Wow. Nick Dinsmore was the poor soul lumbered with this gimmick, charged with going out to the ring every week and playing a wrestler with learning difficulties. His name was Eugene. He was called "special", and scampered around the ring, straining his face whenever forming complex sentences and doing a horrible thing with his hands, which mentally disabled people do apparently. He was viewed wholesale as a joke and no matter how hard JR tried to put over how 'sweet and kind' he was, Eugene was disabled and that was funny. The things he did were funny, because he didn't know any better, because he was disabled. This happened in 2005. In the 21st century, this happened. Now the WWE have defended themselves about the character saying that he good soul and an underdog to root for. Ok, sure, but then why did they send him down to One Night Stand in 2006 to be beaten up by The Sandman? Because ECW is hardcore, and Eugene is a cheesy joke character. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig7O4tDSV2I That is really, really uncomfortable. The fans are chanting "F**k him up, Sandman, F**k him up" and "Kill the retard." Even if they're chanting that ironically to stick to the WWE and their lame storytelling, wow, what a horrible thing for a bunch of human beings to shout. Even if WWE had the best will in the world with creating Eugene, and their past record suggests otherwise, having an able-bodied man pretend to be disabled in a clownish, catchphrase sort of way in order to manipulate the audience into cheering for him, at best, will turn their audience away and at worst, have people become so numb to the plight of actual mentally ill people that they feel no shame in chanting 'Kill the retard.' Once again, this article isn't meant to demonise the WWE, just ask them to be more careful if they're going to introduce these issues into their soap operas. 95% of people think it doesn't matter because it's just mindless sports entertainment. But it does matter. It's matters BECAUSE it's mindless entertainment, because when our brains turn off, that's when at they're at their most suggestible. To lay my cards on the table, I have friends that have struggled with depression for years, and it's not something that goes away, it's very rarely funny and it's not something that they like being used to identify them. I found the realities of their conditions difficult to come to terms with, in no small part to gross generalised depictions of mental illness in pop culture. I also want to say that I love the WWE with all my heart. Calling for awareness isn't an attack, and allowing yourself to be more sensitive doesn't have to be a compromise.
