I am a fan of Comic books. I am a fan of professional wrestling.

These were two things that I would had never admitted to when I was a teenager. Those close to me, knew about the comics but not professional wrestling. I was heavily invested in wrestling till I was 13, once high school started it was something I would rarely think about. Comics, were not discovered till my early twenties. Now, as I finish up a long academic journey, I have found an interest in the two topics in my studies. The sociology of the comic culture and the wrestling culture have been present in many papers throughout the journey, but I never looked back and reflected on how they affect me.

Wednesday has become the day of the week for comic and wrestling fans, with new releases for comics. As well as NXT and AEW going head to head with some of the best wrestling on television.

But what does comics have to do with wrestling? I believe the fandoms co-exist due to the fact of simple storytelling. As well as the idea that both act as modern day mythology. In the wrestling ring, there is the good guy (baby face) and the bad guy (the heel), in comics we have the good guy (superhero) and the bad guy (the villain). Just from that standpoint, it represents a correlation, but it goes deeper.

Watching wrestling today, a viewer could tell the heel from the baby face much like a reader can from the pages of a comic book. Between Baron Corbin shoving dog food in the face of Roman Reigns or Bane takeover Gotham City. The two examples show that wrestling and comics have similarities in the method of telling stories.

Also the fans are another example that causes this idea of wrestling and comics to collide . Fans of a certain wrestler will follow them throughout their whole career rather they are good or bad, fans of Big Show have dealt with many changes in his character. Batman is an example in the comic industry where fans of the character will bitch about a writer on the series but still buy or read every issue due to the character.

As a fan of both wrestling and comics, I witness the toxic behavior of fans but also witness the pleasure that they both bring fans. As a wrestling fan I look forward to pay per views especially the royal rumble and wrestlemania even if I don’t watch wrestling every week. I find myself returning for a couple months. In comics, I am in a shop at least once a week and if one of the big two (Marvel or DC) have a epic event planned I have to read it.

There is just something about both wrestling and comics that brings people together even if they don’t partake in reading or watching every event. If WWE or AEW is in town, we try to buy tickets to the show. If there is a comic convention in town, you bet we will be there. It’s the community of both that allows for a love to be gained beyond what is created by wrestlers and comic creators.

If you haven’t yet, read Aubrey Sitterson’s The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling or Michael Kingston’s Headlocked series as they are prefect examples of how comics and wrestling work together.

The near future for both wrestling and comics has me excited right now between the return of Edge in WWE and Jon Moxley destroying it in AEW. In the comics world, Donny Cates is writing a crazy version of Thor that I can not get enough of and the announcement of Dark Knight: Death Metal, it is a great time to be a wrestling fan and comic fan.