Merih Demiral, the 26 year-old centre-back, was named man of the match after his impressive display for Türkiye in their 2-1 win over Austria in the round of 16 knockout stage at EURO ’24. He started the match with a bang, scoring 57 seconds into it. The 2nd quickest goal in European Championship history. Later, in the 59th minute, Turkish teenage sensation, Arda Güler, took a corner-kick. Demiral rose above the Austrian defense and headed it thunderously into the net for his 2nd goal. Austria then threw everything they had at the Turkish defense, breaching it once via Michael Gregoritsch. But, in the end, Demiral led the Türkiye defense with 17 clearances, 4 blocks and 3 interceptions, and most importantly, didn’t concede a 2nd goal. After the final whistle blew, the Türkiye players were emotional and celebrating wildly, going over to their supporters section and clapping. Only later did I learn, via the Caught Offside podcast, that Merih Demiral was under investigation by UEFA for making an ultranationalist hand-gesture after his 2nd goal. He even posted a picture to his Twitter/X account with the caption, “How happy is the one who says he is a Turk!” Boy, lemme tell you, I about shit myself when I saw the salute which caused the uproar.

For many wrestling fan’s the “Attitude Era” is their favorite. It certainly is mine. The intoxicating mixture of over-the-top violence, sex appeal of the women wrestlers and adult language/themes drew young me in like a moth to a flame. Stars like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, The Undertaker, Mick Foley, Kurt Angle and Kane all caught my imagination, as well as tag-teams like The Dudley Boyz, The Hardy Boyz and Christian & Edge, especially during their Tables, Ladders and Chairs matches. And the Vince McMahon-Stone Cold feud, boss versus employee, might’ve been the best in history. While the WWF (now WWE) was experiencing dizzying heights of success, it’s main competitor, World Champion Wrestling, was up to the task of competing, in large part to the New World Order.

Hulk Hogan turning heel and joining forces with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to form the New World Order was one of the most earth-shattering moments in all of pro wrestling. Up to this point, in his decade plus career, Hogan had always been the all-American hero to legions of wrestling fans. Even entered the ring to a song called “Real American.” Now, after the betrayal, Hogan swapped his signature red-and-yellow bandana, muscle tee and trunks for a black-and-white NWO tank, jeans and a black bandana emblazed with ‘Hollywood’ to really drive home the sell-out aspect of his newfound character. Early in their WCW run, the New World Order started using a hand-gesture, called the “Too Sweet,” as a greeting to other NWO members and as a sign of unity. Basically, you put the middle and ring finger together on top of the thumb and then kind of arch the pointer and pinky fingers. In the end, it sort of looks like a wolf head. Well, imagine my genuine shock when I first saw the photo of Merih Demiral and he was proudly doing the Too Sweet! This was the gesture that led to his 2-match suspension?? A way to signal to other wrestling fans you were in the know? No way, I thought, this must be a mistake. The further I dug into it, the darker it became.

The Grey Wolves organization was founded in the late 1960’s and are currently considered the paramilitary wing of Türkiye’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which is currently the fourth most powerful political party in the Turkish Parliament. The group has long been associated with promoting Turkish ultranationalism and neo-fascism through various means, including genocide denial, violence against ethnic minorities and political assassinations; infamously shooting Pope John Paul II. The Grey Wolves are so notorious and have caused so much chaos they’re banned in France and Austria as a terrorist organization with more EU countries contemplating a similar designation. The Austrians went so far as to implement a law banning the use of the ‘wolf salute,’ which is regarded in Europe as the hand gesture of the Grey Wolves to show solidarity with one another. It, frighteningly, looks exactly like the Too Sweet.

WWE did an oral history of the Too Sweet for their website back in June 2016, interviewing Kevin Nash, Triple H, AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows and Finn Bálor. Lots of interesting comments about the modern day use of the gesture, but Nash had the most surprising comments about it’s history, saying,

“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.“

He goes on to say,

“We call it the Turkish Wolf. That’s what The Kliq calls it.“

Now, it sure sounds like Kevin Nash and the boys saw the ‘wolf salute’ while out on tour in Europe, thought it looked sick as hell and incorporated it into their characters, all without knowing the racist history of the gesture. No harm, no foul. It still doesn’t dimmish the fact a far-right, ultranationalist organization openly uses the same greeting. It’s too weird of a coincidence for me to overlook and it doesn’t make me feel good. I don’t know if I can Too Sweet anyone ever again.