When one Tag Team partner is in the ring, doing his job as the “Face In Peril,” I often want to know how his partner is feeling outside the ropes, watching the punishment unfold.
Is the Safe Partner outraged by the way the opponents are manhandling his friend? Or is he growing frustrated by his wimpy, ineffective partner’s lack of aggression and skill?
Sometimes the Safe Partner grows so angry and disgusted with the situation, that he begins to Trash Talk his own partner — further degrading the suffering man and emotionally kicking him while he is down. This gallery focuses on that situation, the Safe Partner’s words of “encouragement” that are actually meant to shame and humiliate his own partner.
It’s rare that we get to hear the comments by the partner outside the ropes. He needs to yell pretty loud to be picked up by the camera on the far side of the ring.
I think they ought to mount microphones on the corner posts so we can listen in on the inter-team dynamics, the conversation happening between a man and his partner.
Not only is the other team dominating the Face in Peril, but his own partner often piles on as well with comments like: “Get up and fight!“, “Why can’t you get out of that hold??“, and “Come on Bro — these guys are nothing! Don’t let them do that to you!”
The Safe Partner implies that he would be doing a better job if only he were in the ring. This highlights the problem inherent in most Male-Male relationships: the competition and struggle for Alpha Male position between the two men.
By pointing out his partner’s failings, the Safe Partner bolsters his own dominance and masculinity in contrast to his suffering partner. He co-opts the Alpha Male position at a time when his partner is unable to fight him for it. With his subtle words of “encouragement”, he is getting over at the expense of his partner, and placing himself in power by default, because at least he is not the one suffering. In Tag Team wrestling, the relationship between two members of Team is usually more interesting and more fraught with subtle power plays than either wrestler’s relationship with their rivals and enemies.
The victim in the ring is feeling humiliated enough from his degrading beating in front of God and country. He hopes he hasn’t let down his partner — that his partner at least will support him.
So for his own partner to also express disgust and embarrassment over the partner’s failure piles on even more shame, further emasculating him.
Of all the people watching the Baby-Face’s suffering, his own partner’s opinion matters most of all. So by Trash Talking the beaten man, the Safe Partner inflicts greater psychological harm than the opponents — by turning against him, by pointing out his short-comings and weakness. When done right, this competition, this verbal one-up-manship between partners can add excitement to Tag Team matches, so listen for that inter-team Trash Talk, the “encouraging” comments that are actually a spit in his face.