I am writing today to announce the formation of the Professional Wrestling Studies Association.

Last spring, several wrestling studies fans and scholars met at the Central States Communication Association conference in Minneapolis to discuss the formation of an organization to promote and produce professional wrestling studies. Based on this conversation, we began drafting the plan for the Professional Wrestling Studies Association (PWSA), which you can read at this link.

During the summer months, we have been working on phase one of the plan to produce this organization: the creation of a website/blog for curating relevant content. For now, this website/blog will serve as the online depository for articles, both scholarly and public, written by academics, fans, and professionals. You can find the website/blog at this link: https://prowrestlingstudies.wordpress.com/

This SummerSlam weekend, you can follow the PWSA’s Twitter account for livetweeting of both NXT TakeOver Brooklyn III and SummerSlam 2017. The Twitter handle is @ThePWSA.

After this weekend, tune in to the blog to read recaps of the shows, as well as their fallout for Raw and SmackDown. Join wrestling scholars and fans like Garret Castleberry, Dan Mathewson, CarrieLynn Reinhard, and others to discuss, dissect, critique, and fawn over the big summer shows.

Going forward, we are looking for more individuals who would be interested in contributing to this website/blog as well as working to develop the PWSA into a formal association, which could oversee a potential journal. The first publication the PWSA is overseeing will be a special edition of the Popular Culture Studies Journal, which will be released to coincide with next year’s Wrestlemania.

If you are interested in either contributing or collaborating, or if you would like to remain on this listserv to receive future communiques, please respond either to this email or the PWSA’s email at prowrestlingstudies@gmail.com.