US school teacher under investigation for Nazi wrestling character

A school teacher from Pennsylvania is under investigation after footage of him moonlighting as a Nazi at a wrestling event was shared online.

36-year-old Kevin Bean performs as a character known as 'Blitzkrieg, the German Juggernaut' for the independent promotion World Wide Wrestling Alliance.

The footage was shared by professional wrestling journalist Ryan Satin earlier this month and shows Bean making his entrance, waving an iron cross flag and giving the Nazi salute.

Although Bean is portraying a bad guy 'heel' persona the most worrying aspect of the video is arguably that some fans and even children in the audience appear to be cheering him.

Further research from Satin saw him discover fans on Reddit who were supporting Bean's character, while also making reference to WWE recently accepting Hulk Hogan back into their company, despite the star being shamed for racist comments in the past.

The BBCreport that the full video has since been removed from the WWWA's YouTube channel and Bean, who is yet to comment, is now under investigation by The Spring-Ford Area School District.

In a statement given to the BBC, the district's communication manager. Erin Crew, said:

Once administrators were made aware of the video they acted immediately to conduct an ongoing internal investigation.

As this is a personnel matter, further details will not be addressed publicly. The actions portrayed in this video do not represent the core values of the school district.

In addition to this, the Spring-Ford superintendent David Goodin, published a letter to parents on the school's website.

I want to assure you that the actions portrayed in this video do not represent the core values of the school district.

As an educational organisation, we pride ourselves in providing a safe and nurturing learning environment.

In response, Dino Sanna, who has been running WWWA since 1981, defended Bean in an interview with The Blastbut didn't give an explanation for the character's existence and stated that no one has ever complained about Blitzkrieg.

[Be has a gimmickan] is a good guy and not a hateful person.

Everyone has a gimmick. It's wrestling.

Blitzkrieg, who has been active since 2012 is still listed as a member of the WWWA roster on the promotions website.

Speaking to CBS Philadelphia, parent Keith Laskey felt the issue had become a little exaggerated.

I think it's blown out of proportion quite a bit. It’s something that he’s been doing for a long time. I think everyone knew about it.

At least people that knew about it knew about it. It wasn’t hiding it or anything and I think a lot of people jump to conclusions before they had all the information.

Fellow parent Rebecca Holland had a different opinion.

I’m a little shocked to be honest with you. We saw the letter and it was nondescript.

We didn’t really know what it was about, but after seeing the pictures, I think it’s a much bigger issue than I initially thought it was.

There has been widespread condemnation for Bean in the wrestling community since the emergence of the video, most notably from Jewish wrestler David Starr who in the past has spoken prominently anti-semitism in the past.

Wrestling as an industry is no stranger to stereotypical gimmicks, with European and Asian performers in the past sometimes embodying characters that could be interpreted as either terrorists or racists.

The industry has since made an effort to move on from those days, hence the outrage that the Blitzkrieg character has received, combined with the fact that Bean is a school teacher.

HT BBC

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