WWE news: Superstar's new controversial 'White Nationalist' gimmick draws heavy criticism
What's the story?
NXT has always been a place for WWE Superstars to grow as performers, trying out gimmicks that we wouldn't see on the main roster but fairly new acquisition Dominik Dijackovic seems to have pushed it too far with a new 'White Nationalist' persona that drew heavy criticism on Twitter forcing him to deactivate his account.
In case you didn't know...
Dijackovic debuted the gimmick during the recent set of NXT TV Tapings that took place this week. After defeating enhancement talent he cut a promo in the ring about his family emigrating to the United States and how he wanted the North American Championship.
Whilst that may seem pretty tame and not particularly 'White Nationalist' it's worth noting that he wrestled two matches during the tapings, one against an African-American, and one against Mansoor, who is Saudi Arabian. Both wrestlers with ethnic backgrounds who he defeated.
The heart of the matter?
Why does the ethnicity of Dijackovic's opponents matter? Well, because he tweeted the following, now deleted, tweet, threatening to 'purify' North America, which certainly invokes unpleasant historical events.
As you can see, Dijakovic even went as far as to tag the three leaders of North America - Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau and Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Naturally, the tweet received huge amounts of criticism and it was deleted thirty minutes later. Dijakovic's Twitter account didn't last much longer than that.
What's next?
With two matches already taped with Dijakovic playing this character and an impending North American Championship programme with Velveteen Dream that seems predicated on the conflict caused by this, it remains to be seen if WWE will have second thoughts and drop the whole thing. To be honest the last thing WWE need is a White Supremacist character (even if he is a heel)
It's also worth noting that in real-life Dijakovic couldn't be further apart and more different than the character he's trying to portray here. So much so that it's really odd they'd ask him to do it in the first place
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments section below!