#monomoth

Yes, I have subjected myself to this.

Effy is the worst cancer that you shall never get rid of. He is what people think a "gay" wrestler is because he has not made any effort in being good and being a good representative of the LGBT+ community in wrestling. In the past I thought he was there for the vibes, you know, as an act rather than a wrestler, but time passed, and he even decided to try and become more than what people perceived him to be. He tried to be taken seriously, but he just couldn't escape his own perception of himself. He couldn't leave the thing that made him famous and infamous for that matter: he couldn't stop *being* Effy.

And what is Effy? Notice I've said "what" and not "who" because to me Effy is no longer an act for the vibes, but the representation of what pushes down LGBT+ wrestlers to a road of mediocrity. He is everything wrong with wrestling, in the sense he's not looking for people to appreciate wrestlers in the community for more than the fetishization he brings to the table.

There are so many great examples of LGBT+ wrestlers that are fantastic or at least try to put the effort. Even if I don't particularly like some of them, in a world where Effy tries to be the norm and the thing people think IS an LGBT+ wrestler, Mike Bailey and Nyla Rose stand out to me as great examples of the opposite. As a proud member of the community, I'm sick and tired of Effy being *our* main representative in the wrestling scene because he does not represent *us* at all but what people think we can give.

When you see Effy, you can't take him seriously because he's just *gay* and that's the joke. He's weird, he's quirky, he's wicked, and he's disgusting because THAT's what gay people should be in wrestling, right? They all shall be freaks of nature, but what Effy fails to understand or does not want to recognize is that WRESTLING is a sport for the freaks. The wrestlers are not normal individuals, so there's no necessity in highlighting your wickedness only because you're a gay man if the sport welcomes even more wicked concepts.

And to be honest, what is *wicked* about a gay man? He's just gay, that's it. We have passed the need for Effy in the wrestling world because he's just a reminder of what LGBT+ wrestlers shouldn't be. They shouldn't be compiled and compressed into one-trick ponies that people can't take seriously. They should strive for more.

The worst thing about Effy is that even when being criticized by members of the community he says he represents, he can't acknowledge the damage he's doing in terms of perception and how the common public views LGBT+ wrestlers. His head is so far to his ass, he stands in the middle of the ring and acts like a moral compass of what wrestling should be.

He proudly claims he's a bold man, but you shouldn't confuse boldness with straight out ego, and an undeserving one. Effy does not understand the reason we criticize him is not because we hate him, but because he should understand the position he's in and should look for ways to make people accept LGBT+ wrestlers for more than the jokes he pulls out.

Enter Cara Noir, a wrestler who even if you don't like him has made the effort to go onto something more special and unique in wrestling. His rivalry with Ilja Dragunov, while extremely melodramatic and silly, tried to be something else than what Effy does. Dragunov and Noir tried to tell you a love story by fighting and highlighting the performative art wrestling can be because of its variety.

Even if you don't stand for that perspective of wrestling, you can at least appreciate the attempt to strive for more, to live as something more than who you may think Noir is. In Noir also lied tragedy, sadness, melancholy. He was not just a Black Swan-inspired gimmick. He was not just a gimmick, or a joke. Noir existed as something else, a manifestation of what the community could strive to be in terms of how they approach wrestling.

Noir vs Dragunov even in his theatrical nature had a brutality and a sense of wickedness not brought by the idea they were kissing or showing signs of love, but because of the battles they went through. My issue with Effy lies in the idea he NEVER treats his identity as something that he should live with, but highlights it over and over and over and over to hide his most obvious mistakes.

Yes, he's gay, and yes, he's a maniac, but the idea of Effy highlights the gay part more than the maniac one, so you sit and think "oh well he's a maniac because he's gay, and gays are weeeeeeird". That's the joke, that's the punchline, there's nothing else hidden or brought by Effy that could awaken something more than cringe and disappointment, AND THAT'S WHERE THE ISSUES LIE.

If the main representative of the LGBT+ community in wrestling brings his contemporaries to a level of mediocrity so high, people constantly said he and his peers shouldn't be included in wrestling, where does that leave all the other members of the community? Why are we stuck doing 2018 Pride Parade bullshit when people of our community around the world continue to be harassed and killed? Why can't wrestling think of the LGBT+ community as more than an accessory? Why can't we have serious and heartfelt stories told by LGBT+ wrestlers?

Who said Monomoth can't be a bloody and beautiful underdog fighting for a world title? What is our end goal in wrestling if the focus of the community continues to be on someone like Effy that not only does not understand the damage he's doing, but surrounds himself around ass-kissers that will NEVER doubt anything he does? Is the LGBT+ community stuck and subject to continue doing jokes with our sexuality, or can we think and dream of a future where our own people stop receiving comments doubting the importance of LGBT+ representation in wrestling?

@monomoth  新正如意, 新年发财 ซินเจียหยู่อี่ ซินนี้ฟาไฉ นะครับ ทุกคน 🐉🐉🐉 ✨✨✨

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