Exotic Camels

In honor of yesterday’s post about the re-birth of the dreaded Camel Clutch submission hold — now used by evil foreigner Jinder Mahal as an instrument of torture — let’s take a closer look at this classic hold and the psychological effects of seeing it inflicted on our fellow Americans.

The Camel Clutch is traditionally used by a foreign wrestler (often Middle Eastern) against the Home Town Boy, the American, the white kid.  When the hold is applied by a foreigner, it is sold as a devastating killer move with no escape. We are led to understand that a Camel Clutch is pure torture — and that it is humiliating for an American to be at the mercy of a foreigner.

There is obviously racism and xeno-phobia at play here.  Seeing our American boys getting their back broken stokes the fear (and hatred) of the mysterious, the foreign, the non-Western in the minds of the fans.

Clearly these evil invaders want to hurt our cute American lads — they are brutal by nature and enjoy punishing white people as the frequent, repeated use of the Camel Clutch proves.  Be afraid or some barbarian may crack your back just like this!

Americans are fond of their dominant position in the world — the strongest military, largest economy, won at least most our wars, etc.  So when an American wrestler gets in the ring with some Easterner whose rantings nobody even understands — we expect yet another American victory.  Our egos are tied to continuous domination by our countrymen.

What happens when a foreigner sits down on our hero’s back and forces him to submit?  How do we feel about an immigrant who is armed with an unbreakable, unbeatable hold (the Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile of wrestling holds)?  And what if he continues to inflict the pain long after the bell rings, torturing our fellow American for sport??  Suddenly we aren’t so sure of our dominant position.  Suddenly we aren’t so Bad-Ass as a country.

Heels from the East are always armed with the Camel Clutch — as if they learn it at Terrorist University along with learning to hate Western culture and to construct bombs.  Each time a foreigner applies this Weapon of Mass Destruction, each time yet another American victim’s back is broken, the fans are reminded of the possible loss of American domination on the world stage — the fear that other nations may surpass and subjugate (and then torture) us.  To excite the crowd, the heel must offend them and make them uncomfortable.  Using the Camel Clutch, mission accomplished.

The image of the American victim’s pure helplessness — his arms locked back, the weight of the non-American pinning him down — adds to our frustration.  We so badly want him to break free and teach this brute some respect for the U.S. of A., but clearly he has no chance.

There is a mystique to an unbreakable hold — a level of fear or respect for a man who can deliver such agony.  Not every wrestler is permitted to utilize the deadly hold.  It is reserved for the privileged, the powerful — certainly not for the Boy Next Door to implement.

One might think our culture has moved beyond the xenophobic vilification of the stereotypical evil foreigner.  One might believe decades of political correctness had taught us to accept people from other cultures as our friends.  But this recent rebirth of the Camel Clutch by a foreign-born torturer reveals that wrestling fans still react, on some level, to the threat of torture by an invader.  As usual, pro wrestling throws our phobias, bigotry, and lingering racism in our faces.

I believe another explanation for the continued popularity of the Camel Clutch is the eroticism of the hold.  The foreigner (the rapist) spreads his legs and squats on the lower back of his victim, in a very suggestive position, and begins grinding.  The victim is defenseless, unable to prevent the invader from doing what he wants. The victim’s face (held up for easy viewing) is contorted in a twisted mask of climactic agony as he screams in submission.

The ugly foreigner is not just beating up the cute white kid — he is utterly degrading his boy toy — making him “humble.”   This violent imagery — the deflowering and abuse of the beautiful hero — is meant to strike a chord of sympathy and pity in the viewer’s mind.