Talk Dirty To Me

I watched an interesting little clip from a Tag Team wrestling tournament (DDT4) sponsored by Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.  The match involves four of my favorite Indy wrestlers — Eddie Edwards and Roderick Strong against Kyle O’Reilly and Adam Cole.

You can view this clip on YouTube.  You can order the DVD of the entire DDT4 tournament from Highspots. The scene begins with Adam Cole squaring off against Roderick Strong while their partners look on from the corners of the ring.

Maybe Roderick twisted his Arm Wringer too tightly or maybe these two wrestlers just don’t like each other, because Adam Cole breaks the hold and suddenly shouts: “Suck my dick, Roddy!”  Oh hell yeah, Adam Cole with your crude potty mouth — we love it when you talk dirty.  That’s a turn-on, keep it up!

Without missing a beat, Strong delivers one of his trade-mark Pectoral Chops to Cole’s bare chest that sounds like a gunshot.  Cole scurries out of the ring and runs towards the ladies room, totally emasculated in punishment for his rude outburst.  Obviously Cole has crossed the line with his implication that Roderick Strong would even want to do that.

But the audience loves the idea of seeing Strong suck Cole’s dick.  They begin a relentless chant which has the wrestlers smiling and thinking about what to do next.

One can assume the audience consists of primarily hetero-sexual males, so why would they want to witness a gay sex act?  Maybe they just have dicks on their minds from seeing so many men wearing tight, bulging spandex all day long.

A polite offer by Roderick elicits an eager smile from Cole who begins nodding furiously and pointing at his bulge enthusiastically (as if Roderick perhaps didn’t know that’s where his mouth goes.)

This is the interesting, playful, and likeable aspect of the Adam Cole persona.  His matches often involve homo-erotic situations which push the envelope of male-male sexual tension and stir up Gay Panic (or perhaps Gay Lust) in the audience.  Recall when he was involved in a Gay-Off to determine which wrestler was the gayest (which he won by dancing romantically to a Backstreet Boys song).

He has taken this accusation by the fans that he is gay (because any dude that beautiful has got to be gay) and turned it around into a fun gimmick.  He challenges the absurd homo-phobia of the audience and of society in general by rubbing his queer antics in their faces and making them watch themselves over-react.

Next, to everyone’s surprise and delight, the manly Roderick Strong willingly sinks to one knee, apparently on board with fulfilling the fantasies of Adam Cole and the fans at ringside.  Cole loosens the drawstring of his trunks so he can whip it out ASAP!  Imagine if a stud like Strong made an offer like that to you — wouldn’t you be shedding your clothes FAST before he changes his mind?!

But, as with most gay scenes in pro wrestling, the homo-eroticism is only acceptable to a point — then the gay dude must be punished.  For the sin of allowing potential queer feelings enter into the wrestling ring (into the thoughts and fantasies of the male fans), Cole had to be emasculated and rendered impotent — left clutching his aching balls as everyone laughs at him.  You can see a short clip of the notorious Dick Chop by Roderick Strong in this YouTube video — the chop delivered at 2:03 into the video.

This is the old formula where the wrestlers titillate the audience with homo-erotic words and actions, then a line is crossed and Gay Panic sets in, then the tension is relieved through the punishment and humiliation of the queer.

But this audience has NOT reached the point of Gay Panic — in fact they want to see more sexual activity between these wrestlers.  When Cole tags in his partner, the “Suck his dick!” chant starts up anew.

Wrestling audiences are apparently growing more comfortable with explicit gay situations and scenarios in the ring as society grows more accepting of gays.

Actions that would have outraged the audience 20 years ago, such as telling another wrestler to suck it, or a wrestler dropping to his knees in willing response, or two men dancing together and touching lovingly are now hailed as exciting, funny, and potentially arousing content which people want to see.  The competitive advantage of Independent wrestling over the top promotions is that the Indies can play out these scenarios — can push the homo-erotic envelope a bit further.  As far as this wrestling fan is concerned, they can just keep right on getting more and more homo-erotic during their matches (with Adam Cole leading the charge.)