In what has to be the most unusual Twitter spat in recent memory, Hellboy actor Ron Perlman has challenged Texas senator Ted Cruz to a wrestling match with Black Lives Matter as a beneficiary of the event.
Vanity Fair recounts the chain of events that led to the challenge, with the spat originally between Perlman and Matt Gaetz, a Florida congressman. The congressman decried on a podcast the decision of the U.S. Soccer Federation to allow kneeling in protest during the national anthem.
According to Gaetz, he simply could not believe that this was something that was going to be allowed and also questioned whether the U.S. Soccer Team is even essential at all. The congressman called the decision a result of “extreme wokeness” and disrespectful of the flag.
Perlman did not agree with the remarks, to say the least. The 70-year-old actor tweeted directly at Gaetz and Donald Trump and told the two “dips--ts” that the U.S. soccer team did not care about their opinions.
This resulted in a back-and-forth between Perlman and Gaetz, with the actor at one point posting a photo of Ohio congressman Jim Jordan to drive home his point that Gaetz is one of the ugliest politicians walking.
It was at this point that Ted Cruz injected himself into the conversation, calling Perlman “Hellboy” and alleging that the actor could only talk that way behind the protection of stuntmen. Cruz made the initial challenge, asking Perlman to wrestle with Jordan in exchange for a $10,000 donation to any nonpolitical charity.
After Perlman responded with a tweet that recounted all the insults Donald Trump had used on Ted Cruz, the actor then said that he would wrestle Ted Cruz instead and would even donate $50,000 to Black Lives Matter. Perlman also brought up Jordan’s own shady past, as the Ohio congressman has been accused of covering up sexual abuse performed on wrestlers in the university where he used to coach.
Cruz refused Perlman’s offer and no longer responded to the actor's further taunting.
The Guardian took note of the wry reactions the Twitter spat received from other users. The publication quotes former Texas Tribune editor Emily Ramshaw asking how much different things would be if women ran things, while New York Times reporter Maggie Astor remarked that men are exhausting.
The publication also notes that this isn’t the first time that Cruz has been involved in a sports-related bet. In 2018, the senator challenged television host Jimmy Kimmel to a game of one-on-one basketball and emerged the winner.