The personified representations of evil analyzed in this chapter are taken from a World Wrestling Federation videotape entitled, "Villains of the Squared Circle” (WWF 1986[b]).  The WWF compiled the videotape segments as a highly self-conscious attempt to clarify villainy and evil for the benefit of its adherents.

The host of the tape, Gene Okerlund, states the topic of the compilation to be "the bad guys": "the rule benders and rule breakers, men who literally stop at nothing to get what they want ...over an hour of non-stop evil." Okerlund is joined by a Heel wrestling manager and his two wrestlers. The Heel commmentators add insight as to how an evildoer perceives his evil deeds, and their attempts at justification shall be discussed below.

Evil in professional wrestling is almost always disclosed by particularly violent action inside or outside the wrestling ring. One action that might be called evil is the gratuitous use of a "foreign" object. The object is usually seen as a taped piece of metal concealed somewhere on the body of the Heel, and is used to pummel the hero to a sometimes bloody heap. It is helpful to ask whether a violent act is utilitarian or merely violence for its own sake when determining the quality of evil in a display.

The use of a foreign object occurs four times on the "Villains of the Squared Circle" videotape. An obese Japanese wrestler attempts to throw salt into the eyes of his blond American opponent. The seemingly insane George "the Animal" Steele repeatedly hits a wrestler with a white pick-like object during the course of a battle. Ernie Ladd, an African-American, jabs his hulking opponent with his "suspiciously" (according to the match commentator) bandaged thumb. Finally, Randy "Macho Man" Savage uses a piece of metal to render his foe unconscious and pin him.

The Heels all use foreign objects to try to win a contest they are in serious danger of losing. They seem to lack the ability to win a match with their own abilities and need assistance. In only one case, the Savage match, did the use of a foreign object lead to a win. The other three are either are disqualified and lose or flee the ring once they have been discovered.

The wrestling commentators (not the hosts Okerlund and company), whose continuous patter enlivens a match, are unanimous in their scorn for the losers. The Japanese wrestler is thrown to the ground "like yesterday's garbage," and when Ladd flees the ring he has "chickened out." Justice is served when the Heel is discovered and defeated. However, a Heel who wins by these tactics presents a more anomalous case with divided commentary. The triumphant Savage is hailed by one announcer, "You gotta call it brilliant," while another retorts, "I call it cheating." The audience is left confused and hurt as this display has not conformed to their sense of justice, but they can probably identify such a paradigm from their own personal lives, where getting cheated may not be uncommon.

The above incidents took place during a wrestling match, inside the ring, and the Heels earned almost unanimous scorn from the announcers, diluting the efficacy of the evil they symbolize. Acts of brutal violence that occur outside the sanctified context of a wrestling match are perceived as much more disturbing and amoral, as gauged through a higher level of outrage from announcers and fans. A certain amount of brutality is expected and enjoyed during a wrestling contest, but when this brutality occurs in private, extra-match discourse, it can be highly offensive, closer to a pure form of evil.

The heels who perform extra-match violence are usually white male bully figures, and their hyper-masculinity exerts itself on unsuspecting and often much weaker victims. Typifying this behavior is "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, the short-tempered Scotsman, in his earlier Heel career. In one scene the Heel smashes a coconut over the head of an unsuspecting Face from the Fiji Islands. The Scotsman later slaps an announcer and in another scene beats an untalented wrestler savagely. None of Piper's victims provoke him in a way deserving such brutal treatment; the announcer merely comments, "I'd say this man is without dignity," before receiving his slap. This violence is obviously not used to win a wrestling match, and is closer to an effective representation of purposeless evil, as opposed to the straightforward trickery of using a foreign object in order to win a match.

In another extra-match display of humiliation and violence, Terry Funk, a cowboy figure, gratuitously beats a ring attendant who tries on his cowboy hat. The crowd and announcers are appalled: "Oh this poor man! I think that's about the wildest thing I've ever seen...". When his manager is pinned in a wrestling match, Heel Don Muraco emerges from the shadows to break a wooden chair over the back of the winning wrestler and then spits on him. Again, there is moral outrage at this evil act from the announcers: "what a dastardly thing ...I'll tell you, it's a crime."

These evil acts seem to be caused by, in the cases of Piper, Funk, and Muraco, a violently short temper. For the most part, these brutes commit these acts of violence simply because they can get away with them. The humiliation and brutality displayed that are disclosures of evil in extra-match situations may serve to clarify the problem of evil as senseless violence that man perpetrates against man. Fans are confronted with their worst nightmares of personal attack, feel the pain of their abused idols, and observe that their most heroes will eventually transcend their brutalizations. However, violence against non-Face wrestlers (announcers, ring attendants, etc.) do not receive retribution immediately, which confronts the wrestling viewer with the grim fact that they and those around them are sometimes victims of violence and humiliation, and cannot revenge themselves.

A third type of possible personified representation of evil in professional wrestling is the situation in which two or more Heels do violence to one Face during a match with the motive to injure or humiliate. When this happens, the Heels are not really concerned with winning a match, and the brutality seems gratuitous, as in the second representation of evil above. However, the violence often causes serious injury to the Face physically or psychologically, causing long-term advantages to the Heels, not to mention a considerable grudge match. This "double-teaming" usually results in the "crippling" of a seemingly unbeatable Face.

One memorable incident was an attack on Andre the Giant several years ago, who was a Face at the time. He was a legend and considered indestructible in the WWF. The Giant was rendered unconscious in a doubleteam effort, and then had his hair cut off by Big John Studd, another very tall and jealous wrestler. Humiliation took precedence over physical injury as the Heels displayed the Giant's hair and gleefully exclaimed, "We killed the Giant!"

To the observers of professional wrestling action, this double-team attack warranted great condemnation, even more extreme than in the first two manifestations of evil in wrestling. The videotape host pronounces that the above scene "will live in infamy." Another announcer was outraged about the hair-cutting incident: "This is sheer humiliation ...this should not happen to anyone…Studd and Patera [the two Heels] rape the dignity of Andre the Giant!"  The reason for this virulence is sacrilege, profanity of the sacred. The indestructible is brought low, but the implicit knowledge an observer has is that the Face will be resurrected and seek revenge through the ritual of the grudge match.

The symbolism of professional wrestling asks its fans to have faith in the good it presents, and faith in the ultimate triumph of good, even though evil occasionally dominates. The problem of evil to be resolved in these situations is akin to that of the evil act of the crucifixion of Jesus in the New Testament gospels. The act signifies evil, but through it believers are assured that the sacred will prevail through resurrection.

The most profound sense of evil is felt through the painful observation of the violence or humiliation in this third manifestation of evil. Conventionally, no one comes to the ring to save the Face before the damage is done, which leads to another problem of evil which must be mitigated. The spectators feel immensely powerless and can only protest and wait, like Job, for justice to be served and evil to be banished, usually in the next pay-per-view WWF extravaganza. In the depths of despair, the fan is forced to hope that the cosmic order of the wrestling world will be restored through the ritual of the grudge match, and wait for their idols to right evils.

A fourth very anomalous personification of evil appeared on the "Villains of the Squared Circle" videotape. On one segment, clearly beyond the bounds of propriety in professional wrestling, Don Muraco and his manager, "the devious" Mr. Fuji, explicitly call upon the powers of evil. The video segment is introduced warily: "this man gives me the creeps, the way he carries on about the 'dark side' and the 'forces of darkness.'"  In an interview, Muraco reinforces this view by claiming, "We are on the dark side, we control the dark side ...with Mr. Fuji in my corner, dealin' out evil, we are having one heck of a time."

However, this representation of evil is mainly verbal, as Muraco is not shown performing acts that are any more evil than fellow Heels. The problem of evil raised in this personification is how to react when a Heel claims evil is tangible and calls upon it. The conventional method for evil to be displayed in wrestling is through violent, physical action. For a Heel to claim that he harnesses evil for his own diabolical uses, while performing no supernaturally evil acts, means that he will be viewed ambivalently by spectators. Muraco is dismissed as "creepy" or, in the words of the Heel co-host manager, "The man's spiritual, he's into himself." Smaller, regional professional wrestling promotions that are able to take more chances than the established WWF have, in the past, presented striking and disturbing wrestlers who claim to be "satanic" and perform truly bizarre acts of violence.

The discussion of personifications of evil in professional wrestling would not be complete without discussing a practical problem of understanding evil acts in light of the agents' explanations of their evil deeds. As seen in remarks at the opening of the videotape, Heels know their actions are labeled as evil and take exception. They call themselves "aggressive" and "winners," and clearly have their own sense of good and evil that makes evil much less problematic. Their ethic is to do anything to win, and to humiliate anyone who challenges their physical authority.

Evil is a vital aspect of professional wrestling, usually most affective when it undermines ideals of good in a humiliating and violent manner. Evil is also in the eyes of the beholder, and as we will see in a few chapters, some offensively evil Heels are actually fan heroes.  The evil acts often resemble paradigms for everyday social interactions, especially the more frustrating types.

Continue to Chapter 11