Professional wrestling presents a simulacrum of grappling and combat sport practices with ancient roots, framed by serial narratives of rivalry, jealousy and deceit that present a simplistic moral universe. [{note}]1 Situated between sport and theatre, the audience has a large and active role in the spectacle, participating as if the results of the matches were not determined before the performers enter the ring. Professional wrestling exaggerates the imperative to perform --the sentiment that the 'show must go on.' After all, it is as if there were something at stake for the spectators, and their gestures of affirmation often encourage excessive work and labour on the parts of the wrestlers. Fans cheer when wrestlers bleed. Risky leaps are rewarded with admiring chants. Throughout, the wrestlers labour through a performance of pain, which is frequently made apparent in their bruised, bloody, and broken bodies. These displays of performance labour frequently move beyond the theatrical. If an actor playing Hamlet stabs an actor playing Laertes in such a way as to actually draw blood, there is significant cause for concern. In pro-wrestling, a similar situation is met with cheers as it attests to the authentic labour of the performance. The three examples discussed in this article --an in-ring death, an extreme style of wrestling, and a stunt gone too far --demonstrate theatrical affirmation while troubling the ways in which audiences directly consume and affirm or encourage the labour of the performer.The cheers of the crowd, however, are only part of an economy of performance that includes affirmation in the form of remuneration. Most wrestlers work for a wrestling promoter or a corporation that produces wrestling events. Some wrestlers work on a per match basis, while others might be contracted to perform for longer periods of time. Marx reminds us of the relation between performer and entrepreneur:A singer who sings like a bird is an unproductive worker. If she sells her singing for money, she is to that extent a wage labourer or a commodity dealer. But the same singer, when engaged by an entrepreneur who has her sing in order to make money, is a productive worker, for she directly produces capital. (Marx 1864, emphasis added)

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The day I realized it can be smart to be shallow was, for me, a deep experience.

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