A University of Toronto Scarborough English course is taking professional wrestling seriously, in class and in the ring.
The course, taught by Professor Daniel Tysdal, asks students to examine wrestling through storytelling, performance and craft. It mixes literary analysis with hands-on experience, with students studying character, structure and audience engagement in a form Tysdal says works like fiction or film.
The idea took shape after Tysdal returned to wrestling in the early days of the pandemic. He had been a fan as a child, then started watching All Elite Wrestling, or AEW, at home with his wife. What started as casual viewing grew into a deeper interest and became something he explored in his own writing.
“I just started to see it as an art form,” says Tysdal, an award-winning poet and short fiction writer. “Like fiction or film, when it comes down to it, pro wrestling is all about storytelling.”
Tysdal then decided to learn more by training himself. He signed up for classes at Superkick’d, a Toronto wrestling gym a short walk from his home, and stepped into the ring for the first time. He says the training showed him wrestling was a demanding physical and creative discipline.
“The first thing you learn is how to fall properly,” he says. “Everything you do is built around that.”
Training includes repeated drills, learning how to land safely, move with a partner and carry out sequences that look violent but are carefully controlled. It is physically exhausting, combining strength training, cardio and choreography.
Tysdal has since developed his own in-ring persona, “A+” Mr. Croxtin, described as a reluctant teacher turned unlikely hero. He debuted the character at the OssFest street festival.
That experience fed directly into the course he built: ENGD54 “Extremely Revealing Bullshit” – The Art of Professional Wrestling. The course title reflects what the university describes as wrestling’s exaggerated, self-aware mix of spectacle and truth.
Tysdal says matches usually follow a seven-part narrative arc, moving from early set-up and rising tension to a dramatic climax and resolution. Wrestlers use character, pacing and moves to tell that story, and the crowd is part of it too.
“You’re telling a story with your body, and the crowd plays a big part of that story,” he says.
Students in the course analyze wrestling through literary frameworks. They study how matches follow recognizable narrative arcs and how characters, including heroes, heels and figures in between, drive the action. They also study “kayfabe,” the convention of presenting staged events as real, and how that blurring of fiction and reality shapes audience engagement.
“It’s just like watching a good play,” says Tysdal. “You’re not thinking these are actors, you just get swept up in the story.”
The class combines theory and practice. Alongside readings that include poetry, comics and academic essays, students watch weekly wrestling broadcasts, write reflections and complete critical and creative assignments. Some focus on themes such as race or gender in wrestling. Others create original characters or stories.
For Rekha Samlal, a fourth-year English and creative writing student, the class opened up a new way of thinking about storytelling.
“I didn’t have a background in wrestling at all, but I was intrigued,” she says.
As the semester went on, Samlal says she became absorbed in the storylines unfolding on screen, following characters and plots each week.
“I was very confused at first, but then you get heavily invested. You want to know what will happen next,” she says.
Students also experience wrestling in person. As part of the course, they attend a live event and visit the gym where Tysdal trains. There, they learn basic techniques and see firsthand what wrestlers put their bodies through.
“It made me realize, yeah, it might be staged, but what they put their bodies through is still real,” Samlal says. “They’re still hitting the ground; they’re still executing these moves.”
Tysdal says that mix of intellectual and physical engagement sits at the centre of the course. He says wrestling offers a way to think about storytelling because it exists at the intersection of sport, theatre and popular culture.
“Pro wrestling is very political. It’s a great vehicle for talking about class, gender, race, all of these topics,” he says, adding that the industry has also become more progressive and inclusive in recent years.
He says the aim is to study wrestling seriously as an art form and as a way of understanding how stories are constructed, performed and experienced.
“Once you start looking at it that way, you realize there’s something here for everybody.”
Read more from Goodable.
