The always-entertaining, always-homo-erotic Joey Ryan wrestled at the 5/15/2015 Alternative Wrestling Show (AWS) event in California. As you can see, he wore eye-catching red trunks for the occasion to really heat up the crowd. Is that an extra lollipop in your jockstrap, or are you just happy to wrestle?
Of all mainstream wrestlers (i.e., those who perform in front of a live audience, not in some private studio or basement), Joey may be the most Gay Friendly. All of his “sleazy” antics — the sexy gear, the sucker in his mouth, the chest hair petting, the bold flaunting of his package — are designed to outrage, titillate, and entertain the (male) viewers — especially those viewers who are into dudes.
Joey’s partners in this sucker-fest are Rico Dinamita with the orange-striped trunks and awesome ink (you may recognize him from my recent “Playing with Dinamita” gallery) and Tito Escondido in the background with the cute smile on his face.
Tito and Rico apparently have been corrupted by Joey as signified by their sucking on his lollipops — a symbol of gayity.
Tito and Rico have wrestled together many times in the California federations — they call their Tag Team “Los Bandidos.” They appear to be sharing a lollipop, or maybe Tito is merely holding Rico’s sucker for him to suckle and savor it. Either way, the imagery is very provocative. As Tag Team partners, this is only natural (and actually kind of sweet.)
We have seen Joey work this sucker trope in the past — the sharing of candy symbolic of a sexual tryst. He has jammed his dripping wet lolly down Martin Kirby’s throat, and allowed Greg Excellent to lick the candy after Joey rubbed it on his nuts (and Excellent shocked everyone by savoring the taste.) For Los Bandidos to join in the same queer game implies that Joey has turned them sleazy.
Their opponents in this Six-Man match are three down-to-earth local favorites: B-Boy, Lil Cholo, and Socal Crazy. They are presented as Regular Guys — unspectacular, non-sleazy straight dudes. If any men in the audience are feeling uncomfortable, grappling with their inappropriate thoughts about Joey in his red trunks, the Face team offers safe harbor.
But Los Bandidos did not show up to make the homophobes in the crowd feel comfortable. They’re here to crank up the (homo)-sexual volume. While their opponents are clad in t-shirts and baggy pants, these flamboyant peacocks wore the tightest, most revealing gear possible. This contrast (the near nudity of one team relative to the full clothing on the other team) keeps our lusty male gaze focused on the bodies of the unclothed men.
Tito gives the audience a show, flexing a bicep and posing with that killer smile. In that low-cut singlet (and given that it’s mostly fellas in the audience), he comes off looking more like a reveler on a Pride Parade float than a professional fighter.
The match finally begins, but that doesn’t stop Joey and his buddies from pushing the Gay Envelope to the limits of public decency. For example, here we see Rico on his knees, cowering from his rough opponents and seeking solace and support from his big manly partners. This gimmick is designed to seem gay, especially given the way he embraces them around their waists.
Later, they enact that humiliating scene where the Fan Favorites drag one of their cocky opponent’s crotches into his own partner’s face, and the two partners end up entangled, sniffing ball-sack and hugging as the audience laughs at them. Is this forced 69 scene meant to be silly, disgusting, arousing, or offensive?
When they first entered the ring, Joey and his partners were acting sexually dominant, strutting their muscles and cocks, licking their suckers provocatively, etc.
Now the power has shifted to the other team and the tone has shifted to rape and sexual abuse. Now the flamboyant sissies are being punished for acting so gay earlier.
As the flamboyant show-offs are made to suffer, the narrative follows the same formula I described in my “Pay for Gay” article back in 2012. To whit:
1. Present homo-social partnerships as the ideal.
2. Push the limits of homo-eroticism, dancing dangerously all over the gay border.
3. Avert the homo-erotic tension and relieve the Gay Panic by punishing the queers.
4. Re-establish the dominance and superiority of hetero-sexuality as the preferred lifestyle in our society.
