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Thrashing Seasons: Sporting Culture in Manitoba and the Genesis of Prairie Wrestling by C. Nathan Hatton

2018; Volume: 38; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/gpq.2018.0014

2333-5092

Eunice G. Pollack, Stephen H. Norwood,

Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

Reviewed by: Thrashing Seasons: Sporting Culture in Manitoba and the Genesis of Prairie Wrestling by C. Nathan Hatton Eunice G. Pollack and Stephen H. Norwood Thrashing Seasons: Sporting Culture in Manitoba and the Genesis of Prairie Wrestling. By C. Nathan Hatton. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2016. ix + 332 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $27.95 CAD, $31.95 USD paper. In Thrashing Seasons C. Nathan Hatton tracks the transformation of wrestling in Manitoba—mainly in Winnipeg, "the west's biggest and wildest city" (5)—from the province's entry into Confederation in 1870 through the Great Depression. Once considered by some "the world's most scientific indoor pastime," (70) featuring "exemplars of perfect male physical development," (61–62), after 1931 wrestling in Manitoba was reconfigured as a spectacle of "orchestrated mayhem," only a "form of escapist entertainment" (230). Catch-as-catch-can wrestling—the "tug and pull and grunt game" (229)—in which local grapplers matched their strength, speed, endurance, and "mental acuity" (6)—was superseded by "Slam Bang" theatrics in which American stars thrilled audiences with "flying tackles, … airplane spins," and "well-placed kicks to the 'Johnny Risko'" (228–30)—this "clownish burlesque" (224) generating massive gate receipts. Hatton begins by sketching the functions of wrestling among the First Nations, especially Chipewyans in the late eighteenth century, whereby youth tested "physical attributes essential to the hunt" and men wrestled for the woman they desired—"the strongest … carrying [her] off as the prize" (21). The study focuses, however, on the decades in which Winnipeg, the "western hub of the transcontinental railway," and home to a disproportionate number of "young, unattached male laborers, [End Page 120] many …'of the roughest kind,'" achieved renown as a "vice city" (37–38). Professional wrestling matches were staged in taverns, hotels, and variety theaters—the patrons rowdy, drinking, "smoking or chewing," the floor "slippery with tobacco juice" (56), everyone gambling on the outcome, the "obsession" with the grappler's "precise … measurements" (66) reflecting only an interest in more informed bets. The matches were displays of roughness, toughness, aggression, and domination, and even with the introduction of Police Gazette rules after the turn of the twentieth century, the crowds expected referees to overlook "punishing arm-locks" and the victor's knee pressed continually on the body of the adversary, "splayed on the mat" (76). Hatton structures the study around wrestling as "frequently 'contested territory'" (13), with "reform-minded members of the middle class" (19) drawn to the sport, but repelled by much of the conduct on and off the mat celebrated by working-class fans. Having embraced Muscular Christianity, with its call for "serving God with one's entire being" (32), the reform-minded appreciated wrestling as "a 'natural' activity that exercised all of the body's muscles," countering the modern "soft, weak body … indicative of a soft, weak character" (38–39). At the same time, they condemned the raw "forms of manhood" in full display at the matches, fervidly cheered by the workingmen—the "bloodshed and violence," the alcohol and gambling, the grapplers' "frequent connection to a … culture of criminality" (41–42). Instead, reformers endorsed amateur wrestling, centered on "character building" (134), the grapplers exhibiting a wholesome and "appropriate manliness" (52), both matmen and spectators abstaining from alcohol, the matches "clean" and far removed from the "sullied world" (129) of the professional sport. Above all, wrestlers were to engage in sport only for sport's sake, with victors awarded medals, not money. The restrictive code adopted by the Canadian Amateur Athletic Union (1907)—accepted by the YMCA-Manitoba, long the center of amateur wrestling there—required the athlete never to have competed "for a staked bet, moneys,…gate receipts, or … against a professional for a prize" (123). Hatton points out that the Y and amateur clubs nonetheless violated these strictures by hiring men who had wrestled professionally to coach their members and by promoting the clubs' "championship laurels" while denying they sought to produce "star athletes" (135). Thrashing Seasons is an informative book on an important subject, but the focus is too narrow and the categories too broad. Although the author's interest is in "reform-minded members of the middle class," he often...