Concussion in professional wrestling: agency, structure and cultural change

In this article, we utilise the social dynamics of concussion in professional wrestling to examine and critique calls for cultural change as a solution to the crisis of concussion in sport. Drawing on interview data from wrestlers, promoters, referees and healthcare providers in UK professional wrestling, we illustrate the experiences, attitudes and subcultural norms exhibited in relation to concussion. Despite increasing concerns that brain injuries present unique risks to long-term health, wrestlers continue to embody a culture in which pain is ignored, and ‘playing’ with brain injury is linked to notions of masculinity and wrestling identity. We further explore the organisational features of wrestling, which facilitate and compound these risk-taking behaviours, and conclude by identifying the structural-cultural causes of concussion in wrestling. In sum, economic precarity encouraged risk-taking behaviours, while the ‘free agent’ status of many wrestlers obviated the potential for any continuity of healthcare or paternalistic protection. Moreover, changes to the dominant performative character of wrestling led many to undertake increasingly risky moves, and the serial nature of character development and the centrality of interpersonal negotiations in workplace practice threw precautionary attitudes into conflict with self-identity and social reputational concerns. We therefore conclude that existing public health interventions designed to address concussion in sport, and particularly the concept of cultural change, need to diversify from predominantly medical and psychology-based models and embrace more holistic, structural conceptions of culture.