Happy Fourth of July, America! In honor of the nation’s birthday, today’s gallery focuses on wrestlers working the patriotic gimmick, especially with the iconic red, white, and blue Stars and Stripes gear.
In our current cynical, multi-cultural world, the Patriot gimmick is a bit of a throwback. Americans are more conscious of our reputation in other parts of the world. People who say they love their country nowadays are looked at as being a little naive, maybe a little disingenuous, or even perhaps racist. So we don’t see the over-the-top flag waving too much any more — we don’t hear the “USA! USA!” chants at wrestling shows as in the past.
One of the most shameless uses of blatant patriotism to put over a Baby-Face wrestler was Hulk Hogan’s “Real American” campaign in the 1980’s. He even had a song and music video promising to fight for the rights of every man.
As I look back at some of the propaganda issued to promote the Real American, I’m struck by the hyper-sexuality and phallic symbolism that markets not only his love of country, but also his apparent prowess at sexual intercourse.
Is Hogan’s stiff, straight, thrusting arm mean to resemble a big cock? Was the intent of this image to get us to buy into Hulkamania, to tune in to pro wrestling, or to feel strong and confident as Americans?
In this image, the buff Hulkster has traded his flagpole for a guitar. The neck of the guitar, gripped in his fist, is positioned just right to resemble an impressive erection.
Apparently the message is that, not only do Real Americans say their prayers and eat their vitamins, but they also have big hard members. If we watch pro wrestling and cheer for the Hulkster, if we love America, maybe we will be well-endowed and masculine just like him.
Recall that during the 80’s, our nation was in the Cold War and Arms Race. The people needed to feel confident, secure, and superior to our political rivals. Presenting muscular, sexually charged, hyper-masculine Real Americans in the ring made us feel stronger and support our country’s ideology when it was needed most.
This magazine cover presents “America’s Hero” as a veiny, erect, stiff hard-body. Seeing the flag draped across his shredded shoulders, we don’t know whether to salute or salivate.
One reason that many Baby Face wrestlers use the Patriot gimmick is that it averts Gay Panic. A hetero-sexual male might feel ashamed or queer by cheering for another dude — especially a buff, nearly naked dude.
But we’re supposed to love our country, right? It’s OK to cheer for the Red, White, & Blue, to get excited about freedom and liberty, to love one’s country. So draping the spectacular male in a flag (not a rainbow flag — the Stars and Stripes) makes it perfectly acceptable for presumably hetero-sexual guys to worship him, cheer for him, and want to protect and rescue him, because loving American ideals (as represented by the Patriot) is hetero-acceptable. It’s not gay, it’s patriotism.
Also, in pro wrestling it’s harder to succeed as a Face than as a Heel. It’s easy to get the audience to hate you just by cheating, insulting their home town, or spitting on the flag. But to be seen as a Hero, to inspire the crowd’s love and compassion without looking too wimpy or cheesy or cloying, is a tall order and may take years to achieve.
So one shortcut for engineering a Baby-Face is traditionally to drape the Baby-Face in a flag. We know at a glance that he loves his country, so he is presumably honest and forthright, and he will defend our freedom from dirty cheaters (especially the Foreign Bastards).
Also sex sells, so one way to get young men to love pro wrestling, the Baby-Face, AND their country is to get them horny first with handsome, attractive dudes suffering and dominating in their American flag gear.
Traditionally, the Patriot gimmick was used to fire up the crowd in support of a handsome young boy-next-door in the ring with a Foreign Bastard. This gimmick was common during the Cold War days and is still found on the Indy wrestling scene, but we’re seeing it less frequently in the Big Promotions.
The All American Boy was always the hero by default. We presumed that he must be a good kid — eager, honest, hard-working — because he was Made in America. But as we grow less confident in our economy, as we see the Big Banks getting away with fraud, as we hear about our leaders snooping around in our phone records, we are less attracted to the Patriot American gimmick.
In an interesting modern twist on the Patriot gimmick, Jack Swagger loves his country a bit too much, and we hate him for that. He portrays the Real American as a Heel — a nationalistic xenophobe bastard who doesn’t like immigrants.
While patriotic gear used to be short-hand for a Baby-Face Hero, in the complex, modern world, it isn’t that simple. Now we aren’t so naive and easily manipulated by a wolf in star-spangled clothing. Now we want our heroes to love the USA in just the right way — in a welcoming, inclusive, multi-cultural way — and even a man draped in the flag is reviled if he is a dickhead.
Another interesting modern swerve on the old patriotic gimmick was recently presented by bad-ass Claudio Castagnoli. He is a foreign Heel from Switzerland who speaks several languages and thinks he’s better than us mono-lingual Americans. Yet he’s been waving our beloved flag around and sporting the Stars and Stripes on his trunks!
Is he making fun of our patriotism and love of America? Is he mocking the way we cheered for Hulk Hogan, Jim Duggan, and Sgt. Slaughter back in the 1980’s? We want to hate him for using our beloved Stars and Stripes to point out the ridiculous folly of patriotism. But if we hate him too much, then we become the boorish, close-minded, easily manipulated sheep that he is pointing us out to be. It’s an interesting spin on a classic wrestling trope — I kind of love him for it.