Eugene: Was it offensive?

[Good Golly It's Ollie]

I've seen a bit of discussion on this over the years - some people feel that the Eugene gimmick was offensive, while others emphatically do not. On a rewatch of 2004, I'm really in two minds over it and I wanted to know what the WZ consensus was, or if there even is one.

What I can gather is there are some positives and negatives to the gimmick (I don't necessarily agree with all points):

+ Eugene was portrayed as an innocent, which is rare in wrestling.
+ It was a positive portrayal of a "fanboy".
+ It was a different character that had not been seen before in wrestling.
+ Eugene was portrayed as a good guy capable of overcoming uncertain odds, and I guess a competent fighter.
+ It can be argued that the character was not supposed to be differently-abled, per se, just "childlike".
+ Eugene was intended as a sympathetic character fans would want to defend and rally behind.

- The character was portrayed as "easily mislead" by bad guys, which could constitute a negative portrayal of neuro-atypical people.
- The character was not hugely successful in the ring, which could potentially imply that neuro-atypical people cannot be successful sports performers.
- The character might hit "too close to home" for certain viewers & their families.
- In terms of kayfabe-logic, it could be said that there is no rationalisation for the company to allow a person with mental faculties similar to Eugene inside the ring in the first place.
- Does it make logical sense for the character to be able to win? Or alternatively, should the character be portayed as winning "in spite" of his "limitations"?
- Some argue the character doesn't really carry any meaningful message, so why bother to attempt such a character in the first place?

I'm leaning towards "offensive, but not intentionally so" and feel the character could be good if handled much more sensitively.

Please make your arguments below.

 

[Stone Cold Tea]

The Character was a giant fucking failure. Here's a program built around violence and brutality and they put a somebody in there who is portrayed as mentally impaired. For what fucking reason?!?

The fact he was in the main even was an even bigger joke. Kurt Angle losing to Eugene? Eugene Vs Triple H at SummerSlam. Fuck off. It made an absolute joke of the product. Given the talent at the time somebody mentally impaired must have come up with Eugene.

 

[MoRtAnDaD]

There was nothing, and i mean NOTHING right about Eugene. Not only offensive, but as Rock Lesnar stated, they made big names lost to him. It was one of those thing that should've never happened in the first place.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

Eugene was fine.

A character with mental deficiencies was nothing new in the wrestling world, but this was the first instance of it being so heavily implied and being the central focus of a character in terms of a mainstream narrative. Most likely, they were attempting to portray an autistic savant character, very similar to Rain Man, except more goofy in an effort to connect with wrestling audiences. Naturally, we as human beings want to root for the underdog; and for a character to have a handicap like Eugene, yet still be able to go out there and fight as well as he did was quite heart warming in a way.

The main problem, besides being booked in over his head against Triple H at Summerslam which was ludicrous, was that a character like Eugene requires a lot of nuance and concise writing to be effective. The reason Rain Man works is because it was very carefully constructed to be a positive, yet still realistic portrayal of people on the autism spectrum. In wrestling, because of the weekly episodic nature of the product, and the general tone it attempts to create, a lot more liberties need to be taken in order to produce the best product for all audiences. Because of that, I feel Eugene was very over-simplified, but the same can be said for a lot of wrestling characters at Eugene's level in terms of position on the card. If anything, it shows those who have disabilities don't need to be treated radically differently; they can still be accepted and positioned in the same manner as those without disabilities; egalitarianism and all that.

As for was it offensive, no. Offensive would have been having him turn heel, constantly make him look to be worthless during his main push (once he became a jobber, the autism aspect wasn't played up), and to not be likeable. To my knowledge, Eugene as a character was never a heel, they gave him big wins during his main push and Chris Benoit's endorsement (speaking of mental handicaps), and he was the hottest thing for a while in 2004 Raw, even more so than the main storylines between HBK, Evolution and Benoit. They couldn't dedicate the time to create a more complex character like Rain Man due to the very nature of mainstream wrestling, which means he had to be simplified, which probably worked to his advantage during his peak.

 

[Fabulous Freebirds]

Eugene was a decent character. Not the first time that type of character was in wrestling. George The Animal Steel, Evad, etc. It was simply intended to be a fun loving character and nothing else. Opening act. The guy playing the role did a great job.

Was it offensive? No, because it was never really revealed what he had to the viewing audience other than being Eric Bischoff's nephew. Of course we all guessed what his gimmick was and never could pinpoint what he had.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Was it offensive? I personally didn't find it offensive because I'm a fan that's both willing and able to accept the fact that it's all 100% scripted entertainment. We've seen actors portraying mentally handicapped characters in films and television for decades and nobody says boo about it. Shit...Tom Hanks' most memorable role was playing Forrest Gump, a man with an IQ of 75 who eventually becomes a star athlete in college, a decorated war hero, the man who accidentally kicked off the Watergate Scandal, owner of a multi-million dollar shrimp company and he won an Oscar for it. I don't think Eugene was a particularly engaging character who did anything for the product but that's neither here nor there. Eugene was around from 2004 though 2007, before WWE officially went PG, and is yet another in a long line of examples that being TV-14 or whatever doesn't automatically equate into great quality.

Characters who're not exactly what most people would consider "intelligent" are nothing new in pro wrestling. The Missing Link, AKA Dewey Robertson, was essentially this crazy wild man, Kamala was this savage cannibal from the wilds of Africa, various wrestlers of Samoan heritage have been portrayed as these relatively unintelligent, savage brutes, George Steele was...well I dunno exactly what his deal was but he definitely wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, etc.

It's a character that couldn't remotely exist in wrestling today, at least not on WWE's level, because you'd have people crawling out each other's ass ready to crucify WWE for it. Someone would get offended because they have a loved one that has mental handicaps, someone would be offended as they know someone who's mentally handicapped, some would claim to be offended just to be part of the crowd, many of which would then take it to social media where they'd meet up with people who'd claim to be offended just for the sake of trying to make the situation 10 times worse than it already is as that's how they get their kicks. There are some people who're just beyond uncomfortable with those who're mentally handicapped because they just don't know how to react around them; some of those same aren't at all comfortable with seeing them portrayed in film and television.

 

[yourdamnluck]

A differently abled guy overcame all odds to beat an olympic champ. Doesn't sounds offensive. A lot of actors portray disabled and poor, is that offensive too?
Eugene, Regal and HHH angle was awesome.

 

[enviousdominous]

I think what they were going with was "idiot savant" in building the Eugene character.

They had a damn good prodigy in Nick Dinsmore, and decided to fluff his hair out and make him be a mentally challenged super-fan. I think that their intention was to have him show that -- in spite of his overly-goofy brain disorder -- he was a stellar technician in the ring due to his life-long obsession with pro-wrestling. It also seemed like a way to screw with Eric Bischoff as Eugene was being billed as his nephew.

To my knowledge; they never used the word "******ed", which I think was a huge part of making the gimmick wholesome enough for most people to enjoy.

It's my understanding that what really killed the Eugene character was that Nick Dinsmore had somehow violated their wellness policy. In the end I don't think anyone was outright offended, but most of them still thought that it was wrong.

 

[justinept]

The success or failure of the character is mostly irrelevant to the discussion about whether or not it was offensive. And to that, it wasn't offensive. The character was 3-dimensional, not some cookie-cutter stereotype whose sole purpose was to provide a cheap laugh.

Were there wrestlers that mocked him? Sure. But that's pretty true to life as there are a lot of douchey a**holes in the world who pick on people with learning disabilities. But guess what? Eugene typically overcame the bullying - whether by defeating the opponent in the ring, having a 'face' wrestler run in to save him or by simply 'outsmarting' an opponent that underestimated his abilities. Sorry, but that's not offensive. That's a solid attempt at being inspirational.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

I've seen a bit of discussion on this over the years - some people feel that the Eugene gimmick was offensive, while others emphatically do not. On a rewatch of 2004, I'm really in two minds over it and I wanted to know what the WZ consensus was, or if there even is one.

What I can gather is there are some positives and negatives to the gimmick (I don't necessarily agree with all points):

+ Eugene was portrayed as an innocent, which is rare in wrestling.
+ It was a positive portrayal of a "fanboy".
+ It was a different character that had not been seen before in wrestling.
+ Eugene was portrayed as a good guy capable of overcoming uncertain odds, and I guess a competent fighter.
+ It can be argued that the character was not supposed to be differently-abled, per se, just "childlike".
+ Eugene was intended as a sympathetic character fans would want to defend and rally behind.

- The character was portrayed as "easily mislead" by bad guys, which could constitute a negative portrayal of neuro-atypical people.
- The character was not hugely successful in the ring, which could potentially imply that neuro-atypical people cannot be successful sports performers.
- The character might hit "too close to home" for certain viewers & their families.
- In terms of kayfabe-logic, it could be said that there is no rationalisation for the company to allow a person with mental faculties similar to Eugene inside the ring in the first place.
- Does it make logical sense for the character to be able to win? Or alternatively, should the character be portayed as winning "in spite" of his "limitations"?
- Some argue the character doesn't really carry any meaningful message, so why bother to attempt such a character in the first place?

I'm leaning towards "offensive, but not intentionally so" and feel the character could be good if handled much more sensitively.

Please make your arguments below.

The original character, as presented was more based on Rain Man than anything - he had what would be called a learning disability, but was a wrestling-savant. He could mimick his idols styles in the ring perfectly, using moves like a Sharpshooter, the Hogan Legdrop and others. They tried a similar thing with Festus.

Where Eugene went horribly wrong was the over-reliance on clearly faked behaviours. Take the movies Something About Mary & The Ringer... while the subject matter of the latter is arguably more offensive, it's considered the less controversial of the two movies. Why?

Warren in TSAM was a stereotypical learning disabled character, designed to be a figure of fun/pathos and played, crucially by a respected, non disabled actor. Now this in itself isn't an issue, Dustin Hoffman and Daniel Day Lewis have both won Oscars (for Rain Man & My Left Foot) respectively playing disabled people. But this was different, this was not a sensitive portrayal but designed around a larger actor who was cast more for his ability to gurn and say dick jokes in a voice that sounded "the R-Word".

The Ringer however featured REAL actors with learning disabilities in a story that, while on the surface made fun of them, in effect made them the heroes and Johnny Knoxvillle's lead the villain, but by actually getting to know those involved he was redeemed and ended up working WITH those people he once tried to ape. It also showed that not all disabled people or those around them are nice, happy people. The "villain "Jimmy was portrayed as possibly faking or over-exaggerating his disability, and at best was a bit of a douche. Likewise the fake boyfriend of Katherine Heigl's character and her Nurse friend.

Nick Dinsmore was a fantstic wrestler who trained with and helped develop many of todays superstars, including John Cena, Randy Orton & Brock Lesnar. He was very much their contemporary. But Vince decided on Eugene for him as his "big gimmick", not realising the damage it would do to his career. There's no way back from it without openly admitting "I'm the guy who faked being disabled to get laughs...but you can cheer me now..."

Was Eugene as "bad" as Warren? No, but the reality is that it will go down as a blot in WWE, along with Katie Vick, AW Washington's live mic, making Mr. USA a Masai Warrior & Chavo a white golfer. I genuinely feel bad for Dinsmore, he was GOOD at it and did what he was told... but where is he now? Even if you didn't quite buy Eugene, the character was portrayed well enough to be somewhat engaging with the right foil like Regal.

The character DID have potential, had it been less about "jumping and clapping" , "chewing his fingers" and being saved by bigger stars. Had Eugene just been quieter, socially awkward and perhaps naive -that would have been enough. But as time went on it became about the slapstick.

Vince may even have genuinely believed it was helping to break down barriers and prejudice but as the man who famously wrestled a one legged man in an ass kicking contest... I doubt it.

 

[LionheartY2J]

It's 2016; everything's offensive.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

Just imagine Vince meeting Nick Dinsmore circa 2004. Vince goes to OVW and sees the poetry that is Dinsmore in the ring, then later meets the guy, shakes his hand, says great job.

Later, Vince is with Johnny Ace (or JR or whoever was in charge of talent relations at the time) and says, "great worker, but he looks like a goddamn ******!" Then a light with a dollar sign goes on above Vince's head.

Nick Dinsmore was an excellent worker in the ring but was born with the misfortune of having the facial structure of a cabbage patch doll. What could have been had they made Dinsmore into a masked character or something along those lines.

Was it offensive? Depends who you ask. PC culture has certainly been on the rise this decade, I think it was also to a degree ten years ago, but not to the extremes it is now. Facebook was only available to certain university students, no Tumblr blogs existed for scores of people to get righteously indignant upon. Online wrestling chatter was mainly relegated to wrestling fans.

Eugene in of itself wasn't offensive. It was offensive to those who wanted to be offended. The people who go out of their way to find things to be mad about. Eugene was a four year old fan in an adults body. I see people posting photos and articles about people with mental and physical disabilities succeeding in unlikely ways all the time. Wrestling is a reflection of the zeitgeist after all.

Except that Eugene was pure crap. It was a huge waste to slot Eugene in big programs against top heels at back to back Summerslams with no intention of pushing him further. Eugene was never going to be a top guy. His shelf life was limited upon debut. Eugene amounted to a poor attempt to shock main stream media and attempt to grab some headlines in the tamer post-attitude era.

PC culture is such hot garbage. People constantly tripping over themselves in order to be offended. Imagine if WWE debuted Eugene today. Imagine if they have that gimmick to a similarly beedy eyed wrestler like Braun Strowman. They'd get destroyed.

Eugene was whatever preconceived notions that you brought with you. It's limited shelf life contributed to the generation lost that we're still living with today: a lack of stars. Those Summerslam spots Eugene held up could have gone towards pushing basically anyone else.

And above all else, you never go full ******.

 

[Azane]

Nobody actually finds it offensive, people just want to jump on the offended train and defend magical people who get offended by anything and everything.

The story about Eugene was entertaining and it actually was a positive portrayal of a mentally handicapped person trying to wrestle. Nick Dinsmore went through a lot of effort to make his character come alive and be positive, the naive storylines that he got put through, are called entertainment, not offensive.

 

[Kizzani]

OH MY GOD, A tv show used a mentally handicapped wrestler.....Boooo what a disgrace.

OH but your turd salads Loved

Of mice and Men
I am Sam
Rainman
Radio
Forest Gump
One flew over the cuckoo's nest

What about Fetus. It is called TV....it taint real.

Eugene was a gimmick and gimmicks is what made wrestling cool.

Stone Cold, Heartbreak Kid, Hitman, American Dream, Big Boss man, IRS, Million Dollar Man......Etc etc etc. The list is endless.

We used to have comical heroes, evil villains and over the top
Now what hot monkey crap do we got. Stardust....

John cena....a guy
Roman.....the guy
AJ......NJPW guy
Gallows and Anderson....2 guys
Ambrose...that other guy



Give us heros not UFC bullcrap

 

[BringThePain834]

My favorite Eugene moment was when him and Regal were at commentary for a match between Rhyno and Rob Conway.

This was pure gold.

 

[silverbullet]

Just imagine Vince meeting Nick Dinsmore circa 2004. Vince goes to OVW and sees the poetry that is Dinsmore in the ring, then later meets the guy, shakes his hand, says great job.

Later, Vince is with Johnny Ace (or JR or whoever was in charge of talent relations at the time) and says, "great worker, but he looks like a goddamn ******!" Then a light with a dollar sign goes on above Vince's head.

that was nicks idea, he presented it to vince, and vince said see you monday.

 

[d_henderson1810]

I wasn't offended by Eugene, but he is a short shelf-life character, in that, you couldn't have that gimmick last more than a year or two.

From what I read, Nick Dinsmore was actually a pretty good ring technician, especially for someone his size. Most guys his size are usually junk in the ring, but he could do a variety of moves, and could do a lot of moves other wrestlers use.

I heard that Jim Cornette hated him in OVW, and him being written as an "idiot-savant" was a way of screwing him over. But Eugene made a crap gimmick, and made some gold out of it.

I do think that they missed an opportunity at ECW ONS '06 where he cut a promo. I think he should have dropped the gimmick, and then bagged WWE on-air for making him adopt the gimmick, and how joining the ECW brand will make him "real". He could say that he was inspired by Joey Styles' shoot-worked promo on Raw a couple of weeks earlier. The fans at ONS would have popped for it, because Eugene would then be an "anit-WWE rebel" who jumped to Heyman's brand to be "himself".

Really, Eugene being "out there " is similar to George "The Animal" and others, like someone said. Hell, Dean Ambrose is meant to be unhinged and unstable, capable of anything. Eugene was a bit like that, but aimed towards kids and played for laughs.

 

[The Scarred One]

No. I never found the character offensive. It was clear the intention was to create an underdog character the fans could get behind and to inspire them. After all, who doesn't love a good underdog story?

I felt there were two things wrong with the gimmick:

It was clear the Eugene character was never going to rise past a certain point. It was always going to be a mid-card character as long as it was done the way it was. So to have him put into main event level programs with the likes of Triple H and Kurt Angle harmed them more than it did good for Eugene. Don't book something like that if there is no intention of elevating the character.

It was also clear, at least to me, that the character had a short shelf life. The gimmick was fun for a while, but it got old pretty damn quick as it was later proven. I felt it should've been used as one of those "foot in the door" gimmicks. It would be something for Nick Dinsmore to use to get noticed and then branch off from there.

Jumping off from my second point, there were many ways they could've written off the Eugene gimmick.

1) An injury angle where he is hospitalized after an accident and is knocked into proper cognition.
2) An injury angle where he essentially disappears and his "twin brother" Nick arrives to avenge him.
3) A split personality gimmick much like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in which the Hyde side eventually takes over
4) It comes out that he was faking the whole time (just imagine the heel heat from that)

Those are just some ideas of how they could've retired the character. Personally, I would've loved to have seen Nick Dinsmore reunite with Rob Conway as the Lords of the Ring at some point.

As I have said, the Eugene gimmick was fun, but it got old pretty quick. But no, I didn't find the gimmick offensive.

 

[Jdulemba1001]

Let me preface this by saying that I am disabled. Not mentally mind you, but I have physical challenges. That said, I was not offended by the character. The problem was, I also wasn't all that entertained. He was fine, did what he did, and didn't make me change the channel, but I also wasn't clamoring for him to be world champion either. The problem with a disabled wrestling character is that its always going to be tempting to write him as a underdog trying to overcome, and you've booked into a corner. Either he overcomes his obstacles, and then you had a mentally disabled guy beating everyone, and that doesn't make them look good, or he loses. If he loses all the time, then hes seen as inferior. Not offensive, but not something they should have tried. Same thing with Zach Gowen. They told the only story they felt that they could.

 

[DirtyD79]

I personally wasn't offended by it but I can see how it would be offensive to some. You gotta have thick skin to be a pro wrestling fan. That said eventually it just started getting stupid and ultimately annoying. The problem with "funny" gimmicks is sooner or later the joke just gets old.

 

[dsotm5150]

If you get offended from watching professionally wrestling I highly recommend you find a new form of entertainment. I didn't find anything offensive about it, I think it ruined a decent worker's career it wasn't offensive.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I think it was slightly offensive, I just found it a bit awkward to watch. I'm not one of the people who gets offended by much (I don't think you can a be a wrestling fan if you are), but I don't think the Eugene character was a good idea. It's not the kind of thing I enjoy seeing on a wrestling show. It pretty much ruined Nick Dinsmore's career, and apparently he was a pretty good talent. I actually saw him on an indie show in the UK last year and he was still playing the Eugene character, as that's what people want to see for some bizarre reason.

Eugene bored me, I didn't enjoy his matches and I was glad when the character was scrapped...I just feel sorry for Dinsmore.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Even though he went full ****** I've seen dumber wrestling characters who's gimmick isn't that they're mentally deficient.

 

[Just Do It]

It was as offensive as any film depicting mental handicap I guess. I don't think there was any bad intent, and the character would quite often overcome the odds.

 

[HatchetMan84]

I think during today, in the world of everything having to be PC, he would have a much different reaction being that the general public would know that he wasn't truly disabled.

However, a truly disabled person who would be wrestling might get over with the fans, but then again there would be some people who would blame wwe for "exploiting" them....