During an episode of "Swerved" (WWE's version of "Punked" Brought to you by the director of "Jackass" and "Bad Grandpa") Darren Young's boyfriend's face was blurred during the show. Darren Young (Who's real name is Fred Rosser) took to Twitter saying:
"Swerved by @WWE but 2 blur my man's face is totally disrespectful 2 me! Why? It wasn't done on #WWEUnfiltered. "
So what possible reasons could the WWE have for blurring Young's significant other's face on one show and not the next one? There are two reasons why this could have happened. One is that Young's boyfriend (Niccolo 'Nick' Villa) might not have signed the release papers to have his face on "Swerved". But why would he have signed a waver for one show and not the next? That leads us to the unfortunate second reason. The WWE may be a little too old fashion and not wanted the "Swerve" audience to see Darren Young's boyfriend on the show.
Darren Young has been very vocal on gay rights and open about his relationship. Maybe the WWE thinks that he is "too open". I find it hard to believe that Nick wouldn't just tell Young that he didn't want his face shown on "Swerved". So you may call this writer a conspiracy theorist if you like, but, to quote Tone Loc in "Ace Ventura" Something ain't stirring the Kool-Aid, man"
The fact of the matter is that the WWE isn't a very progressive company and having openly gay superstars isn't something that the WWE has ever had to face before. Well, that is a lie. Former WCW and WWE tag team champion Chris Kanyon was an openly gay wrestler and has gone on record by saying that he thought that the reason he was held down was because of his sexual preference. Is it true? Only people who actually know the answer to that are the people who write and approve the story lines.
It is perfectly ok to have Goldust or Chuck and Larry to portray a stereotype, but when it comes time for an actual person who is gay, is it time to blur their face out? Darren Young has been very vocal on gay rights and open about his relationship. Maybe the WWE thinks that he is "too open". I find it hard to believe that Nick wouldn't just tell Young that he didn't want his face shown on "Swerved".
If you want to take it a step further, than let's go to the WWE champion. There has only been one black world champion in the history of the WWE and his name was The Rock. He was and still is an exceptional wrestler and entertainer. So what is being said is that you have to be beyond exceptional to be a black WWE Champion and just ok if you are anything else. You're probably thinking, "But Mark, Booker T and Mark Henry were champions.". Yes, they were the B-Champs. They held the old WCW title now being called the World Title. Not the same thing.
The WWE title says, "We believe in you and your skill. Take the ball and run with it." We have all seen the list of people who were WWE Champions and wondered in what world are they better than Shelton Benjamin or Mark Henry or Farooq and then they are crowned world champion and the ratings drop. Insert John Cena to bring the ratings up again, and then repeat cycle. It just doesn't seem right.
Look, this writer will be the first to admit that this sounds like a guy sitting in his basement with a tinfoil helmet so the aliens don't get his brain, but there are patterns to all of this and it's not like they are hard patterns to follow. Maybe the people in charge are just going with what they think works. Maybe there aren’t enough wrestlers of color "good enough" to be WWE Champion. Or maybe the powers that be are just too old fashioned and don't care.