Sado-Theatrics

Here is another classic 1970’s match I recently uploaded to YouTube depicting the style of violent and vulgar pro wrestling I grew up on.

The Sheik was the Heel I was most intimidated by (and fascinated with) as a young viewer.  Here they show this exotic Eastern freak stripping down to his snug black underwear as the word “WRESTLING” appears big and bright in all CAPS on the screen.  This positioning caused my young brain to associate the word “WRESTLING” with men taking off their clothes and displaying their naked torsos.  No wonder I’m obsessed with wrestling.  No wonder this 9-letter word holds such power for me, triggering me whenever I see it in print!

The Sheik’s victim today is called simply “El Bracero” which I believe means “The Laborer” or “The Worker” in Spanish.  He is a working man’s hero — an Everyman.  This meaty workman with big quarter-sized nips was not a complete jobber — back in 2017 I blogged about another one of his classic matches where he defeated a masked opponent.

For this match, El Bracero wore spectacular golden trunks that really show off every bulge — a rather flamboyant and sexy costumer for a day laborer.

The Sheik manhandles Bracero over to the ropes, then pulls out a small white spike and jams it in his mouth!  The trusty camera zooms right in there to capture that foreign object penetrating poor El Bracero and his intense facial expressions (and we get a good look at Bracero’s big ripe nipples.)

And this is what makes the Sheik’s matches so maddening and so arousing for me: his blatant and outrageous cheating and this brutal treatment of his victims!  What a dickhead — I hated the Sheik but I’d also find myself inexplicably hard.

In a recent article on the Ringside at Skull Island blog, the author coined the term “sado-theatrics” which I’m stealing and using here, because that term perfectly describes the Sheik’s use of foreign objects and all his other vicious, campy antics (choking, biting, throwing fireballs, etc.)

These sado-theatrics definitely had a powerful effect on me as a young and impressionable viewer.  The depictions of outrageous brutal violence drove me wild, triggering the arousal centers of my brain and turning me into a lifelong pro wrestling addict.  Wrestling related sado-theatrics came to be pornographic to me.

The mauling continues as the Sheik again drags his opponent over to the ropes away from the ref (and also good and close to the ringside camera so we can have a look).  Again the savage inserts his weapon into the dude’s mouth, or possibly his nostril.  Bracero reacts in agony, adding to the sado-theatricality of the scene.

And I’m sure my younger self was getting all hot and bothered, thinking “Can’t they DO something to stop this dirty cheater?!” as I covered up with a blanket to hide my jeans bulge.

They perform the gimmick where the lovable Good Guy is tossed out of the ring by the hair, then kicked back down to prevent him from re-entering.

This portrays the superior power of the Sheik, who is seen to command the ring, deciding when (if at all) he will allow this inferior worker, this peasant, to get back inside with him.  And after Bracero DOES get back in the ring, the Sheik throws his ass right back out again!

Back in the 1970’s when the Sheik was on TV, my mother didn’t want me to watch pro wrestling (which of course made it even more compelling and appealing to me — the forbidden fruit.)

Instead I was encouraged to watch Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers — more wholesome and enriching programs.  The people on those shows were certainly calmer and more friendly, but they just didn’t excite me like Rasslin’ did!  This was Big Boy stuff, far more dangerous, violent, manly, and sexy than those silly Muppets.  And I knew that the Sheik would’ve torn that skinny Mr. Rogers apart in minutes, making the Sheik seem far more powerful and desirable to watch.

After some brutal stomps to the lower back, the Sheik sits down into his beloved Camel Clutch and begins making strange facial expressions.  The jobber surrenders but the sadistic fucker refuses to let go, acting as if he’s in a trance (or a state of orgasm perhaps)!

The commentators tell us that the Sheik is hypnotizing himself, but I think he’s intending to sexualize the hold, to amp up the sado-theatrics by totally gooning out.

My innocent young brain didn’t make this connection to sexual climax when I saw the Sheik carrying on like this back in the 70’s, but I did sense that something naughty and adult and sleazy was happening here and I knew that I enjoyed watching it very much and wanted to see more, despite my mother’s eye rolling insistence that I go out and play.  (And perhaps this denied access to my favorite TV show, this period of deprivation at that formative age, explains my utter gluttony and hoarding of pro wrestling later in life…)

Finally the ref convinces this pervert to get off his victim, but the horny bastard still hasn’t had enough camel-riding.  He puts poor El Bracero right back in this painful hold as the commentators freak out about how punishing and cruel this is.

This is depicted as torture, but a sexy and playful form of torture that involves Bracero’s willing consent.  After all, Bracero took off his shirt and got in the ring with the Sheik, and kept climbing back in the ring each time the Sheik tossed him out.  So it’s like Bracero was asking for it.

As they cut to commercial, we see the freak AGAIN SLAPPING ON his killer move a third time!   He’s utterly breaking poor El Bracero!  NOW do you see why I wanted to watch Big Time Wrestling instead of a bunch of simpering puppets?!

No wonder the Sheik was able to pack arenas around the globe even though his character was a vicious cheater.  He gave the audience exactly what they craved — lots of sleazy, sexy, sado-theatrics!