Yesterday’s discussion of the Subtle Little Things we love about pro wrestling focused on white boots, especially when paired with white trunks. Soon after posting that article, I stumbled upon this fun little Brit-Pro match on YouTube featuring the Wilson Brothers — Peter and Johnny, wearing (you guessed it) matching pure white trunks and boots. So if you haven’t over-dosed on white boots yet, here is another fix for you…
The Wilson Brothers’ opponents are a pair of over-the-top Sissy Boys named Bobby Barnes and Magnificent Maurice, who pound on the Gay Panic button until the audience is in a frenzy.
They delicately peel off their flowery robes, limp wrist their handshakes, and fluff up their curly hair as they prepare to lock up. All their prissy flouncing and prancing is both creepy and kind of arousing.
The sissy blonds first target Peter, the younger, smaller Wilson Boy. They move about gracefully, spinning and flipping as if they’re ballet dancing, as if they’re having a gay old time while also hurting their victim.
One blond may perform a fun little cartwheel and, oopsy-doopsy, he happens to kick Peter in the face in the process. Or he will spin his lithe body around like a top, and now presto, Peter finds himself in an Armlock.
There is some kind of a trope or cliche’ or Subtle Little Thing in this display of dominance by the Sissy Villain — the flexible spins and flips of the graceful attacker, kicking his legs like a Rockette at Christmastime, smiling and giggling as he prances around and bitch-slaps his victim, while his clumsy, manly opponent is destroyed by those silly moves. I am going to call this trope a “Sissy Whipping,”
Peter’s humiliation caused by being Sissy Whipped by the girly-men is magnified by the presence of his hairy-chested older brother watching disappointed from ringside as his little brother gets practically raped by a couple of queers. Finally the White Team reaches a tag, and the beefier, hairier-chested Wilson Brother — Johnny — enters the ring. Will he fare any better against the sissified offense of the two blond bombers?
Lovers of white boots — especially when they’re locked together applying scissors — will certainly take notice of the iconic image of the white-booted Johnny securing a breath-taking Headscissor on Maurice. This is definitely my favorite part of this classic match. Given the homo-sexual antics of Magnificent Maurice, we’re left wondering if he perhaps enjoys having Johnny’s powerful legs clamped around his throat.
“Tarzan” Johnny employs that maneuver where he floats up onto his hands and violently grinds his hips (as if he’s in the throes of the most powerful orgasm of his life), throttling the other man with his powerful leg thrusts.
Meanwhile the victim’s head is snapped around violently, trapped in between those relentlessly whiplashing legs like a piece of sushi being dipped in the sauce and shaken between two chopsticks.
The devious sissies gain the advantage over manly Johnny thanks to dirty cheating behind the ref’s back, strangulation with the tag rope, gut punches to the exposed tummy — the usual nasty trickery that got me all worked up in my younger days (and still does a number on me today.)
When Johnny is on his knees, Bobby Barnes (with a toss of his blond curls) delivers this stiff, vicious Knee Thrust to his jawbone, sending him right back down to the mat. It’s so bitchy and cruel, that quick knee, I love it!
And each time Johnny is thrown or flipped to the mat, he crashes like a ton of bricks, but when he tosses one of the blonds, they somersault and roll gracefully back to their feet and give him a little wave, totally unharmed. The implication is that their flexibility — their femininity — is not a curse but a blessing, granting them the swishy dexterity to escape the violent impact and bounce back up.
The message being sent, which was rather subversive in 1977 when this match occurred, was that the feminine — even the homo-sexual — could potentially dominate and rule over a traditional straight, masculine man. The Sissy Whipping was meant to make the empowered hetero-sexual males in the audience feel very uncomfortable about their dominant position in our patriarchal society. The Sissy Whipping depicts a reversal of power — the strong forced into the subservient position — and like all reversals of power and control, it can be one sexy, arousing mind-fuck.
Obviously the Wilsons are wearing all white in order to appear innocent and pure in contrast to the tainted, deviant Blonds. The implication is that the Wilsons are good boys who follow the rules and live moral, clean lifestyles like Altar Boys.
The flamboyantly dressed opponents, on the other hand, not only break the rules of the sport by cheating, but they also break the rules of nature by presumably not obeying certain parts of the Bible.
I was surprised to see older, stronger brother Johnny playing the Wilson-In-Peril for most of the match. Usually when Baby-Face Brothers are in a Tag Team match, the younger, smoother, weaker brother does the job. Maybe the message they’re sending is that these two queers prefer to wrestle the beefier, more masculine Wilson because they have an appetite for Beefcake. Maybe they enjoy the feel of his brawny body in their grips. Or maybe the comment a reader left the last time I blogged about Johnny Wilson is true — they he enjoys being the jobber:
“Mr. Tarzans true personna was that of a Jobber. Very Goodlooking–Built–a Hairy chest to drool over and I believe, the want and mindset to Jobb against the many Heels the British ring offered.”
In the end, little brother Peter is the one who suffers the final humiliation of being tea-bagged and pinned by the pansies.
Johnny was willing to eat numerous servings of their combined Sissy Whip offense during most of the match, but for the final shame of being pinned (or raped), Peter had to lay down and take it.
This fun match still works on many levels despite it’s age. It features several of the classic Subtle Little Things that my readers have mentioned: stripping off ring gear before the match; being bullied in the corner; partners in matching outfits; and obviously those gorgeous white boots. And the two flamboyant blonds really knew how to get under the audience’s skin with their dancing and prancing! Check it out on YouTube.