According to Jay Perez, semiotics would place Terry Hogan in a higher position in the knowledge scale than Vincent Edward Jackson. The logic: even if Bo knows, Hogan still knows best.

The childhood memories of professional wrestling and the “real American hero” as a blond (albeit balding) white male in yellow spandex resonated with me much as it did with Jay as he read from his work in progress, “The Passion of El Hulk Hogancito”, on Sunday. But more than Hogan, it was Ultimate Warrior who left a larger imprint on my childhood. Fans nostalgic of the days when the Warrior would nonsensically rant, would best to do themselves the favor of not watching The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior, unless one wants to feel the same feeling felt when it was realized that Santa was only used as a moral compass for children.

Professional wrestling, the hyper-masculine soap opera, that socialized many of us about ethnicity through stereotypes: Junkyard Dog, Jimmy Superfly Snuka, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, Iron Sheik, etc. It was all that one needed as a kid who never questioned his or her invincibility to land safely when jumping off the counter onto a makeshift ring consisting of couch cushions and pillows on the living room floor. The Warrior (which the arch-conservative has now legally changed his name) is not exempt from WWF’s othering of others, as his persona was an appropriation of an ethnically ambiguous savage. But this is what was normalized in our youth, singing Hogan’s theme and associating whiteness with being Real American.

With the thoughts of wrestling’s perepetuation of white supremacy that Jay’s reading had left me, in addition to the strong documentation of his mother’s experience of racism in Chicago (the underlying story told), I suddenly felt the presence of a 4.3 seismic movements. The spirit of John Tenta made its presence felt in the Bay this morning.

What was the symbolism behind the tectonic plate shift? It must mean that Earthquake is asking for a rematch with El Hulk Hogancito from Summer Slam 1990. Or it means that John Tenta has acknowledged his defeat and is asking for you to listen and experience Jay’s storytelling. There are two more dates and word has it Typhoon Tugboat will be in attendance just as he was expected to be at Hulk’s side during Summer Slam.

Cop your tickets for either April 4 or 5.

-Ninoy Brown

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 1:43 pm and is filed under Pil Am Bidness, Pop Culture, Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.