Obedience Training

Have you seen this arrogant young Heel on TNA Impact wrestling?   Wow — that body!  He is called “Ethan Carter III” or EC3 for short, and he portrays the arrogant nephew of the company owner.

As the boss’s favorite, he is permitted to choose his opponent each week.  He usually selects the skinniest little jobber he can find and utterly decimates the punk.  His victory poses are stellar.

I don’t often see much on TNA Impact to blog about, but this stud sure caught my eye.  He is blossoming into one of those Heels who gets under your skin and both angers and excites you — the kind of perfect Bastard that you look forward to seeing humiliate lesser men each week.

On last Thursday’s episode of Impact, EC3 strutted to the ring looking especially sexy in animal print gear, his tanned physique coated in body oil, just glistening under the bright lights.  Where is that damn remote control, I need to hit the pause button quick.  He then announced he would wrestle “a legend” this week — the referee, Earl Hebner!   What the hell — this big hunk will just destroy that poor old man!  I think he damn near gave old Hebner a heart attack just by announcing his intent to wrestle with him…  You can watch the clip of this humiliating little scene on YouTube.

The older gentleman protested, saying: “I am not a WRassler.”  That’s how he pronounces it –WRASSler — like they say down South with a mouthful of tobacco, I fuckin love that pronunciation.  But young Master Ethan always gets what he wants:

You are a referee.  You are a subordinate — you represent the 99%, the working class.  All these fools here — that’s you.  But Earl, I am a one-percenter.  I am the nephew of the owner of this company… tonight you ARE my opponent.

Apparently the boss’s nephew also can select his own referee, so he calls Earl’s son Brian Hebner to the ring to officiate the match and orders daddy to “Lay down!” like he’s giving orders to a dog:

“Earl lay down right now, I swear, I will put you down.  I will decimate you physically, I will decimate you professionally.”

Now the Hebners could gang up on this cocky kid, right?!  They could fight back — one could sit on him while the other gives him the spanking he so richly deserves. But the Hebners don’t fight back.  Instead, they bend to the Alpha Male’s commands with their tails between their legs.

You may recognize this stud as Derrick Bateman from WWE NXT.  I once blogged about him getting destroyed in a Camel Clutch (twice). Prior to joining NXT, he wrestled as Mike Hutter.  His 2007 jeans and boots match was one of the most popular galleries I ever created.

Earl Hebner is an older gentleman and senior official — deserving of our respect.  To see this authority figure drop to his knees (his face at crotch level), totally obedient to the young dick was just awesome.  Adding Earl’s son to the scene, forcing him to watch his father turned into a bitch, was sheer genius.  No man wants to see his father publicly humiliated like this, laying down on his back in subservience!

The image is striking — the shirtless Alpha Male displaying his spectacular body for us, standing over his inferiors, forcing the fully clothed Hebners (who are supposed to be in charge as referees) to lay down for him, to basically worship him.  There is an exchange in power as the officials are now forced to obey the athlete.  Also the older man, the father figure, is forced to roll over like a weakling right in front of his son based on the orders of the youngest man in the ring — with the son powerless to prevent this humiliation of his beloved dad.

Carter stresses his power imbalance by pinning the older gentleman with just one arrogant finger — Nice!

After the pinfall was counted, Earl Hebner did not rise to his feet.  He continued to lay on his back, as limp as a ragdoll.  Why did he willingly continue his helpless role play? Why did he act so wimpy?  Is he afraid this young stud will kick his ass if he dares to stand up?  Or does he perhaps enjoy his new subservient role (as many men do) and he wants to savor his loss of power?

The young master orders Brian Hebner to “shoo” his own father out of the ring.  Brian obeys, rolling his motionless daddy away like a rotten old log as Carter pretends to kick dirt on the father.  As Earl Hebner falls to the floor outside the ring, the commentators point out the degrading nature of this act:  “How disrespectful and humiliating!”

But Ethan Carter III is not finished teaching Brian Hebner to obey and worship him.  Standing in profile to give us a good look at his ripped physique, the stud orders Hebner to raise his hand in victory.  Knowing he is beaten, Hebner of course complies with this order too.  (What else would he do if Carter commands him?)

So why are the Hebners willing to be dominated by this young punk?  Why haven’t they fought back?  The in-ring narrative offers two possible explanations:

First, as the boss’s nephew, Carter could have the Hebners fired if they don’t obey.  Second, Carter is clearly a powerful stud and could hurt both Hebners physically.

But I believe there is a third, less obvious story that explains the Hebners’ willingness to obey — because EC3 is a gorgeous, genetically superior hunk, the sort of Alpha Male we all know instinctively ought to rule us.  I discussed this natural instinct to obey the Alpha Male in my Inherited Primative Behavior series of articles.

Of course they should naturally want to obey him, we think in our heads, we all do — just LOOK at him!

Ethan Carter also does a great job establishing his dominance using his voice.  He talks just a bit too loud and too slow, as if he’s talking to slow-witted imbeciles whose brains operate slower than his.  He also says the names of his servants repeatedly before each command like he’s commanding a dog to sit or roll over:  “EARL: LAY DOWN!“, or “BRIAN: Raise. My.  Hand!”   From his tone of voice, we get the sense he is accustomed to giving orders and being obeyed — he is comfortable in his Alpha Male skin.

So I want to congratulate young Master Carter (or Master Bateman?  or Master Hutter?) on a job well done!  For me, your cocky Heel gimmick is a spectacular mind-fuck, keep it up.  TNA Impact is on tonight — I hope to see much more arrogance and outrageous acts of humiliation inflicted by this pampered pretty-boy on all of us 99 percenters.  And I sure don’t want this spoiled brat to get his inevitable spanking any time soon.