This week we will be looking at the early history of many different sports. The reading that I chose to read was titled “‘The Tennessee Test of Manhood’: Professional Wrestling and southern Cultural Stereotypes” by Luis M. Kyriakoudes and Peter A. Coclanis. This reading looked at the early history of wrestling and how it started in the southern states of the U.S. The reading looked at the evolution of wrestling beginning in the nineteenth century backcountry brawls between two men in an argument and people taking bets on who would win, to the big companies, the World Championship Wrestling or the WCW and the World Wrestling Federation or WWF. Another thing that the reading talked about was how professional wrestling not only started off in the south but even when it started growing many of the wrestlers were southern. Many of these companies and wrestlers were family and worked with one another to promote matches that caught on like brotherly tag team matches and things like that. It also discussed how wrestlers have personas that they create that are based off of different racial, ethnic, and regional stereotypes. There is an idea that is mentioned throughout this article and this quote exemplifies that idea. “Wrestlers’ personas drive the theatrical narrative, which pits hero against villain and creates the dramatic tension that intensifies the conflict in the ring.” Dick Stienborn adds on to this by saying that wrestling is about “good overcoming evil.” I think these quotes truly speak to the heart of the article that wrestling provides an entertaining show that displays a fight between good and evil. The article does state that wrestling is different however from other forms of entertainment because evil is not always defeated at the end of every match. Another way wrestling is different is that it is common for wrestlers’ personas to move from being the good guy for a period of time and the bad guy for other periods of time. This also allows rivalries to be created. The reading talks about how crowds love rivalries. Many times like for example in the 1980s there were rivalries that created great stories that sometimes related to what was going on in the world. For example, like when a group of “American wrestlers” were fighting to take down the “Russian Bad Guys”.