A gay wrestling tag team? Almost 20 years ago, the WWE gained notoriety when Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo teased a gimmick in which they feigned a homosexual relationship which led to a televised “commitment ceremony.” In 2018, a similar tag team relationship is being teased, but with the times, it is not that controversial.
Billy and Chuck received national attention for an alleged stunt in which they were going to have a commitment ceremony. The WWE had worked with GLAAD in securing publicity for the event. Once the ceremony took place (which turned out to be a swerve), GLAAD denounced the stunt as they were duped into helping the WWE obtain awareness for the purpose of gaining ratings.
The Golden Lovers, Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi are taking on The Young Bucks on Sunday Night in Long Beach, California in the main event of the New Japan Wrestling Show to be televised on AXS TV. The promotion has taken off since airing on AXS and the event in Long Beach sold out its 6,500 or so venue within 15 minutes.
The issue of homosexuality in wrestling is no longer a de facto heel character as in the days of the WWE’s portrayals of Adrian Adonis or Goldust. Omega even invites the thought that the characters may be homosexual.
For that matter, there is not much backlash from NJPW fans. Arguably, Omega is the biggest fan favorite in the company, and maybe even all of pro wrestling. His demand is through the roof and its clear that he is in no way looking to parlay his popularity into a shot in the WWE.
Omega does not care about the ambiguity of his character’s relationship with another man. In an interview with Yahoo this week Omega let it be known:
“Let people think what they want to think.
If LGBT people can identify with our story, if they think ‘the Golden Lovers are my team,’ I’m good with that. It’s the story of two wrestlers who shared dreams on their way up, who became fast friends, who are now reuniting at the top of their game.
I think it’s important to show in the 21st century that if you’re gay, lesbian, trans, whatever, that you should feel just as welcome to be a wrestling fan as anyone else. You’re welcome in the space.”
Pro wrestling is made up of characters and sometimes it’s based on dredging up the stereotypes to illicit a response from the fans. From the bad Russians, to the savage Samoans to the good guy American, characters were premised upon typecasts. Since the WWE became a publicly traded company, the era of focusing on race, gender or ethnicity have largely gone by the wayside.
The newfound view of sexuality is inclusive for everyone and indicative of a new viewpoint on pro wrestling in 2018. The fans have evolved and are much smarter and are less likely to be pulling for a wrestler based on vanilla characters.
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