Silas Young is the "last real man of professional wrestling," but what makes a man?
In 2017, Fightful spoke to Silas for the first time, and conducted a "Manly or Not Manly" quiz. Manicures, wikipedia, man buns and more. It's 2020, and we're back for round two.
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White Claws
Silas Young: "White Claw. Not manly."
Fightful: Now, what leads you to say they’re not manly? ‘Cause I heard you snicker with that as well.
Silas Young: "Well, I mean, seltzer water in general is not manly. So, alcoholic seltzer water definitely isn’t manly. Hence, the snicker and the strong no."
Would you consider water manly? ‘Cause you have to have it to survive.
Silas Young:"Yeah, absolutely water is manly and I’m gonna tell you why it’s manly. It’s because you have all these adults out there that’ll say, “I don’t like the way water tastes.” When I hear that I just think, “What are you, a child?”
Fightful: So, it’s the seltzer aspect that makes it not manly.
Silas Young: "Exactly"
What about the color lime green? Is that manly or not manly?
Silas Young: "I would say that’s situational. So, I will say it’s situationally manly."
How about well done steak?
Silas Young: "Ugh. No. Definitely not manly. Manly is a rare, medium rare steak."
Fightful: When was the last time you had a well done steak?
Silas Young: "Probably when I was a child."
Fightful: So, you developed that taste for not—I don’t know what the term would be—you developed that disgust pretty early on.
Silas Young: "Yeah, absolutely. I mean, a lot of times my father would cook the steaks on the grill and they’d either be done really good or really bad."
So, this garnered some really polarizing reactions from a lot of Ring of Honor wrestlers that I spoke to. There were a lot of people that didn’t like the white ring mats in Ring of Honor, I think last year or so. Do you think those are manly or not manly? White ring mats. Ring of Honor’s gone with the dark ones, the black ones and then briefly last year they switched to, I think, a white one, a very light colored one. Then I had people in Ring of Honor saying, “Oh, we canned that real quick. We’re not doing that any more.”
Silas Young: "You know what? Honestly, I didn’t even notice. I don’t look at things like that. I think that’s more of the mindset of being an interior decorator and I’d hardly say that’s me."
Fightful: So, not manly?
Silas Young: "Yeah, I guess not manly, I guess. But, I gotta be honest with you, I think even having no opinion on it isn’t manly.
What about fidget spinners? They haven’t been in the news in a while, but are they manly or not manly?
Silas Young: "They’re not manly. They’re boyish. They’re for children."
How about laser pointers? We don’t see those in wrestling anymore. They used to be everywhere. You’d watch Monday Night RAW and the Undertaker’s trying to talk, you see a laser pointer at him. Are they manly or not manly?
Silas Young: "Nah, laser pointers are for cats."
Fightful: But, what if you’re a manly cat? Like, there are some burly cats.
Silas Young: "Eh, still I guess. I mean, you’re still not a man, you’re a cat at that point."
Fightful: That’s a good point.
You can see Silas Young at 18th Anniversary in Las Vegas on March 13. Our full interview with Silas Young can be seen above. The original Manly or Not Manly can be seen below.
