SLT: Hair Pulling

One of those “Subtle Little Things” (SLT) that I enjoy seeing in a pro wrestling match is the pulling of hair to control and manage one’s opponent.

When a wrestler wishes to pick up his suffering victim (in order to inflict more punishment), he could simply grab an arm or shoulder.  I think it’s in the Jobber Handbook that they must get to their feet whenever a Heel even touches their shoulder.

But many Heels will wrap their fingers in the other man’s hair, make a fist, and slowly draw him up by the head.  It is totally unnecessary, it is painful for the victim, it is a real Dick move — so you better believe I enjoy seeing it in the ring.

When I would roughhouse with friends as a youngster (often just after watching pro wrestling on TV), I learned that certain attacks are not appropriate such as biting, scratching or pulling hair.  Those were defined as underhanded tactics — the way girls fight — so Real Men are not permitted to employ those attacks (even if they’re highly effective.)

So seeing a wrestler snatch another man by the hair seems like a major transgression — a violation of the Man Rule that requires men to fight fair.  The wrestler using this tactic is seen as a cheater or a dirty bitch.

The man losing a match sometimes tries to escape the situation — to scurry outside the ring or cower in the ropes.

The dominant man does not appreciate this separation of their bodies, the distance between them.  So he walks over and grabs the run-away by his hair to pull him back in for more physical contact and punishment.  “Get up here — playtime ain’t over yet.” YANK!    This is part of the reason I enjoy Hair Pulling: it gets them back together in the ring for more rasslin’.

Touching of the head is also an expression of intimacy between two people.  It is a romantic expression to run your finger’s through a lover’s hair.  Your hair is personal, private space — off limits in most social interactions.  For example, your boss can give you a pat on the back, even a little shoulder rub, for a job well done, but the minute he ruffles your hair, he’s gone too far and you can probably sue him.

But outside of work, a long-time friend might put you in a Headlock, ruffle up your hair and say:  “Atta boy!  I love this guy!”  The touching of hair is a socially appropriate expression of intimacy between men, and the constant grabbing and holding of hair in the wrestling ring implies a closeness between the wrestlers involved.

Randy Orton has always been a Bad Ass, but he was also a heroic figure and rarely cheated. Recently Randy switched to the Dark Side and became a completely cruel, unsympathetic, dickish Heel.

Now that he is a full-blown Dirty Heel, Randy has begun pulling hair relentlessly.  Watch one of his matches these days — he will drag his opponent up by the hair (slowly, savoring the moment) at least a few times each match.  He looks out into the crowd as he commits this transgression, as if to saw “Awwww, look what I’m doing to him now!”  (And Ziggler sells the agony of having one’s hair ripped out beautifully.)

Often the hair pulling occurs with the victim on his knees, his head down near the attacker’s belt level.  When this occurs, the tone is more explicit and more sexual. The image of one man’s bulge and the other man’s face in close proximity, with one man controlling the other man’s head, sends a message of dominance and sexual conquest.

A power imbalance is suggested by their positions (one standing, one kneeling).  The implication is that the inferior man on his knees will be made to serve the superior man — will be used for whatever the standing man wishes to use him for.

One variation of the Hair Pull move, which a reader of this blog mentioned as one of his favorite Subtle Little Things in an email to me, is the Leading by the Head move.  Instead of gripping his hair, the dominant man just places one hand on the side of his face and pulls him along like a dog on a leash.

This is how the reader described his reaction to this Subtle Little Thing:

“Here are some things that make my tummy feel funny and my cock throb with excitement:  Gently and slowly leading your jobber across the ring by the sides of his head…  I do love any head/hand contact. Slowly helping a punk up, hands planted on the sides of his buzzed head…woof.”

“I think, like most aspects of pro wrestling, it’s really all about control. Who controls whom. Control the head, and you control everything else… Many times, you see the guy whose head is being grasped simply freeze up and go with the flow… Another aspect I like is that you’re often forced to look at your opponent.  Think about a muscled jobber on his knees in front of his opponent, humbled, defeated, he doesn’t even want to look at the heel towering over him. But the heel wants to savor the humiliation, gently (or roughly) placing his hand under his jobber’s jaw and pulling him up like”Look at me.”

Just because a jobber is bald doesn’t mean he won’t be dominated and humiliated.  The Heel just needs to find another way to express his power and control.  Resting a hand on top of the beaten man’s head, or palming his head like a basketball also express the imbalance of power between the men which the fans love to see.

I also enjoy when an attacker grabs the back of his victim’s neck — the slapping sound when his hand makes contact with strong neck muscles.  That could be it’s own SLT gallery if I can find enough photos of it!

I’ve noticed Ziggler sure gets his hair pulled frequently — why is that?  Since he became a Baby-Face, his every opponent at some point grabs ahold of those long blond curls and yanks the suffering stud to his feet for more abuse.

Ziggler is blessed (or cursed) with the sort of gorgeous hair that makes other men want to feel it and pull it.  His hair is a bright golden hue that really draws your attention, and he grows it long and wavy — just begging you to sink your fingers in and get a good twist to really snap his head around.  Long pretty hair is symbolic of male vanity, and other men want to take him down a few pegs by ripping and tearing at that pretty hair.

One final note on this Subtle Little Things series — I am now noticing exciting aspects of wrestling that I never saw before.  I never paid too much attention to the Hand on the Face thing until that reader e-mailed me that he enjoys it.  Now I see it all the time — I watched Raw this week and noticed wrestler’s touching each other’s face and lifting them by the cheek or chin over and over again, and loved it.  So it’s nice to know that it’s possible to key in on someone else’s favorite little wrestling thing when you know what to look for…