation that has passed the U.S. Senate, might just break the dam. How can 250 Fox News segments be wrong? Fox News has many, many things in common with professional wrestling. Both mass media products are conflict-driven soap operas that script and perform storylines that form a pretext for violence. In the case of Jankowicz, the violence Fox News engineered has been virtual. It has also been grotesquely sexual, misogynistic, and antisemitic. Since Fox News aired 250 segments instructing its millions of viewers to hate her, Jankowicz has endured hundreds of death and/or rape threats, hundreds of thousands of messages containing sexualized and/or sexist abuse, a cyber stalker, and the virtual assault of “deep fake pornography.” A few weeks before she was due to give birth to her son, her security service advised her and her husband to flee their home after their address was posted online. Now, you might be asking yourself why Fox News targeted her. What she might have done to deserve these attacks? Was she caught on camera sharing a ginger mint with her mother on Election Day? Did she once sign a petition alleging that 9/11 was a hoax? Well, no. And really, that’s not the point. She’s a progressive woman with ideas that sound threatening to some men and to many conservatives. But conservative women have faced online sexual abuse as well. Perhaps we can put political goals aside in the interest of equality, democracy, and free speech — or how about public safety? The purpose of crowdsourced online abuse is make the target feel afraid and alone. They hope she will feel so isolated that she will decide that her voice and her online civic engagement are not worth enduring the backlash. That’s precisely why we need the targets of such assaults to break their silences, and that’s why the rest of us need to have their backs. Watch all episodes of Wrestling Darkness on Substack (https://ericbyler.substack.com) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gojae5-vn8&list=PL-3rkJCyh1bol-UxC89huJtfu12BpdTkB&index=2), and hear them on all the usual podcast apps such as Apple Podcast (https://apple.co/3BNwlG9) and Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2CZtbjqG9RA4FK4jsYy9sa). Mentioned in the episode above are Woman Hating (https://ericbyler.substack.com/p/episode-1-woman-hating) (Season 1, Episode 1) and Sins of the Algorithmic Curator (https://ericbyler.substack.com/p/sins-of-the-algorithmic-curator) (Season 2, Episode 2). To support Wrestling Darkness and other content on the Eric Byler Substack feed, please subscribe or make a tax deductible donation (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/YBTY2TJUNCKBY). Get full access to Wrestling Darkness at ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe (https://ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

8. 

   21 Mar 2025

   Sins of the Algorithmic Curator

   “A deluge of content sorted by incentivized algorithms and shared instantaneously among aligned believers has enabled us to immerse ourselves in environments tailored to our own beliefs and populated with our own preferred facts.” So writes Renée DiResta in the era-defining book Invisible Rulers (https://www.reneediresta.com/books/). She traces the history of human-to-human influence from the local tavern in preindustrial times to the early days of radio and television, and the present day incentive structures on social media that cut in favor of nastiness, lies, and vilification. In a previous episode (https://ericbyler.substack.com/p/age-of-the-fantasist-wrestling-darkness) of Wrestling Darkness, Lawrence Lessig attributed this phenomenon to the profit motive of Big Tech companies. Realizing that their users’ search, scrolling, and clicking preferences offered them a gold rush of data to be exploited for targeted advertising, companies like Google and Facebook kicked off an arms race, supercharging curation algorithms to induce addiction. Lessig cited and recommended DiResta’s book during the interview. I read it, loved it, and asked her to sit down with me for this fascinating conversation. The episode (https://ericbyler.substack.com/p/age-of-the-fantasist-wrestling-darkness) that led to this one is embedded below, and don’t miss DiResta’s interview with Mona Charon of The Bulwark (https://substack.com/@monacharen/p-156552330). To support Wrestling Darkness and other content on the Eric Byler Substack feed, subscribe or make a tax deductible donation (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/YBTY2TJUNCKBY). Get full access to Wrestling Darkness at ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe (https://ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

9. 

   9 Mar 2025

   Wrestling Darkness returns: The stubborn illusion of the theatrical

   When we buy a ticket to see a movie or a play, the worst that can happen is we’ll be bored, or disappointed, or we won’t be able to maintain our suspension of disbelief. As viewers, we do all we can to believe in worlds of make believe, and in return we get escapism, catharsis, a good cry, a laugh, or a scare. But what happens when the form of entertainment to which we have committed ourselves follows us into our communities and our homes? What if there’s no escape from the escapism? And what if the consequences are life and death on a global scale? It seems the people best equipped to navigate politics in America today are wrestling performers, their followers, and their ringmasters. Donald Trump and Jon Stewart certainly understand the game. Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy do too. Trumpian politics, like wrestling, is a never-ending parade of ruptures and realignments. When you have the power, the money, and the skill to decide for your audience who to hate and why, you have the power to transform a narrative, or summon a mob. Stewart’s breakdown of the infamous Oval Office debacle was both hilarious and tragic. He didn’t even need to mention Trump’s meteoric success as a professional wrestling performer 18 years ago, nor his shift to two important derivatives of wrestling theatricality: reality TV and cable news. His success on The Apprentice depended on the illusion that he had been successful as a businessman. His success as a cable news personality derived solely from his shameless depiction of a deranged bigot fixated on Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Most people I know think wrestling is for fools, not to be studied or considered beyond a cheap insult or a punchline. But the joke is on us, if a deeper understanding of wrestling parlance and culture eludes us for any longer. While season one of Wrestling Darkness examines how and why we came to live in the world pro wrestling created, Season 2 kicks off with an introduction to some of the most famous plot twists in wrestling history as a prism through which to see, yes, Trump and J.D. Vance’s tag team debacle in the Oval Office, but also other political performances that are otherwise incomprehensible. Wrestling’s leading scholar Dr Sharon Mazer (https://academics.aut.ac.nz/sharon.mazer) joins us once again from New Zealand along with author and journalist Sarah Kurchak (https://sarahkurchak.carrd.co) who joins us from Toronto. In her forthcoming essay, Dr Mazer grapples with the stubborn illusion of the theatrical as it applies to wrestling, politics, and humanity’s uncertain future. Below are three relevant episodes from Season 1 of Wrestling Darkness: To support Wrestling Darkness and other content on the Eric Byler Substack feed, please subscribe or make a tax deductible donation (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/YBTY2TJUNCKBY). Get full access to Wrestling Darkness at ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe (https://ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

10. 

    7 Jan 2025

    Ep. 5: Why wrestling fans boo Hulk Hogan

    A $5 billion dollar deal to stream World Wrestling Entertainment on Netflix kicked off on January 6, 2025 with 4 matches sprinkled across three hours of pageantry. But the headlines were stolen by Hulk Hogan. Boos and screams of “Nobody cares!” and “f***ing b******t!” drowned out his pitch for a beer brand he launched as part of a right wing backlash against a Bud Light commercial that featured a transgender woman. What does the Hulkster’s rude reception tell us about wrestling's past and America's future? Wrestling’s preeminent scholar, Dr Sharon Mazer, joins us along with wrestling fan and media critic Sarah Kurchak (https://sarahkurchak.carrd.co) to help us sort it out. See all five episodes of Wrestling Darkness on Substack (https://ericbyler.substack.com) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gojae5-vn8&list=PL-3rkJCyh1bol-UxC89huJtfu12BpdTkB&index=2), and hear them on all the usual podcast apps such as Apple Podcast (https://apple.co/3BNwlG9) and Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2CZtbjqG9RA4FK4jsYy9sa).—Eric To support Wrestling Darkness and other content on the Eric Byler Substack feed, please subscribe or make a tax deductible donation (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/YBTY2TJUNCKBY). Get full access to Wrestling Darkness at ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe (https://ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

11. 

    18 Dec 2024

    They faced down fear politics, and won

    Seasons Greetings! The holidays have snuck up on me but I will post a mini-episode for Wrestling Darkness (https://ericbyler.substack.com/p/age-of-the-fantasist-wrestling-darkness) before the end of the year. In the meantime, I have added 9500 Liberty to the podcast feed. If you hear/watch even a few minutes of it, you’ll understand how it relates to the podcast and to the present day. —Eric Arc of justice It looked pretty bleak for immigrant advocates in Prince William County, Virginia. On July 10th, 2007 the Board of County Supervisors had suddenly and unanimously passed “The Immigration Resolution,” legislation written for them by an anti-immigrant lobbying firm in Washington D.C. The Immigration Resolution required police officers to apply greater scrutiny to people who looked like immigrants. Once they had stopped a person for an otherwise lawful reason, such as a speeding ticket, police officers would be mandated to ask for proof of legal status if they discerned “probable cause” based on their appearance. Civil rights attorneys raised concerns about racial profiling and violations of the Constitution, in particular, Equal Protection under the law. Police officers were worried about losing the trust of communities of color, something they had worked hard to earn, and an important tool in preventing and solving crimes. Citizens and recent immigrants wondered if they would get pulled over by the cops because of the color of their skin. In a county of 380,000 residents, no one seemed to know about the Board of County Supervisors’ fateful vote, with the exception of an arch-conservative County Supervisor, the Beltway lobbyists who had approached him, and a local group of activists calling themselves “Help Save Manassas.” Help Save Manassas was led by a blogger named Greg Letiecq, a talented writer with fantasist (https://ericbyler.substack.com/p/age-of-the-fantasist-wrestling-darkness) communication skills far ahead of his time. It was as if Steve Bannon had used a time machine to send a digital foot soldier from the future. If a crime was committed by a person with a Latin-sounding name, the blog would pounce with frightening images and dire warnings about an invasion of dangerous criminals. Letiecq’s blog posts (and his chorus of commenters) created the perception that there was a crime wave in the county, even though crime rates had been steadily falling for years as the immigrant population had grown. The blog even blamed immigrants for the existence of rats. In the year-plus before the immigration controversy, Letiecq had attracted a sizable fan base — hundreds, perhaps thousands. He could persuade many of them to write an email to the Board of County Supervisors, or appear in person to speak during “Citizens Time,” with the click of a button. The Board of County Supervisors — made up of 6 Republicans and 2 Democrats at that time —quaked in their boots. Never had they received so many emails! The votes in favor of the Immigration Resolution in September and October were unanimous also. The Latino community responded with mass protests and angry denunciations. But the popular perception was that the immigrants were not voters, and thus should be ignored by elected officials sworn to represent Real Americans. And the Real Americans wanted the immigrants removed as quickly as possible, so much so that they were willing to divert public safety resources to do it. When the widely respected Chief of Police, Charlie Deane, who had been serving the county for five decades, was informed he was being attacked on a blog, he said, “What’s a blog?” People who opposed Letiecq’s views read the blog too. They felt compelled to keep up to date on who he was coming after next. If a business leader or a member of the clergy expressed reservations about the Immigration Resolution, the blog and its commenters would attack them viciously. Boycott the church! Boycott the business! People were receiving death threats. And when advocates for the Immigration Resolution addressed the Board during Citizens Time, they echoed the blog’s hyperbolic rhetoric. “One way or another, we will repel this invasion!” one man, a previously respected attorney, famously shouted. The specter of mob violence was in the air. Oh, and there was a statewide election taking place at the same time. The Democratic candidates were under pressure to shift to the right on immigration. At one point, I walked past the office of the incumbent Democratic state senator for the area. I could see through the window that the blog was up on the computer monitor. It was everywhere! Despite all of that, things were about to change, and quickly. The Regular Person Strikes Back The extended trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjHUb9PqysI) for 9500 Liberty tells the story in 4-minutes. But I do recommend listening to or watching the entire film because experiencing it in 78 minutes gives you a sense of how it felt to live in a climate of fear, and what it took to overcome it. Everyday people banded together, inspiring one another with hard work, innovative ideas, and periodic doses of civic courage. The turning point (in my view) came when a woman created a second blog to oppose the first one. Writers on the blog used their own names to stand up to the bullies, so to speak. They also organized email campaigns and appeared during “Citizens Time, and they did all of this with a cohesive message structured around the common good; whereas the previous opposition had been immigrants standing up for themselves or religious people speaking out in defense of “the least of these.” Facts about crime soon triumphed over fictions. Morality and ethics were still part of the argument, but these were joined fiscal responsibility and legal liability. Would the U.S. Department of Justice be okay with requiring the police to profile people? If not, would they sue the county as they had other jurisdictions that ran afoul of the Constitution? What if a legal resident felt their rights had been abused and filed a lawsuit? What if dozens of them did? Would frightening away a few thousand immigrants be worth the cost to taxpayers? The growing coalition included moderate Republicans, Democrats, and independents. It included members of faith community, members of the business community, and concerned citizens, many of them moms with immigrant families or immigrant family histories. Each new person who stepped forward emboldened the next to do the same. The Supervisors and others in the county government saw that there was at least as much opposition to the “probable cause” mandate as there was support. In the end, it was an economic argument that pushed them over the top. Immigrant families took flight it droves. Homes and businesses were abandoned, decimating property values and with them the county budget and the local economy. Proponents of the “probable cause” mandate fell victim to some unfortunate timing — the mandate went into effect just when the economic impact of all the fear and controversy was becoming undeniably visible. The leading economist in the area explained in a widely seen video (that I produced) that business owners, customers, and capital (money) were leaving Prince William County because of the controversy and the radical shift in policy. The housing crises, he rightly judged, was part of a national home foreclosure crisis that was gripping the nation in early 2008, but Prince William County’s immigration fight had made it much worse, and he had the data to back it up. It became clear the Immigration Resolution was hurting everyone; not just its intended targets. The mandate for immigration status checks based on “probable cause” was stripped from the books on April 29th, 2008. Life returned to normal. And, crime? After a brief spike that coincided with the ugly controversy, crime rates continued to fall. To support Wrestling Darkness and other content on the Eric Byler Substack feed (https://ericbyler.substack.com), please make a tax deductible donation (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/YBTY2TJUNCKBY) or subscribe. Get full access to Wrestling Darkness at ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe (https://ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

12. 

    14 Dec 2024

    Wrestling Darkness 4: Age of the Fantasist

    My guest in episode 4 of Wrestling Darkness is Professor Lawrence Lessig who explains in his essay, The Age of the Fantasist (https://lessig.medium.com/the-age-of-the-fantasist-80b86f428d8f), how and why algorithmic media came to reward narratives that lie to us. “The fantasist doesn’t worry that he will not please everyone. He’s not aiming for everyone. Indeed, he is aiming precisely to avoid appealing to everyone. Division drives attention in a world of fragmented media.” —Lawrence Lessig Perhaps you’re not prepared for a conversation that bridges artificial intelligence (AI) and professional wrestling. Don’t worry, neither was Professor Lessig! But we did arrive at a helpful framework for decoding today’s media landscape, an important first step if we decide we wish to change it. AI selects for people (fantasists) that resemble professional wrestling because it knows such fact-free hyperbole causes people to click, to watch, and to share. The aggregate impact is a threat to humanity, Lessig warns, because it divides us, and thus, makes us ripe for the conquering. AI is “the most extraordinary technology humanity has ever even conceived of,” he said during harrowing presentation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zYHqg1PwoQ) at TedxBerlin in February. But, it is one we need to watch “with the paranoia of the hunted.” If you like episode 4, the previous episode most closely related to this one is episode 2. —Eric PS: I am entering a Fair Use battle with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and other corporations that own its content. Right now, the first two episodes of Wrestling Darkness are blocked on YouTube. The guests for these episodes have written books about professional wrestling and are critical of wrestling. But the Fair Use doctrine was not intended to insulate entertainment corporations from criticism by academics or journalists. The U.S. government defines the Fair Use as a legal doctrine intended to promote freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances, including nonprofit educational purposes. Regardless of the outcome, you can see all four episodes on Substack (https://ericbyler.substack.com), and hear them on all the usual podcast apps such as Apple Podcast (https://apple.co/3BNwlG9) and Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2CZtbjqG9RA4FK4jsYy9sa). To support Wrestling Darkness and other content on the Eric Byler Substack feed, please subscribe or make a tax deductible donation (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/YBTY2TJUNCKBY). Get full access to Wrestling Darkness at ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe (https://ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

13. 

    20 Nov 2024

    Episode 3: How to please a demigod

    Oscar Keohan and Jacob Johns traveled from Australia to tour the U.S. in the weeks leading up to the 2024 presidential election. But an unexpectedly dark turn at a Trump rally in North Carolina overshadowed their de Tocqueville-like experience. Supplemented by video recordings, they share with us why they felt sickened by the way the president-elect manipulated his fervent supporters, and the way the crowd responded. Donald Trump’s journey from Wrestlemania to the White House and the truth-bending madness that has metastasized in politics, news infotainment, and online echo chambers is summarized midway through this episode, which means viewer/listeners can begin here and circle back to episodes 1 and 2. To support Wrestling Darkness and other content on this feed, please make a tax deductible donation (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/YBTY2TJUNCKBY) and/or subscribe. The music for Wrestling Darkness was composed by Michael Brook (https://www.michaelbrookmusic.com), who scored all four of my feature length films. The jazzy improv rendition of the song is performed by David Scott Binanay (https://davidscottviolin.com) & Stephen Munoz (https://www.reverbnation.com/stevessonicplayground?fbclid=IwY2xjawGjSXxleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHRM9Tg9-JHocQ13W_MXBNpF4p_UIGSAC-LNbM1XJaHo3WUObxuKdbIEo8A_aem_gxSy9DJRlCrZUk0aML90_A), who also played at my wedding! —Eric Get full access to Wrestling Darkness at ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe (https://ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

14. 

    12 Nov 2024

    Episode 2: Wrestling Has Infected Everything

    Abraham Josephine Riesman, author of the best-selling biography Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ringmaster-abraham-josephine-riesman/1141652395)., explains how the production of cheap, addictive entertainment such as pro wrestling, cable news, and reality TV, changed the culture of American. Our conversation traces a cultural transformation that began in the mid-1980’s, as the truth-bending madness of professional wrestling took hold in adjacent sectors such as cable news, Jerry Springer and similar talk shows, and reality TV. With Donald Trump's celebrated Wrestlemania appearance, followed by his emergence as the leader of the Birther movement, wrestling-style fandom would go on to revolutionize politics, government, and society as well. In Episode 1 (https://ericbyler.substack.com/p/episode-1-woman-hating), Dr. Sharon Mazer and I focused more on violence against women depicted in wrestling programs. We also delved a bit deeper into Donald Trump’s political rearing in the wrestling arena. To support Wrestling Darkness and other content on the Eric Byler Substack feed, please make a tax deductible donation (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/YBTY2TJUNCKBY) and/or subscribe. The music for Wrestling Darkness was composed by Michael Brook (https://www.michaelbrookmusic.com) and performed by David Scott Binanay (https://davidscottviolin.com) & Stephen Munoz (https://www.reverbnation.com/stevessonicplayground?fbclid=IwY2xjawGjSXxleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHRM9Tg9-JHocQ13W_MXBNpF4p_UIGSAC-LNbM1XJaHo3WUObxuKdbIEo8A_aem_gxSy9DJRlCrZUk0aML90_A). The Wrestling Darkness podcast and the other content found on the @EricByler (https://substack.com/@ericbyler)substack feed is supported by the 501c3 non-profit ID Alliance (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/YBTY2TJUNCKBY). Get full access to Wrestling Darkness at ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe (https://ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

15. 

    12 Nov 2024

    Episode 1: Woman Hating

    Dr Sharon Mazer is the author of Professional Wrestling: Sport and Spectacle (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/professional-wrestling-sharon-mazer/1131293337), and the only woman in the film Mr. McMahon (https://www.netflix.com/watch/81684926?source=35) invited to offer a socio-political critique. Dr Mazer argues that Donald Trump’s political career and persona are direct outgrowths of his appearances in Wrestlemania and other professional wrestling programs, and that the structure and format of wrestling has “escaped the arena” and warped American culture. The docuseries, directed by Chris Smith, has many fascinating and important threads, and even a heartwarming story about Vince McMahon’s relationship with his son, Shane. But Professor Mazer and I focus on violence against women depicted in professional wrestling, and allegedly inflicted on employees of Vince McMahon over many decades. To support Wrestling Darkness and other content on the Eric Byler Substack feed, please make a tax deductible donation (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/YBTY2TJUNCKBY) or subscribe. Get full access to Wrestling Darkness at ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe (https://ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

16. 

    9 Oct 2024

    Forgiving the fathers we lose to racism

    A woman once told me she got divorced because of a film I made. Seeing the film deepened her misgivings about her husband’s racism, and after years of questioning herself, she left him. The woman was Asian and her husband was white — just like my mom and dad, and just like a couple played by Ryan Kutrona and Takayo Fischer in American Knees. (http://AmericanKnees.com) Above: Selected scenes from American Knees. Below: The message I intended. Love is all Hank and Keiko take turns squeezing hands with Miles (Stephen Bishop), expressing with great fervor how delighted they are to welcome him into their home. Unspoken, yet obvious, is the fact that they are uncomfortable with his Blackness. Hank thinks he is impervious to accusations of racism because he married an Asian woman. He objects when his daughters date men of color not because of his own feelings, but because he wants to protect his daughters from (white) society’s judgement. Julia (Annie Katsura Rollins) and Aurora (Allison Sie) respond to this paradox in different ways. Julia stews with muted anger when her mother deploys Asian-mom insinuation to pressure her about her African American boyfriend. Aurora has taken flak from her dad about an Asian American boyfriend, but that relationship is over now. She plans to appeal to his better nature to pave the way for Julia’s marriage. Hank is the character I altered most in adapting Shawn Wong’s canonical novel (https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295984964/american-knees/). I made Hank more charming, unassuming, and lovable because I wanted audiences to feel the ache of confronting racism in someone who means the world to you. Someone like your Dad. As he shrinks in her eyes It is not only white men who want power over women’s bodies. But when gender insecurities are compounded by racial insecurities, the result can be ghastly. In locker rooms, at pro wrestling events, and at political rallies, men think they appear strong and masculine when they talk about asserting power over women. But in the eyes of women, the opposite is true. When Hank explains why he is meddling in his daughter’s romantic life, Aurora is overwhelmed with sadness and disappointment. He feels his own diminishment as he shrinks in her eyes. It’s tragic for them both. In seconds, the father she loved melts away and in his place, she sees the man he always was. What should she do now? Aurora’s quandary, which always brings tears to my eyes, was inspired by the following words from the novel: “Each time you let something pass that’s generally insulting or racist about Asian people and it isn’t specifically directed at you, you’re in a sense passing for white.” “Passing for white” is an especially painful notion for mixed race Americans because it means that we are hiding behind White privilege, exploiting our lighter skin or other attributes to benefit from racist hierarchies that we otherwise denounce. With these words, which I borrowed in the screen adaptation, Shawn Wong explained to me why I felt ashamed when my baseball teammates used racist stereotypes to poke fun at an Asian player in the other dugout. I could have said, “Hey, my mom is Chinese.” But I didn’t. Before and since then, I have “let it slide” when people in my presence made homophobic remarks and objectified women. Usually, it was in settings where cohesion was preferable to conflict (a family gathering, a sporting contest, a news room, a film set). Sometimes, I just didn’t feel like starting an argument. So where we draw the line? I draw the line when bigotry is made into government policy. I consider it a civic duty to interrupt that process in any way I can. In the film, Aurora’s family has enacted a family policy under which Julia’s African American boyfriend is welcome in private settings but not at Hank’s retirement party. This policy hurts her sister in ways she cannot accept. When she fails to change her father’s mind, she tacitly forgives him. But she decides not to attend the party. Thankfully, my father has never put me in such a position. But, like millions of Americans of every background, I lament the walls that Fox News and Donald Trump have created between us. I share some of the blame. When I went to Wesleyan University and came home angry and defiant on matters of race and racism, I said things that hurt him. I have since learned to be respectful in such conversations. But my father and I usually avoid the subject. We talk about things we both love, his grandkids mostly, and baseball. Every now and again we try, but these days racism and politics have fused to a degree that neither of us can tell them apart, and parsing the lines between fact and fiction is as tedious as it is fruitless. It aggravates us both. I can’t make my father in my own image any more than he can make me in his. And even if that was my goal, it would be a selfish one — more about me than about making the world a better place. My father raised me well. He was and is warm, kind and loving. And now that I’m a father myself, I realize that I learned and gained from him all the best parts of me that I bring to fathering my own children. I value nothing more. The least I can do is love him in spite of Fox News. He is much happier. I am as well. Also depicted in the selected scenes above: Chris Tashima as Raymond, Joan Chen as Betty, Kelly Hu as Brenda. Eric Byler is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Wrestling Darkness at ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe (https://ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

17. 

    27 Sept 2024

    The Headless Klansman of Selma

    The Headless Klansman of Selma is the story of a Confederate monument that venerates the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Like the Trump political phenomenon, the statue originated as a backlash against the results of a free and fair election. The people of Selma, Alabama elected the city’s first ever African American mayor on September 12, 2000. The defeated mayor, a former segregationist, quietly approved the KKK monument as a message for his successor and those who supported him. The monument was vandalized in 2012, leaving it headless, and our film follows the ensuing battle to its May 23, 2015 conclusion. Donald Trump’s golden escalator ride was three weeks later on June 16, 2015. The day after that, Dylann Roof brought a gun to a Bible Study at an African American church and killed nine people. This led to the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State Capitol grounds, a process I documented extensively. The power of white grievance On Feb 20, 2016, I was back at the South Carolina state capitol covering the presidential primary when I stumbled across a “Confederates for Trump” rally. This video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjPmzw1SbBk) was the result. The Confederates weren’t exactly thrilled that Trump had said he supported the removal of their flag. But they knew instinctively that Trump was a suitable replacement, perhaps a better one. They told us Trump would save America from immigrants, Muslims, and the “ethnic cleansing of white people.” The organizer of the rally gave us a copy of a conservative newspaper that included an article about how President Obama was a secret Muslim. Trump’s Birtherism campaign, and his candidacy, were a backlash against the results of the 2008 election. There is a pattern here. Look up the term “Massive Resistance.”Or just consider that the Civil War was a violent backlash against the election of Abraham Lincoln. The Confederate flag being placed atop the South Carolina capitol in 1961 was a backlash against the Civil Rights movement. And, Selma’s KKK statue was a backlash against the 2000 mayoral election. But unlike the Headless Klansman, Trump emerged after the 2008 election as a walking and talking, flesh-and-blood symbol of resentment — a rebuke and a retaliation against multiracial democracy and the outcomes it can sometimes produce. And, he had policy proposals to prevent that. The Trump story and the Confederate monuments story fused, in my mind at least, in August of 2017 at the “Jews will not replace us!” rally — which began as a fight over a Confederate monument in Charlottesville, VA. The torch bearers didn’t just chant about Jews. In reference to the perception that Russia had helped Trump win in 2016, they chanted: “Russia is our friend, the South will rise again!” The invisible word Historian and author Tim Tyson said (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgQOvsEBPoU) something that really stayed with me when we interviewed him for what became The Headless Klansman. “When I grew up, there was an invisible word in parenthesis in front of the word Southerner, or South. And that was the word ‘white.’ When you said, ‘The South will never submit!’ you meant white!’” Professor Tyson’s foil in Headless Klansman is Todd Kiscaden, a wealthy engineer who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as in-kind construction work, to support the Klansman monument. Mr. Kiskaden defends the Ku Klux Klan as a “social club” designed for masquerading and parading. When the KKK discovered that their hoods and robes happened to frighten “skulkin’ around town, unemployed, getting into all sorts of mischief negroes,” they transformed into a “law and order” club. He doesn’t mention the thousands of innocent people who were tortured, murdered, and left hanging from trees, but rather the righteous objective of the KKK: to encourage African Americans to get jobs. If you don’t believe my summary, here is the KKK narrative in full: History, if not basic common sense, will tell you that the former slaves were accustomed to hard work. Overwhelmingly, they intended to work as subsistence farmers. Jim Crow laws made it a crime, however, for them not to have jobs working for white men. It was “loitering,” punishable by incarceration, after which they could be sold back into slavery as part of their sentence. Sharecropping and working as domestic servants were the only jobs available to them, so that’s what the majority of them did. And as for the “skulkin’ around” business? That’s just one of many lies that were used to justify murder and terror. The preferred lie was “rape” of course. Do I need to remind you which in politician in present-day likes to describe nonwhite people as “rapists” (while having been he himself accused of rape and sexual assault by 26 women)? But let’s hone in on the “lazy loitering former slaves” lie. Did you notice in the film that two defenders of the Klansman monument connected “entitlement programs” with slavery? We heard that dozens of times in our travels. This is not just because they consider welfare programs morally equivalent to slavery. Present-day political beliefs about entitlement programs are rooted in grievances and lies made up by former slaveholders to justify the violent overthrow of democratically elected governments and decades of racial oppression. False narratives that justify oppressing nonwhite people remain a dominant and fundamental part of our political discourse, as the Trump/Vance pet-eating lie attests. We need to come to terms with the fact that (white) false narratives lead to (white) political violence. Dylann Roof’s church massacre, Payton Gendron’s grocery store massacre (where he shot and killed African Americans and apologized to white people), the Tree of Life synagogue massacre, and January 6th insurrection are recent examples. History is filled with them, although most are forgotten. Mr. Kiskaden gave us a copy of a book that he said proves his version of history. It is called “An Authentic History of the Ku Klux Klan.” A decade later, I haven’t removed the shrink-wrap. But in the coming days, I will read this book. I’ll let you know how that goes. Mr Kiscaden told us that when he goes to Civil War reenactments, he dresses up as both Confederate and Union generals. His performance as a Union general portrays a tyrant who intends future federal governments to oppress us by forcing us to have Obamacare. Professor Tyson explained, rightly, “Arguments about history are always about the present.” Fanatical Trump voters don’t mind when his racism and other forms of bigotry are out front and center. For decades, as propaganda pushed them further and further to the right, they held their noses and voted for candidates they felt were not racist enough. Along came Trump. It’s their time now. Tepid Trump voters are the ones who rely on invisible words. Let’s add a few more invisible words while we’re at it. “Racism,” “political violence,” and the “racist lies” that stoke political violence. These are paths to (white) power when accepting the results of free and fair elections won’t do. The tepid and the fanatical Trump supporters have formed a powerful coalition. But let’s not pretend the invisible words are invisible anymore. It’s time to stop pretending, and vote our values. To support this and other content on the Eric Byler Substack feed, please make a tax deductible donation (https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/YBTY2TJUNCKBY)and/or subscribe. Get full access to Wrestling Darkness at ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe (https://ericbyler.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

Who has been a guest on Wrestling Darkness

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Sarah Kurchak
• Dr Sharon Mazer
• Sisonke Msimang
• Courtney Hester-Green
• Rev Dr William J Barber II

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 4 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

8

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0