If you were wondering what AEW star Brody King was thinking about the “F–k ICE” chants that fans serenade him with during his matches, I mean, he egged it on with the “Abolish ICE” T-shirts he’s worn to the ring.
King addressed the issue of politics in wrestling during a live Q&A at STF Media’s Squared Circle Expo.
“I just believe in what I think is right and wrong,” King said. “I think all art forms, in its basis, are to make a statement. And whatever that is, good or bad, that is what art is for. Wrestling is an art form, and it is a way for people to express themselves. And when the masses are frustrated about something, that’s gonna come out a certain way. F–k ICE.”
“People want to say shut up and wrestle, don’t talk about political statements. Our president is in the WWE Hall of Fame. That’s all I gotta say. I don’t care if he wrestled or not. He can go f–k himself.”
A plea to pro wrestlers
One ask, for everybody active in the profession – stop telling us everything going on behind the scenes.
The latest violator of kayfabe is Sami Zayn, who disagreed with an interviewer for an article in The Toronto Sun about whether he is a heel or babyface.
“I’ll disagree with your statement that I’ve fully turned heel here. I don’t think I have. I think I’m trying to play this one a little different because this one is kind of different. We’re kind of riding these reactions which are kind of different week to week,” Zayn said.
Enough, already!
Tell us next year, or when you’re retired, or take it to the grave.
The mystique of pro wrestling is being able to pretend that what you’re watching, which is you know is scripted, is still somehow real.
Not picking on Sami Zayn here, because he’s just the latest in a long line to break kayfabe, but, seriously.
“I had this idea for a slight character shift that would be a little outside the box, that would split the audience a little bit, but sometimes things just don’t work out exactly how you envision it. Sometimes you think you’re going to be somewhere on the timeline, and you’re not,” Zayn told the Sun.
No-o-o-o!
We don’t need actor’s notes from Rami Sebei on his ideas on the fake guy Sami Zayn that he is playing in WWE is going to do next.
What we want to see is, Sami Zayn either kicking ass, if he’s a babyface, or getting his ass kicked, if he’s a heel.
For what it’s worth, and it’s not worth much, in the current day and age in wrestling, Sebei/Zayn is one of the better house show heels I’ve ever seen.
Zayn worked a tag match house show in Charlottesville as a heel a few years back, and was expert at working the crowd with a variety of heel antics.
I say it doesn’t matter much now because, there are no more WWE house shows for him to work crowds – everything they do is for TV these days.
No ‘Dynamite’ for me last night
I had a choice to make last night, between the Virginia-Pitt game in the ACC Softball Tournament, which started at 7:30 p.m., and “Dynamite,” which began at 8 p.m., and I forgot, until this morning, was to go three hours this week.
I decided on Virginia-Pitt, which came down to a walk-off in the bottom of the seventh, with UVA getting the 2-1 win to advance.
The game ended a few minutes before 10, and assuming, because I didn’t remember that this week’s “Dynamite” was three hours, that the ‘rasslin was about to come to an end, I flipped on a random baseball game ahead of getting ready for late-night comedy.
I record “Dynamite” in case I need to start it late; decided, after reading a quick recap online, that I could skip it this week.
Not a good sign for ol’ Tony Khan, in spite of what the AEW stans who haven’t liked me turning heel on the promotion of late have had to say on that matter – that Tony Khan doesn’t care if I watch or not.
I bought ringside tickets to the very first live AEW “Dynamite” in D.C. in 2019, have been to several AEW live events since, including the “Revolution” pay-per-view in Greensboro in 2024, haven’t missed a pay-per-view on TV, except for that one.
And now I’m skipping “Dynamite,” out of lack of interest.
If TK isn’t concerned about somebody like me being on the verge of being a lapsed fan, that’s on him.
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Chris Graham
