Kiwi Pro Wrestling

I went to my first ever wrestling event this weekend, it was awesome.

Some of the highlights of the Cossie Carnage event (from a total noob):

• Impressively functional and highly constructed costumes (with all that rough and tumble, I only picked one or two wardrobe malfunctions)
•  Good vs evil alter egos, the dramatic nature of the rivalries were a pleasure to witness.
•  The close proximity between the audience and the physical expression of wrestling, The crowd were very much active participants in the matches in terms of loudly supporting the good guy, booing the baddie and heckling the referees. 
•  Some excellent critique and engagement with gender stereotypes. A couple of male wrestlers utilised aesthetics that are typically associated with femininity whilst performing highly masculine acts of physicality: Johnny Idol wore his hair in pig-tails and Jonnie Juice adapted a sparkly love heart motif. Sadly the level of engagement with racial stereotypes left me wanting more* 
• The overall spectacle was really fun and I look forward to attending more Kiwi Pro Wrestling matches in the future. 

*Researching the representation of indigenous people is my job and I can't turn that shit off - it is very problematic when people are just trying to have a good time. Killjoy, I know.

A giant thanks to my lovely friends Aurora and Dan for inviting me along. As for the blue sky imagery - it is a part of a project I have been working on for the last few months. Two birds, one stone - heart from Sarah.