Bully uses a gay slur in Chicago

[Senhor Perfect]

TNA World Heavyweight champion Bully Ray got into a heated altercation with a fan at last Thursday’s Impact Wrestling tapings from Chicago, Illinois. While Aces & Eights was leaving the ringside area through the crowd, Bully got into a fan’s face, seemingly unprovoked, and unleashed the following anti-gay attack:

“Sit down, smurf. Yeah… What are you gonna do? You ain’t gonna do a damn thing. You got punked in your own frickin’ town. I’m punkin’ you out in front of your daughter. You got punked! You invented fags, you fag. You should’ve did something already, you should’ve did something already, but you ain’t doing nothing’. I’m punking you in front of your hometown. You frickin’ queer. You shave your frickin’ chest.”

Bully Ray is no stranger to riling up crowds with his words. Back in ECW, he would walk (and often) cross the line all the time, with several of his promos nearly inciting riots amongst ECW’s mature fanbase.

Both Bully Ray and TNA President Dixie Carter tweeted about the incident apologizing for his conduct:

Bully Ray: "Made an inappropriate comment to a fan in Chicago. If anyone was offended by this...I do apologize. No harm was meant.

Dixie Carter: "Heard @RealBully5150 made inappropriate comments to a fan in Chicago. This will not be tolerated. Sincere apologies on behalf of TNA."

Read more at http://www.lordsofpain.net/

Is this offensive or just an actor being an actor?

 

[Cloud]

People will deem it offensive but having seen many of his ECW promos its probs just Bully getting into character imo. He nearly swore on Impact as well in a backstage segment also, so i personally think he is embracing the heel character and having fun and going to town with it to help the product. If anything the apology makes him look stupid.

If i had been that fan i would have marked my ass off.

 

[Senhor Perfect]

People will deem it offensive but having seen many of his ECW promos its probs just Bully getting into character imo. He nearly swore on Impact as well in a backstage segment also, so i personally think he is embracing the heel character and having fun and going to town with it to help the product. If anything the apology makes him look stupid.

If i had been that fan i would have marked my ass off.

That's what I was thinking, if he had just said that was my character, you're supposed to hate him, I'd be fine. The apology seems forced and emotionless. An apology from TNA/Dixie would've sufficed.

 

[Crayo]

I'm a massive fan of heels doing whatever they can to get heat, but this should never happen in modern wrestling. It's inevitably going to cause unwanted attention and portray the company you work for as homophobic, despite all of us knowing better. You don't need to sink to these levels to get heat. It's a pretty brainless move to be honest.

 

[Cloud]

I'm a massive fan of heels doing whatever they can to get heat, but this should never happen in modern wrestling. It's inevitably going to cause unwanted attention and portray the company you work for as homophobic, despite all of us knowing better. You don't need to sink to these levels to get heat. It's a pretty brainless move to be honest.

Ive seen worse and considering in recent times Punk has used a heart attack and now a death to get heat im not sure i see the problem. I see what ur saying Crayo as it can be deemed a horrendous word but i thought people would get the idea as its scripted.

 

[Crayo]

Ive seen worse and considering in recent times Punk has used a heart attack and now a death to get heat im not sure i see the problem. I see what ur saying Crayo as it can be deemed a horrendous word but i thought people would get the idea as its scripted.

Mocking someone who was completely okay with the storyline (in your example - Jerry Lawler) is not comparable to a wrestler mocking a paying member of the audience over their sexuality (if they're not aware of what's coming). In modern society such actions are just not acceptable. I'm not saying I'm offended or think this is grossly wrong (because I'm not, I like old fashioned heels), but he should have been a lot smarter with it. You don't need to resort to controversial insults to get heat, and this does temporary damage to the company.

Homophobia is seen in the same graphic as racism. Would you think it's okay for Bully Ray to go and racially abuse some African American for the sake of scripted heat?

 

[Cloud]

Obviously not but I wasnt aware homophobia was such a huge issue. Especially as we see a fair few sexist remarks regards Divas i just dont see where the line is drawn? If that makes sense? Surely sexism then is as bad but people seem ok with that.

 

[GrammarNazi82]

Obviously not but I wasnt aware homophobia was such a huge issue. Especially as we see a fair few sexist remarks regards Divas i just dont see where the line is drawn? If that makes sense? Surely sexism then is as bad but people seem ok with that.

I say this with all the love in my heart, but generally speaking, yeah, sexism is more OK than homophobia. At least here it tends to be that way. Women will get pissed and tout women's rights and equality, etc., sometimes when sexist remarks are made, sure. But overall sexism is overlooked more so than homophobic remarks, in my opinion at least.

 

[Crayo]

Obviously not but I wasnt aware homophobia was such a huge issue. Especially as we see a fair few sexist remarks regards Divas i just dont see where the line is drawn? If that makes sense? Surely sexism then is as bad but people seem ok with that.

I say this with all the love in my heart, but generally speaking, yeah, sexism is more OK than homophobia. At least here it tends to be that way. Women will get pissed and tout women's rights and equality, etc., sometimes when sexist remarks are made, sure. But overall sexism is overlooked more so than homophobic remarks, in my opinion at least.

That ^

Also, those sexist antics aren't nearly as blatant as this homophobic slur was. You don't see male wrestlers directly go into the divas face and yell at them to go to the kitchen, or anything similar. He was flat out calling him a fag (and said he invented fags, lol), and all this was in front of his daughter too. It's just not acceptable imo, and I'm a huge Bully mark. He just went too far.

 

[Lockard 23]

Don't see the big deal. It's no different than calling someone a blueberry - that's not an intentional insult towards the mentally handicapped either.

 

[Crayo]

Don't see the big deal. It's no different than calling someone a blueberry - that's not an intentional insult towards the mentally handicapped either.

He's clearly mocking the audience member for being a "fag", as if it's a bad thing. That's blatant homophobia lol... If he's calling him out for being homosexual and saying it's bad, then that directly affects every other homosexual does it not?

"Oh it's bad for him to be gay, but not for you guys, I love you guys".

The term "blueberry" tends to be used in different context now. It's almost become slang for how popular it is, and that makes it different to homophobia imo. If someone calls you a blueberry, they basically just mean "Are you stupid?", and have no intention for it to be related to lacking mental progression. Though it would be wrong for him to call someone out for being Blue as well, so I don't see your point.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

Homophobic people exist. Why should I care that an actor in a television program is portraying a homophobic person?

 

[Crayo]

Homophobic people exist. Why should I care that an actor in a television program is portraying a homophobic person?

Unless your homophobic or sensitive, then you have no reason to care. This isn't about you caring.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

Unless your homophobic or sensitive, then you have no reason to care. This isn't about you caring.

Why should anyone care? If Blake called Adam a fag on Workaholics would any of these same outraged people be sending in letters to Comedy Central?

Of course not. So why is wrestling held to a different standard?

These people who just sit around with their ears perked up waiting to be offended need to jump off a cliff.

 

[Crayo]

Why should anyone care? If Blake called Adam a f#!g on Workaholics would any of these same outraged people be sending in letters to Comedy Central?

Of course not. So why is wrestling held to a different standard?

These people who just sit around with their ears perked up waiting to be offended need to jump off a cliff.

This was directed at a paying member of the audience specifically, and that in a whole makes it completely different. Regardless of whether this was right or wrong, it's not good for TNA at all. Bully doesn't need to resort to homophobia to get boos, and TNA have already had to publicly apologise.

Would you be okay with an African American being racially abused as well? Or is racism a completely different matter (which it's not)? Would your retort be "I don't care if he's racist because he's acting, so calling him the n word is fine"?