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WWE TV 5/22-5/28


sek69

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I thought Bray way WAY better this week as a lunatic who just giggles at everything rather than a gibberish talking wannabe cult leader.

 

Also, nice main roster in ring debut for The Drifter, although I'm sad he's probably not just gonna be wandering around aimlessly, anymore.

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He was way better, but it's impossible to buy him as a threat to Brock when he loses all his feuds.

 

Actually, it's hard to buy anyone in the 5 way as a threat other than Roman and maybe Joe since he's been running over everyone so far.

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SD is now what people were pretending it was at the start of the split. The Maharajah of Muscles and his Punjabi Celebration rejoice.png

 

What's weird is that Jinder could easily be a face and it'd be a great thing where he overcame racism and being treated as a joke and now has become a hero to his people and first champion of his kind in the company. Instead it's 2017 and just him coming out gets USA chants, which proves his gimmick right that Americans are shit bags who hate him because of how he looks/sounds and don't actually want diversity they claim to accept. I mean, there were people booing the dancers, for fucks sake.

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In a post-colonial and imperialist context, it isn't called cheating, it's called resistance. ;)

 

All kidding aside, it's smart that he actually cut a babyface promo in his own language toward the punjabi people. That being said, with the cast system in India, I doubt Jinder Mahal would be even close to a man "of the people". Following a Marxist analysis, Jinder is from the upper-class, so he's an oppressor himself. But people love kings and such (hey, we actually elect a "king" every five years in France too).

 

But yeah. These people should chant "asshole" or "cheater". The fact they chant "USA" shows how much things haven't changed in the pro-wrestling realm. Still waiting for a real positive middle-eastern character pushed as a main eventer. (Sami Zayn is from Lebanon origin, right ? HE'S RIGHT FUCKING THERE !!!!!)

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That argument loses a bit of weight when he has cheated to win every match he's won since coming to Smackdown.

True, but they could do this angle without the cheating and he could be a very positive face role model and it'd be pretty neat. Faces cheat all the time, too, so the cheating aspect is pretty inconsequential these days.

 

Sami is of Syrian descent, LP. I don't believe it's ever been mentioned on screen outside of his tights and maybe one of his earliest promos in NXT. They've had him do pieces for Youtube when they do Middle East tours, though.

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I REALLY hope Smackdown is coming to Sacramento soon. Yuba City (around 45 minutes from Sac) has a HUGE Sikh population, potentially the largest in the US. They do a huge parade every year that (I believe) is the largest Indian celebration in the country. It will be like all those huge drawing shows in hispanic areas when Eddie was champ.

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That argument loses a bit of weight when he has cheated to win every match he's won since coming to Smackdown.

True, but they could do this angle without the cheating and he could be a very positive face role model and it'd be pretty neat. Faces cheat all the time, too, so the cheating aspect is pretty inconsequential these days.

 

 

 

Well wasn't the original idea of the Muhammad Hassan angle in 2002 to 2004 (can't remember when) was that he was a proud American who just wanted to be respected but was hated because he was Muslim and everyone was against him after 9/11. Of course if I remember it only last about 2 or 3 weeks and Vince just made him every stereotype he could think of.

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Well wasn't the original idea of the Muhammad Hassan angle in 2002 to 2004 (can't remember when) was that he was a proud American who just wanted to be respected but was hated because he was Muslim and everyone was against him after 9/11. Of course if I remember it only last about 2 or 3 weeks and Vince just made him every stereotype he could think of.

 

The lynching (there's no other word) of Hassan at that Royal Rumble is the most shocking, racist thing WWE ever produced. Just wrong and hateful. I can't believe they got away with this shit back then.

 

(of course, the fact that Hassan was actually Italian and his manager was from Iran tells a lot about how well WWE people know or care about the world)

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I feel like there are plenty of words to use other than lynching considering all that happened was he was thrown out of the ring and he was featured in a angle later in the year that featured terrorist style garotting of a fellow wrestler. The incident in the Rumble was running a dude out of town, not fucking lynching him.

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When every wrestler in the ring, faces or heels, stop all action, turn to one guy and beat him up collectively basically because he was "the muslim guy", that's called *lynching*. Lynching doesn't need hanging to be lynching. I guess in the Attitude era they would have Taker put him on his "symbol" too maybe. Anyway. This was gross, offensive and easily one of the lowest point ever of WWE TV.

 

Anyway. Back to the India business, how ironic it is that 20 years after he vaunted *huge signing* of Tiger Ali Singh as the next WWE superstar, they actually have made their Indian heel champion and he's from Canada too ! Jinder is better in the ring that Tiger Ali, but who isn't ?

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They threw him out of the fucking ring. They didn't kill him. Again, this dude was involved in an angle later in the year that had a simulated attempted murder via garroting. To call both sides ganging up on a the Muslim guy to eliminate him from a wrestling match a lynching is absurd. Especially as by that point, he was fully a heel who constantly interrupted people and annoyed the shit out of everyone for no reason.

 

The word lynching carries a pretty heavy weight in America still. To use it in the context of a group of guys eliminating a wrestler from a battle royal is wtf as hell.

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Wrestling is about representation. It was a bunch of wrestlers portrayed as both good and evil all ganging up on one (and the only) muslim character, beating him up together while people loudly chanted USA ! USA ! in the crowd. Make of that what you will in term of representation. Use whatever word best suited to you for this scene and what it was figuratively depicting (of course they didn't kill the guy, no shit).

 

And no, the "heel" argument doesn't work, because all the other heels ganged up on the guy too, which made it quite the exceptionnal case of *everybody* teaming up to beat up one guy for one specific reason. Even in the jingoist days of Hogan, such of thing wasn't happening (Savage helped evil Iraki sympathiser turncoat to win the title just to fuck the Warrior). So what was portrayed here went further than just "groupe of guys eliminating another one from a battle royal". Anyway, this goes into "racist shit" thread in the MIS.

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Still waiting for a real positive middle-eastern character pushed as a main eventer. (Sami Zayn is from Lebanon origin, right ? HE'S RIGHT FUCKING THERE !!!!!)

 

The true test is in the pigmentation. To a number of people Sami Zayn is 'white'. I have spoken to fans at enough events to get the feeling that "White guy from Canada" is thing. People assume the same of Seth Rollins and other people with heritage from the Middle East and its surroundings area. If you are from the Middle East and LOOK like you are from the Middle East (based on pro wrestling caricatures), then you are treated as such. However, if you have fair skin--you get a pass on all the xenophobic ridiculousness. If Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins, and others were just a little darker--I would venture to believe (based on WWE's track record), that the booking of those two will be much worse that it has been for the last two years or so.

 

Jinder being champion is one step forward. The constant mention of his color, race, and ethnicity is two steps back. There are more levels to it, which I will address at a later time.

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The funny thing is that Jinder's whole celebration was pretty cool. Who doesn't like Bollywood style music and dance routines? Bright colors, and music you can't help moving to the beat of, all to build up a guy who's whole shtick so far is "you guys don't like me because India" when it's the only part of his character that has any likable aspect to it.

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Most of WWE's Indian fanbase is urban/semi-urban, well-off upper caste people. Jindal is every bit their guy.

 

No forum on the internet is equipped to have a proper discussion of the caste system properly because it is so old, complicated and evil, so there is no point discussing it, but let us just say that upper-caste Indians are perfectly happy exploiting the system and being racist here and yet being highly outraged (which is justified) without having a single moment of introspection about their own systematic racist behaviour (which is absolutely not justified) if/when the situation is reversed in America or any Western country for that matter. If Jinder does start a gimmick of being a hard working talented wrestler who is being held down because WWE fans in America are racist assholes, it will be very resonant India.

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