Wrestling gimmicks can range from playful to absolutely absurd. A look back into history shows one case of the latter.
A post on social media from earlier this year went viral all over again, racking up more than 14 million views on Twitter/X alone. The post recalled a luchador from the 1970s who once wrestled under the name “El Nazi.” Much like his name suggests, the luchador wore a full spandex suit adorned with a swastika in the middle of it. Other attire featured El Nazi wearing the Stahlhelm (German helmet) with an iron cross on it.
The story of El Nazi is not exactly an unknown one. Every so often, the gimmick goes viral, and people are shocked to hear about it all over again. In the late 1960s-1980s, luchador Ignacio Gómez Ruiz wrestled under the name ‘El Nazi.’ Ruiz was a prominent heel (or “rudo”) at the time, and this gimmick no doubt drew some ire at the time.
Ruiz wrestled from 1957 to 1988. Throughout his career, Ruiz held a number of championships in Mexico as well. It just goes to show that back then, wrestlers were using any gimmicks to get heat from fans.
Pro-Nazi gimmicks have been criticized more heavily in modern times
Wrestlers have tried to use white supremacist and pro-Nazi gimmicks in modern times. However, they have been met with more criticism than in the past.
In 2018, a Pennsylvania teacher was investigated by his school district after videos of his independent wrestling persona went viral. Kevin Bean, then known as a wrestler named Blitzkrieg, was shown performing pro-Nazi behavior like goose-stepping, chanting “Sieg Heil” and doing the Nazi salute.
Last year, wXw Germany cut ties with wrestler Marius Al-Ani after he used a Nazi-related song in a TikTok video.
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