I’m Offended! – Which Current Wrestler Has The Most Offensive Gimmick? Castle vs. Balor vs. Matanza

As wrestling fans, shouldn’t we be more sensitive? We revel in this wacky display of escalating violence that ends with a cathartic release when one enraged muscleman humbles another physically in front of a live audience of thousands. Sometimes this takes the form of an athletic competition, but other times what we get is so stupid that no matter how camp the performances, it’s borderline offensive. Why do we put up with that?

We’ve seen plenty of offensive gimmicks in the recent past: Muhammad Hassan, Beaver Clevage, The Dicks, Kerwin White; gimmicks that outraged the internet wrestling community. But right now, in 2016, there are a few disturbing gimmicks that seem to be getting a pass. So today I’m not going to be the typical bitter, sarcastic, extreme 90s wrestling fan who doesn’t care about anything, but rather a Social Justice Warrior who is easily offended and always looking to right tiny, possibly subconscious, wrongs in pop culture, especially in three current professional wrestling gimmicks in order to determine just which one is the most offensive.

The 411mania Wrestling 3-Way Dance matches up three opponents in an intellectual battle every week. The biggest advantages and disadvantages of each contender will be highlighted before a final ranking will declare the ultimate winner. This week’s 3-Way Dance:

Which Current Wrestler Has The Most Offensive Gimmick?

Dalton Castle vs. Finn Balor vs. Matanza

What’s wrong with…

Dalton Castle = Child Molestation?

In 2016 I’m sure nobody truly cares if a pro-wrestling character is supposed to be a gay or not. Not our business. But should we be offended by a straight man playing a sexually “ambiguous” character that touches on all the flamboyant homosexual stereotypes that were used by exploitive wrestlers in the past? Maybe. But what if that same character insinuates having a dominant sexual relationship with two tiny, speedo-clad young boys who make Ariana Grande look grown up?

While Castle’s actual sexual orientation or relationship with his slave-like “boys” is not openly discussed on Ring of Honor TV, we’re not idiots – the guy is doing that typical effeminate, gay-baiting, schtick that we’ve seen in wrestling as far back as those old offensive Looney Tunes cartoons of the 1950s.

What’s worse than the embedded mockery of gay men by a ponce-y caricature is that Castle is portrayed as a scheming taskmaster who is in total control of his faculties and yet seemingly defies the law by ordering around two “boys” who are portrayed as child-like twink possessions who have either been brainwashed or paternally molested. Not only this is symbolic relationship reprehensible, based on any kind of statutory rape laws, but it also feeds into one of the old offensive stereotype that all gay men are child molesters.

Finn Balor = Black Face?

That demon gimmick is just a white guy doing black face, right? Let’s call it what it is: a charcoal black painted face, long dreadlocks, a black face, and big red lips. It looked wrong to me the first time, and it’s looks worse every time since.

Why does this “demon” body paint have to be black? This idea of a “monster” or bad guy capable of violent or horrible things having to be black has been common in Western symbolic pop culture, from Westerns to Darth Vader, and Finn Balor’s body paint just perpetrates this racist imagery.

The demon could be green, right? Or purple… but it’s black, with dreadlocks? Why would a monster from the old Irish countryside be pitch black and have dreadlocks?

Look, I’ve lived in some mono-race countries in my time, like Australia, Korea and Japan, and these places sporadically found it funny to wear black face paint, put on afro wigs and act “black”. So it’s not super surprising that a white Irish guy who spent most of his career in Japan came up with the black-face demon design. But c’mon, let’s call it what it is: racist and offensive.

Matanza = The Monster Matanza Cueto is a murderer. I mean, the dude comes out to wrestle in a body suit covered in the blood of his past victims.

In fact, there is a lot of implied murder in the storylines of Lucha Underground, but Matanza is out there as a major star and champion in the company while being shown backstage to be a legit murderer. When he’s in the ring, the live audiences isn’t supposed to know about what goes on backstage, and so he’s presented like a total bad ass who does a bunch of cool moves and dominates his competition in official wrestling matches.

Based on how we’ve been conditioned to react as wrestling fans, Matanza’s great ability invites us to actually cheer for the guy as some kind of cool anti-hero. So do you really want to be cheering for a murderer, or is that offensive to you?

Why it might be okay for…

Matanza = It’s All Fake.

I mean, it’s all just a big fake story, right?

Lucha Underground is situated in a fictional universe more than any other pro-wrestling company on TV, so of course we’re aware that the guy “playing” Matanza is not an actual murderer no matter what we see on the screen.

If anyone is offended by a fake character being portrayed as a cool murderer then they aren’t watching much pop culture, let along the content on LU’s own El Rey Network.

Dalton Castle = Comedy.

I guess it’s supposed to be funny. I mean, different people find different things funny. If it was up to me, Delocated and Get a Life! would be the two biggest sitcoms of all time, and I have no idea why Big Bang Theory or Modern Family are popular or critically acclaimed.

So I guess something like the storyline where Silas Young “wins” possession of The Boys and attempts to teach them how to “real men” only to have them reject this overt male chauvinism and go running back to their “master” is some kind of hilarious to somebody.

Finn Balor = The WWE is Racist Anyways.

There are certainly more minorities in the WWE than ever before, but let’s be real, the WWE is generally entertainment by white people for white people. I don’t know that there are many direct, outwardly racist people working the the WWE, nor would you likely hear any racist chants from the audience at a live event, even at a house show in the most rural of cities, but there is an indirect racism that just exists in a dominantly white enterprise like pro-wrestling. Therefore, while it’s not OK to have a black-face character as one of the main superstars of your company, it’s easy to see why no one seems to care or even notice.

The Final Ranking

Okay, these are all reasonable options, but who officially has the most offensive gimmick in pro-wrestling today?

#3 = Finn Balor

It’s hard to really be mad at a good looking, white guy isn’t it? I mean, we don’t hate Justin Timberlake or Eminem, or even WWE’s own John Cena, for basically doing black-face, then how can we seriously be mad at Finn? He’s cute, he means well, and no one thinks the guy is actually racist.

Besides, it’s not like his “Demon King” persona has demonstrated any different qualities in the ring than Balor already possesses, so he’s no better or worse because of this make-up. This is just some kind of cosmetic enhancement that’s supposed to scare people because it’s so black. But if he starts talking jive and free-styling then we’re gonna have to re-evaluate his offensiveness ranking.

#2 = Dalton Castle

How upset would the IWC, and social media in general, be if WWE superstar Darren Young, a well-known out gay male wrestler, started to portray the Dalton Castle character on Monday Night RAW?

We know this would never happen, and why is that? Why are we okay with a straight man playing a flamboyant gay man with two sexual slave boys in the “indys”, but would be outraged if Vince McMahon made his most high profile gay wrestler do this?

We’ve long accepted this type of homosexual innuendo in pro-wrestling, from Gorgeous George to Adrian Adonis to Goldust, because it was always just “mind games” and since we “smarks” are in on the joke.

But adding The Boys to the gimmick makes it beyond something that is just the portrayal of a flamboyant character, and turns it into an awkward pseudo-child molestation gimmick that is bizarrely cheered for by the audience. This just feels cluelessly insensitive to the plight of actual gay wrestlers who would like to perform in ROH or WWE without hiding who they are or pretending to be ridiculous exaggerations of what the straight world finds amusing, weird or scary about the LGTBQx community.

And while this probably just as unintentional as Finn Balor’s gimmick, it’s worse because it’s so in your face the character is almost daring you to be upset and out yourself as a social justice warrior. Well, I am upset and find Dalton Castle’s implied relationship with the Boys offensive, but ultimately not as offensive as…

#1 = The Monster Matanza Cueto

It’s hard to balance the glee of cheering for a heel and the idea that this character is supposed to have murdered people in that world.

When Friday the 13th or American Horror Story portrays murderers as main characters, it’s not generally with the impression that we’re going to be cheering for them to murder people, although I guess that’s usually how it turns out. Do we feel good about this though?

In our lifetime we’ve actually had a real murderer who was once one of our most beloved figures in the the pro-wrestling criticism community. We don’t even want to say his name, that’s how horrible his crimes were, and isn’t it just too soon for us to embrace a character like Matanza no matter how genre-bending the presentation of his pro-wrestling TV show happens to be?

Castle and Balor are definitely displaying some socially insensitive, possibly criminal imagery, but if Matanza is an unrepentant, mindless killer, than this gimmick is officially over the line. People can be unaware of how they’re insulting others in society, and we can educate them on the proper language to use, who to apologize to, and the best ways to act. But how do you reform a monster on the level of Matanza? The first step might be awarding him with the title of 411mania Wrestling’s 3-Way Dance Most Offensive Current Wrestling Gimmick, but all truly sensitive wrestling fans should be ashamed of themselves for enjoying the exploits of such a heinous character.