Ok, a little background info before getting into this topic. I tried to get the dudes on the Beastcast to read this as it's interesting to know where this symbol originates from, but alas maybe my email was too long or something. Instead I thought it would be fun to write a little article on the forum. Maybe reading this will serve as some form of warning for randomly co-opting foreign symbols/languages and claiming ownership of it. Most of my knowledge about this topic comes from being a passive wrestling viewer and a second-generation Turk, but I also did a little research and will post sources at the bottom (I'm not above admitting that I also used Wikipedia).
Pro-Wrestling Beginnings
Those of you that are unfamiliar with the "Too Sweet" should know that it is a popular hand-gesture in professional wrestling. The more avid wrestling fan may be relatively familiar on how the too sweet came to be used by The Kliq/NWO/Wolfpack, it was discussed in a June 2016 interview [1] with a bunch of wrestlers on wwe.com. In the interview Kevin Nash states the first known usage of the Too Sweet:
"KEVIN NASH: It came up during a European trip. X-Pac brought it to our attention. It was just one of those things where we got it and the five of us [Nash, Sean Waltman, Scott Hall, Shawn Michaels and Triple H] started to use it."
Now for the juicy part, in that interview Kevin Nash mentions that they first started calling it the “Turkish Wolf” and Triple H says he doesn’t like calling it the “Too Sweet”. To me this clearly shows that they first started using this hand gesture after seeing a bunch of Turkish people throwing it up on one of their tours.
Origins
The Turkish Wolf symbol (or Kurt Işareti) is a popular far-right/fascist hand gesture mostly used by ultra-nationalists (Grey Wolves) or members of the Nationalist Movement Party known in Turkish as the MHP (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi). It was popularized in Turkey by the founder of the MHP: Alparslan Türkeş after he visited Baku and a bunch of people greeted him with it. My knowledge about why people in Baku were using this is limited. As far as I can tell, it seems to have been a way for the Azerbaijan citizens to show their independence from the Soviet Union and their close relations to Turkey.
What this hand gesture actually means is slightly debatable, some people say it represents the mythical wolf that Turks are descended from others say it’s a symbol representing the combination of Islam and the Turkish people. Either way, it has mainly been used as a fascist symbol ever since. Racists tend to show hate towards the Kurdish people and ethnic minorities in Turkey by throwing this gesture up. You will mostly see it used in far-right Turkish political rallies.
Today
In terms of Pro-Wrestling, I recently heard about some ridiculous trademark that WWE has applied for in reference to the Too Sweet. Going along those same lines they also have tried opening a lawsuit against tag-team wrestlers "Young Bucks" for usage of the gesture. So have fun with your fascist trademark Vince.
The Turkish Wolf symbol is still used in Turkey today and as far as I’m aware it’s still used to show that you are aligned with the far-right. So please people, be careful when “too sweeting”, especially around Turks, Kurds and Armenians. Either you will make people very angry or accidentally get the support of fascists.
Sources:
- http://www.wwe.com/article/wwe-too-sweet-hand-gesture-meaning
- http://www.internethaber.com/bozkurt-isaretinin-anlami-ne-178826h.htm
- https://www.cagesideseats.com/2017/9/27/16376748/report-wwe-sends-young-bucks-cease-and-desist-too-sweet
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alparslan_T%C3%BCrke%C5%9F
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalist_Movement_Party
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Wolves
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