What the Hell IS This?

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SM Reader and Hanuman-bhakt Tiger Yogi emailed us a tip this morning, about an absurdly named product: wtf, mate.jpg

A company by the name of Smart Mark Video is selling a DVD of something called “independent wrestling” entitled “Wicked Hanuman“!!

Smart Mark, which offers “… only the best in Independent Wrestling!”, markets videos of Independent Wrestling Syndicate events. What is the IWS? I had no clue, so I foraged virtually:

International Wrestling Syndicate (IWS) is a professional wrestling promotion based out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is co-owned, half by Manny Elefthriou aka “PCP Crazy F’N” Manny , who also sometimes wrestles for the promotion, and half by Wild Rose Productions, an amateur internet pornography company that is run by Montreal-native pornstar Carol Cox. The IWS was formerly known as the Internet Wrestling Syndicate and before that as the World Wrestling Syndicate.
IWS is known for its high energy and new young talent possessing a variety of styles, including brawling, comedy wrestling, high-flying, strong style and technical submission wrestling. They usually feature some deathmatch style wrestling matches at their shows, such as “fans bring the weapons” matches, which are a popular attraction at one of their biggest shows of the year, “Un F’N Sanctioned”. [viki]

Okay, I’m still not entirely clear on what all this is about, mostly because my brain shuts off whenever it sees the word “wrestling”, but given everything we’ve read so far, why on earth would you name a product after a sweetly loyal Vanara? Are the stars of the video inquisitive, short, furry, South Indian humanoids? Doubtful. Also doubtful? That anyone involved with this Charlie Foxtrot is either Hindu or knows anything about revered characters from the Ramayana.

Some of you incorrectly think that I am all for mocking Hinduism, but that is not true. At best, I find this ridiculous and at worst, I’m offended. Let me pre-emptively answer your question: no, I would not appreciate a “Wicked John the Baptist!!!” DVD. I wouldn’t advocate violence or otherwise behave in a way which threatens the possibility of getting my point across, but I think calmly-expressed disagreement is more than called-for in situations like this.

I wish people could be sensitive and respectful of all religions, I think tolerance is a matter of courtesy vs. a granola ideal. To that end, I’m emailing less-than-Smart Mark to let them know what I think. I know that within minutes, you’re going to let me know what YOU think, via the comments.

63 thoughts on “What the Hell IS This?”

  1. Runa, Why Putana story is nsfw ? I heard that story from my grandmother and I was I think six years old at the time. Is it some cultural taboo? I mean, its a very well known story…

  2. Tambram, What I meant was the name that I thought up for the Putana DVD Avatar was NSFW 🙂

    (And,no, I am not going to put it out here ) ( and yes, I heard that story when I was young too and stories about Krishna were my favorite bed time stories)

  5. It was pretty obvious that WICKED was used in a way complimentary of Hanuman. I find it amusing a lot of people seemed to have interpreted it as being used in the more common way.

  6. Adam,

    That e-mail you site isn’t really threatening. All it says it that there may be “consequences” to your company’s decision to sell such a product that offends a large religious community. Nobody is threating your life here. Consequences could simply mean a boycott or something along the lines of the Abercrombie Chinese t-shirt fiasco. Besides, you can argue that these e-mails worked in a sense because it educated you and your organization about what is offensive about calling a wrestling event Wicked Hanuman.

    You correctly state that Hanuman is related to wrestling, but no one is going off and calling themselves Hanuman. Instead, they look (i.e. pray) to Hanuman to give them strength.

    Maybe you should think about contacting the guy who named this event and telling him/her that it might not be a bad idea to use a different name the next time around?

  10. clueless (at No. 21 – that’s half a BBC show, right?) and Runa’s Mexican swearing (there goes your reputation as the Model colony minority!), Salil and I welcome you to the bottom of the barrel! Maybe we can work together on Kickin’ Ass with Kaikeyi.

    Ah, sakshi, great work on excavating Mr. India. Without Bob Cristo, Kaate nahin kat te ye din. Hail Mogambo!

  11. Sakshi, Good one !

    Rahul: What can I say? The company is great here @ the bottom of the barrel

  12. Without Bob Cristo, Kaate nahin kat te ye din.

    haha, Bob Cristo. India’s favourite colonialist. 😉