The smaller partner in the “Prime Time Players” tag team, Darren Young, told TMZ he is gay in August 2013. This is a remarkable event, for a pro wrestler to come out in real life (not part of the story), especially in a sport involving so much male-on-male body contact and near nudity.
Here is a match from a month later where Darren and partner Titus take on the creepy Wyatt family.
In case you’re not up to date, the Wyatt Family is a group of scruffy red-neck Heels who have long beards and wear dingy old clothes, even while they wrestle. The cult-like group is led by a psychopath hill-jack named Bray Wyatt, and his two followers, Rowan and Harper, are the two bearded half-wits who will be “wrestling” against the Prime Time Players.
There are several common pro wrestling themes going on in this match which make it entertaining to watch. Obviously we see clothed males dominating the (nearly) naked male, with poor Darren looking especially vulnerable and exposed with his bare skin contrasted against the fully clothed and long-bearded Wyatts. He is also performing the Man against Wild Beasts gimmick, like Tarzan forced to fight a couple of apes. Also, we can see the classic trope of Big Partner – Little Partner (or Daddy and Boy), with Darren Young the smaller member of his team forced to endure the bulk of the abuse and struggle to reach a tag from his more powerful partner.
Another theme is the isolation of the Face-in-Peril, the villains cutting the ring in half and keeping him trapped in their corner. The Wyatts do a stellar job blocking every attempt to escape. I believe the old isolation gimmick is meant to resemble an abduction — the arrest and torture of the victim and forced separation from his partner.
This sense of abduction is even greater in this match because the Wyatts look so creepy and backwoodsy, like extras from the film Deliverance — the sort of odd hill-jacks who just may have somebody chained up in their shed out back of the barn.
This match also plays on the classic wrestling theme of Smear the Queer — the punishment of the man who is different or unusual. Recall that this match took place only weeks after Darren came out. The Wyatts do not appear to be accepting, open-minded types when it comes to embracing alternative lifestyles. With their long beards and dirty clothes, they look like the type who may just chain the nearest homosexual to the back of their four-wheeler and drive him around the holler for a few hours.
This match is fully intended to depict the cruelty, unfairness, and humiliation of a Gay Bashing. The match was probably booked soon after Darren came out, and these rednecks were specifically chosen to deliver this beating to remind fans that there are still many backwards people around who hate and fear gays.
So we see the Wyatts restraining Darren in their corner as if he’s been tied to a fence. Harper sticks his fingers inside Darren’s mouth to penetrate him. When Rowan goes to lift Darren for a Bodyslam, he very deliberately cups his victim’s ballsack from behind. This inappropriate touching makes this scene appear to be not only a Gay Bashing, but also a sexual assault.
And outside the ring, rocking rhythmically in his chair (an allusion to masturbation??), Bray Wyatt is apparently getting off on the violence.
Might he be portraying the typical homophobe who is outwardly very extreme in his hatred of gays, while secretly harboring closeted desires? Has Darren’s announcement attracted Bray Wyatt’s interest?
After Darren Young announced he is gay, he and his partner were quickly re-packaged as a Baby-Face team, with Darren playing the Face-in-Peril who always suffers the onslaught of the cruel (and apparently homophobic) Heels. Coming out can be a frightening experience, so his status as a Face, the object of our sympathy, is enhanced by his announcement.
It seems the general public is growing sympathetic toward homosexuals and the dangers of coming out, willingly cheering for Darren in his new role as perhaps the very first Outwardly Gay Baby-Face. Now wrestling federations will have a new tactic for getting us to support and love their Baby-Faces — get them to come out.
Finally Darren escapes the Bashers and tags in big, beautiful Titus O’Neil. I must say, I really need to blog about Titus more often. That big wide back, those over-stuffed trunks, whew…
But just as Darren was bashed for being gay, so too is Titus bashed for hanging out with a gay. Harper dominates and pins the big man with a degrading hand over his face.
Bray Wyatt then gets in the ring to continue the bashing. He first bends Darren back in a pose resembling a female dancer being dipped by her partner. Then he kisses Darren on the forehead.
It always seemed gay when Wyatt kissed his victims, but when he kisses a known homo-sexual as in this case, it adds even more sexual energy to his strange “Sister Abigail” maneuver.
It was really unnecessary for Bray Wyatt to attack Darren Young. His minions had already won the match. The writers could’ve had Darren suffer the pinfall, which would be more plausible than seeing Titus O’Neil dominated. So I believe Bray’s attack on Darren was deliberately planned to continue the theme of Gay Bashing and to create further confusion around Bray Wyatt’s ambiguous sexual preference. After all, he has two men as his slaves, and he often dances with and kisses his male opponents. Having a known homosexual now available for Bray to kiss and to Gay Bash allowed the writers to push the “is he or isn’t he” window further open.
