GRAPPLING WITH RACE: A TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF RACE WITHIN THE WWE

Abstract

Race and representation has been a leading issue in the history of television. Racialized narratives present themselves within film and television through scripting of content. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is the world’s leading wrestling promotion. The WWE has become the juggernaut of the wrestling industry because of its programming. The WWE has used racialized content to advance the storylines within their content. This study has examined the scripted nature of the WWE and how racialized narratives have entered the content of the WWE. In this thesis, I argue that the WWE constructs an audience that accepts the racialized narratives and that those narratives have possible implications on the perception of black men. The thesis is structured to have done this by examining first what race is, then providing a history of the WWE and an examination of the production behind the WWE’s content. In the third chapter, there is the examination of the racialization within the WWE and the final chapter concludes with the findings within the study.