“He’s a real man’s man”

The unique—and carnivalesque—nature of professional wrestling performance and, by extension, professional wrestling spectatorship and fandom has made it an enduring site of enquiry when trying to make sense of narratives that seem to fully immerse their audiences. And, given wrestling’s focus on violent struggle between (traditionally, almost always male) competitors, scholars have examined both the various representations of hypermasculinity and the ways in which audiences engage with—or are affected by—these narratives.