I’m afraid to say that I did see the funny side of the wrestling match that took place at Butlins in Skegness last weekend between Hakim, an Islamic flag-waving baddie, and Union flag trunk-wearing Tony Spitfire. Hakim entered the ring waving a green flag with Arabic writing on. Said one fan, “I felt I was dropped into the middle of a Britain First rally.” I suppose I should be as offended as some of the spectators seemed to be as large numbers of ‘grapple fans’ chanted ‘En-Ger-land’ over and over again. So, what’s funny about that? Because it’s wrestling, that’s why.
American wrestling has been at this sort of thing for years. In the days when the Iron Curtain was still in place, the Russian bear Nikolai Volkoff was the heel. That he actually hailed from Croatia was neither here nor there. He was there to make the American crowd boo and chant ‘USA, USA’. Similarly, during tensions with Iran, the new kid on the block was the Iron Sheik who really did come from Iran. And best of all, during the gulf war, the all American hero Sgt Slaughter decided for reasons best known to WWF scriptwriters to turn heel and wave the Iraqi flag into the ring, assisted by a character called General Adnan who bore a close resemblance to Saddam Hussein. Rumour had it that he went to high school with the Iraqi tyrant, too. No one seriously believed that any of it was real. It was classic, good guy versus bad guy sports entertainment. Was what happened at Butlins any different?
The event was described by one man as “an horrific race hate-filled 10 minutes with everything wrong on racial stereotypes”. Well, I wasn’t there, so I can’t comment on what actually took place, but the last time I looked islam was not a race, it was a religion. I cannot say for sure that some offensive remarks weren’t made, because I wasn’t there, but if there were then it’s not acceptable. And in a free country, which we are supposed to be, it is not against the law to offend people.
What usually happens in wrestling anyway is that the blue eye – the good guy – usually wins. I would hazard a guess that Mr Spitfire got an early battering from Hakim before bludgeoning his opponent into submission for a late win, after which they all got in to their minibus, cracked open a few cans and went to the next Butlins for tomorrow’s show.
One person complained and as a result both Butlins and the wrestling company issued grovelling apologies. Said a Butlins suit: “We would like to assure guests that this was a very unfortunate one-off which we find completely unacceptable, and is totally contrary to Butlin’s values. It will not happen again.”
I am sure plenty of people did join in with the ‘En-Ger-land’ chanting with great enthusiasm, but it doesn’t mean they are all card-carrying members of Britain First or Ukip. I’ll bet the vast majority saw the show for sports entertainment it actually was and then went off for another beer. A recruiting tool it was not.
