Flip Gordon is always willing to push the envelope as a performer. One of the ways that the former ROH standout did so was to lean into his love of conspiracy theories. He brought up anti-masking at the height of the pandemic, and he’s pushed Flat Earth theories, as well. Gordon has done all of this under the guise of his “The Unreal” gimmick. He chatted about it recently on the 3 Count podcast, and you can read highlights below (per Fightful):
His enjoyment of conspiracy theories: “‘The Unreal’ was kind of like a spin-off of my mercenary character that I was doing back in Ring of Honor. Towards the tail end of Ring of Honor, I was doing this conspiracy gimmick because I was a heel. I never really watched movies or TV shows or read books growing up, only thing I was really into was professional wrestling. That was really my only source of entertainment. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started getting into conspiracy theories as a way to let my mind explore. ‘What if this is happened? What if that’s happening?’”
Adding conspiracy theories into his character: “I started going down some of these rabbit holes and I was like, ‘I can throw this into my gimmick. I’m a heel, so I can amp up this a little more.’ I remember, I was down in Mexico with Juventud Guerrera and he pitched the whole flat earth thing to me. ‘That is ridiculous, but I like it.’ I came back the following week, and we even put it on BTE [Being The Elite], I told the Bucks [The Young Bucks], ‘Let’s do this flat earth thing.’ They laughed and enjoyed it, and we tied it into that.
“Then I did the whole Milk First, and I was like, ‘Man, conspiracies is a way to get on people’s nerves,’ and I started coming up with the wackiest theories like wildfires having borders and not entering into Canada or Mexico. Obviously, when COVID hit, I was really on the whole ‘no mask’ thing because people would freak out about it. ‘A mask isn’t going to work.’ Meanwhile, I was the first person to wear a mask. When COVID first hit, I did a bit in the airport with a gas mask. People just had this narrative about me and I kept going with it. For me, that’s where I got my entertainment from. Taking something I enjoy outside of wrestling and bringing it into wrestling. To me, that was conspiracy theories.”
