CarrieLynn D. Reinhard is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Dominican University, USA. She is the author of Fractured Fandoms: Contentious Communication in Fan Communities, the co-author of Possessed Women, Haunted States: Cultural Tensions in Exorcism Cinema, and the co-editor of Making Sense of Cinema: Empirical Studies into Film Spectators and Spectatorship and Heroes, Heroines, and Everything in Between: Challenging Gender and Sexuality Stereotypes in Children's Entertainment Media.

Christopher John Olson is a Ph.D. student in the English Department at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, USA, where he studies media, cinema, and digital studies. He is the author of 100 Greatest Cult Movies, co-author of Possessed Women, Haunted States: Cultural Tensions in Exorcism Cinema, and the co-editor of Making Sense of Cinema: Empirical Studies into Film Spectators and Spectatorship and Heroes, Heroines, and Everything in Between: Challenging Gender and Sexuality Stereotypes in Children's Entertainment Media.

1. Introduction: Defining Convergent Wrestling (CarrieLynn D. Reinhard and Christopher J. Olson)

2. Wrestlers, Fans, and Power Dynamics at Live Events (Annette Hill)

3. Kayfabe as Convergence: Content Interactivity and Prosumption in the Squared Circle (CarrieLynn D. Reinhard)

4. Wrestling with Characters: Viewer Engagement in Contemporary Television Wrestling (Oliver Kroener)

5. Sports Entertainment: Toward a High Concept of Professional Wrestling (John Quinn)

6. WWE's Corporate Documentary: Convergence, Collective Memory, and the Case Against Warrior (Christopher A. Medjesky)

7. Who Is the "Baddest Bitch in the Building?": Genre Convergence and the Inversion of Gender Roles in Lucha Underground (Christopher J. Olson and Rogelia Lily Ibarra)

8. Allusion and the Reality of Power: Professional Wrestling and Technology's Role in the Re-creation of the Referee (Shirley Oakley)

9."Ultimate! Atomic! Buster!" Street Fighter, Professional Wrestling, and Visual Semiotics (Justin Wigard and Ted Troxell)

10. Pile-Driving the Fourth Wall: Audience as Participant in CHIKARA Professional Wrestling (Matthew Wysocki and Joshua Call)

11. The Pro-Wrestling audience as Imagined Community: Reflecting on the WWE Universe as a "Fan-Generated Narrative" Body (Joyce Goggin and Argyrios Emmanouloudis)

12. "What's Best for Business": The WWE Cruiserweight Classic and Managing Renegade Audiences Through Affective Economics (Robert Watts)

13. Wrestling Fandom and Digital Convergence: The Kitsch Class Consciousness of Sirius XM's Busted Open Radio (Garret L. Castleberry)

14. "I've Been in the Danger Zone!": Botchamania as a Site of Cultural Convergence for the Modern Internet-Savvy Wrestling Fan (Mario A. Dozal and Gabriela I. Morales)

15. Conclusion: Future Endeavors (CarrieLynn D. Reinhard and Christopher J. Olson)

Index

This book explores the ways in which professional wrestling has been affected by the current era of 'convergence', combining a range of genres, character types, business practices and narratives, all in one spectacle.