Like most other sports, and pretty much every form of entertainment, if you look for them, you can find Members of the Tribe participating. Even non-wrestling fans have heard of Goldberg, who only just came out of retirement, to kick butt and leave again… for now. And with GLOW about to debut on Netflix, wrestling is about to reenter the spotlight. So, while there have been many wrestlers, trainers and promoters of Jewish heritage over the years, who do we have in the ring these days?

Noam Dar has the distinction of being first Israeli signed to World Wrestling Entertainment. Raised in Scotland (with an amazing accent to prove it), the 23 year old has been wrestling since he was a teenager; he rose through the ranks of the independent circuit and joined WWE just last year. Unfortunately, his role as a heel (bad guy) may overflow into real life; he’s said some really racist, and otherwise gross things on Twitter.

You can watch him perform, and also hear the announcers pronounce his name in an aggressively Americanized fashion:

If you want someone else mildly uncomfortable to root for, Robbie E (born Robert Strauss) performs as an over-the-top Jersey Shore-esque Italian stereotype (he is in fact a Jewish boy from New Jersey). You may have also spotted him on The Amazing Race a few seasons back. He has appeared on WWE, but he’s signed to Impact Wrestling, the country’s second-biggest circuit.

But you can be a Jewish wrestler with a Jewish persona, too. Colt Cabana performs these days on an indie circuit known as Ring of Honor, though he’s fought in WWE as well. Not only is he into his Jewish identity, a la Goldberg, he’s made it part of a wrestling character (He once named his teamup “Irn-Jew”). Colt’s real name is Scott Colton (from Deerfield, Illinois), and he has wrestled as Scotty Goldman, and been called “The Iron Jew.” Colton leaned into his identity after experiencing anti-Semitism early in his career.

Watch him fight, of course, but also watch him talk about Jewish culture. He’s delightful”

Photo of Noam Dar (vs. Jimmy Havoc) by Ed Webster. Via Flickr.

The post So, Who Are the Jewish Pro-Wrestlers These Days? appeared first on Jewcy.

Olympic season. For you, this might mean a chance to express your deep love for your country, maybe through a new Ralph Lauren outfit. It might be a rare opportunity to watch Taekwondo on national television. But for me, it means the return of one of my least favorite questions: “So, are you so excited for Olympic wrestling? Or do you only like the fake kind?”

I’m almost 25 now, and I have watched wrestling no more than four times in the last six years. Still, to people who knew me when I was a teenager, this is my legacy. When I run into someone from middle school or summer camp on the street, the small talk inevitably turns back to my fling with professional wrestling.

When I was 13, I asked everybody I knew to describe me in two words. All but two gave the exact same response: Smart and Nice.(a) So, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that people were pretty weirded out when they found out that I was also a passionate, borderline obsessive, professional wrestling fan. To be specific, I was a fan of the organization formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), now called World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) after losing a lawsuit against the World Wildlife Fund.

But that was all a long time ago. No one asks me if I’m still into The Chronicles of Narnia (yes), Tamagotchis (no), or treasure hunt birthday parties (hmm … maybe next year). But, because I am Smart, and Nice, and, of course, a Lady, the fact that I was really into this one television show for a few years turns out to be a pretty big deal.

So, you may ask, how did I get into WWF anyway? That’s easy. My little brother watched it. Every Thursday night he tuned into WWF Smackdown!, and I sat with him, making fun of the fake chair shots, shiny spandex (b), and screaming, ‘roided up dudes. But soon I started asking questions. Like, why did the CEO of the WWF secretly orchestrate the kidnapping of his own daughter as part of a Corporate-Goth conspiracy with a crew called the Ministry of Darkness? And what is a Con-Chair-To? He made the fairly reasonable point that rather than interrupting him, I should shut up and watch the show. So I did, and a new world opened up for me.

I realized that the WWF was actually the greatest, most elaborate soap opera on television, and I was hooked.(c)  I went from watching Smackdown! on Thursdays (two hours a week) to spending about 20 hours a week watching (d) or reading about wrestling online. I was so serious about it that I used to tape Friends so I could watch Smackdown! live.

At first, this was my dirty secret. If I got caught checking one of my beloved forums at school, I changed the screen and pretended I was doing homework. Here’s a story I’ve never told anyone. I once sent a question to Molly Brown, my favorite online wrestling columnist at the time.(e) Molly actually wrote back, told me that she loved my letter and wanted to write a whole column in response. But, I had written my question anonymously, could I send her my name so she could include it in her column? I did respond with my name, but it must have gotten lost in her inbox. So Molly wrote her column, dedicated to an anonymous reader.

My heart was broken. One of the reasons I loved Molly’s column was because it was so exciting to see another lady who was passionate about wrestling. It didn’t bother me that Molly’s column didn’t use my name, but it killed me that she kept referring to the inspiration for the column as “he.”(f) I felt like I had missed my opportunity to proclaim myself as part of the small sisterhood of hardcore wrestling fans.

After that, I let go of my secret. I decided being the only girl in my high school who could recite every Royal Rumble winner was infinitely cooler than just being another smart and nice girl. I sat in class and drew elaborate diagrams based on wrestling plotlines. I convinced friends to watch it with me (usually only once), and I even wrote my college application essay about WWE. I fantasized about my future writing pro wrestling storylines, where I would translate my real-life friendships (and romances—I was madly in love with this dreamboat) with the wrestlers into plotlines.

The peak of my wrestling mania lasted about 5 years. Then Chris Benoit, one of my favorite wrestlers, killed his wife, son, and himself in an episode probably spurred by steroid use. The Wrestler came out. Things like bra and panties matches started bothering me, a lot. And I got bored of watching fake fighting.

I moved on, but my reputation did not. OK, I sort of get it. The WWF wasn’t exactly a common interest, and I was pretty hardcore about it. I also get that one could argue writing this article is just asking for the questions about my ex-hobby to continue. But really, this summer I just want to watch gymnastics and Ryan Lochte like the rest of you. So if I run into you on the street, can you ask me about that instead?

Footnotes:

(f) I don’t have any statistics about what percents of wrestling’s audience is female. But check out this article for an example of how deeply wrestling and maleness are linked together.

The post Yes, I Know It’s Fake: Confessions of a Recovered Pro Wrestling Addict appeared first on Jewcy.

I’m a child of the 80s, and like many of my generation, I grew up watching wrestling. And even though most of the wrestlers I liked as a kid have died due to complications from steroid use, I still would have liked to have seen some World Wrestling Entertainment hanging around Washington. Because let’s face it, the American political system does such a great job of making itself look silly, wouldn’t it have been great if McMahon won, and made these people some of her “advisers”?

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