At first glance, the two Netflix docuseries Tiger King and Cheer don’t have much in common. One is about duelling big cat enthusiasts (and probable murderers), while the other is about a talented college cheerleading team determined to win big at Daytona Nationals. But as it turns out, the Netflix Cinematic Universe is a lot smaller than we thought.
Joe Exotic, who can only be described as the antihero of Tiger King, has more than one husband in the series. To this day, he is still married to his fifth spouse, Dillon Passage, whom he met on a dating app. A Twitter user, @juulieandjulia, did some digging into Passage’s Instagram and discovered that before he met Exotic, he was a competitive cheerleader.
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Sadly, Passage didn’t cheer for Monica Aldama, but for Stephen F. Austin State University, a Texas school about two hours from Navarro College. In several tagged photos from 2015, though, Passage is smiling with Navarro cheerleaders. The website Fansided guessed that Passage may have met these cheerleaders — and maybe even Aldama, who was coaching at the time — at a March 2015 show-off hosted by SFA.
If you’re curious about how Passage compares to La’Darius, Lexi, and all your Cheer favourites, his Instagram is chock-full of stunts and tricks: it isn’t until 2018 that the tumbles are replaced with tigers. And while photos of Exotic are nowhere to be found, Passage confirmed in a comment that he is still happily married to the Tiger King, who is currently serving a 22-year sentence.
There’s only one question left: how does Love Is Blind fit into the Netflix web? With a second season on the horizon, is it too early to start campaigning for Exotic’s nemesis Carole Baskin to join as a contestant?