According to IndieWire David may not have been ready to rumble after all. A Death Match with Nick Gage left him brutalized. Gage ground a light tube into the former Scream actor Arquette’s forehead.
We have been working with a photographer who has been documenting American Ultra Violence for several years.
Marc McAndrews has photographed matches around the US. McAndrews informs — Hulking warriors body slam each other to settle long-simmering personal grudges and geopolitical rivalries. Storylines infused with real-life themes are a public catharsis for world events that are out of our control: when I was a kid everybody loved Hulk Hogan, no one liked The Iron Sheik. Wrestling’s mix of athleticism and violent theatre has more in common with Shakespearean Revenge Plays than an actual sport.
Between the first Golden Age of wrestling in the 1940’s and the explosion of Hulkamania in the ’80’s audience levels were stagnating. The loosely affiliated independent promotions of the time began searching for new gimmicks. No longer were wrestling matches held to the rules of the carnival strongman competitions and fixed athletic performances of their roots. Matches moved out of the ring and into the audience. Tables and chairs were used on opponents. They experimented with social taboos and tested society’s limits with the introduction of blood as a theatrical element in the mid-1950’s. This visceral addition boosted audience levels new heights and was the genesis for what is now known as Hardcore Wrestling and the more violent Death Match.
After peaking in the 1990’s, these styles are having a resurgence with promotions popping up around the country. Blading, light tubes, barbed wire and falls from 20-foot scaffolding, once extreme novelties are now considered standard fare. With increasing levels of violence, independent promotions specializing in Death Matches perform in fields, social clubs and carnival-like events searching out new audiences. Masses of sunburnt men, women and young children crowd close to the ring as every fall into barbed wire and every broken pane of glass elicits gasps and eventual cheers when the wrestlers show off their injuries.
The popularity of the Death Match’s brutality with its theatrical self-mutilation for the crowd’s enjoyment asks many questions about society’s attraction to violence as entertainment. Why is the Death Match’s mix of real and theatrical so disturbing to so many people yet the real violence of MMA competitions or the stylized violence of Hollywood movies seemingly less offensive? Where is that line drawn between acceptable and offensive how does it get drawn?
The portraits of “American Ultraviolence” are a cultural document of the wrestlers and fans of this niche of choreographed violence and a meditation on society’s obsession with violence.
To learn more about American Ultra Violence by Marc McAndrews click the link. The images may not be for the faint-hearted. Arquette himself stated on his twitter account that he knew the match would be violent and potentially bloody, but he did not know the extent of what he was participating in. He goes on to say he takes full responsibility for putting himself in the situation. He even trained for the bought over the last six months by competing in indie matches. He has respect for the sport and apologizes to the profession for any potential negative attention this might have brought. He concludes that he is looking forward to getting back in the ring, under different circumstances in the near future!
