Sexuality and Pro Wrestling

For some time I had been meaning to write about sexuality in pro wrestling but after the recent and tragic (apparent) suicide of Chris Kanyon, the topic has taken on a somewhat greater resonance. An email from Kanyon to Stephanie McMahon, in which he talks about his sexuality and the role he wanted it to play in his career has recently come to light, which you can read here. Kanyon’s intent to be the first openly gay professional wrestler in one of the big promotions has caused some debate, which we will look at shortly, due to the fact that there are, in fact, several other “out” wrestlers in WWE history, not to mention the wider world of wrestling as a whole. With all that said, let’s start at the beginning and have a look at pro wrestling’s long, uncomfortable and complicated relationship with sexuality.

Every wrestling fan has probably at some point been confronted with the idea that wrestling is inherently “gay”. Juvenile critics often like to take shots at wrestling that way – “watching two guys in tights rolling around with each other – that’s so gay”. In reality, such comments say more about the commenter than their subject but, even so, it maybe that this is at the back of the mind of some wrestling fans. Maybe they are worried about the perceived “gayness” of their chosen entertainment. If this were so, one would certainly expect to see some hostility towards male homosexuality from wrestling fans. Of course, since wrestling promotions try to give fans what they want, that in turn might lead to hostility from wrestling promotions.

Before looking at homosexuality in wrestling, it might well be worth having a quick look at heterosexuality and its portrayal in the business. In mainstream pro wrestling, heterosexuality is generally depicted in overtly macho, traditional terms. Men frequently fight over women, who themselves are often depicted as untrustworthy, frequently stabbing men in the back. The feud between X-Pac and Kane over Tori, in late 1999 and early 2000 is a good example. Initially, Kane defended his girlfriend Tori from the unwanted advances of Kane’s former tag team partner, Tori. However, after Kane lost a match with The Big Show, the stipulation of which insisted that Tori then had to spend the Christmas holiday with X-Pac, she turned on Kane. The storyline then became one of Kane attempting to get revenge on the former friend and lover who had betrayed him. The story had parallels at the time with the Test-Stephanie McMahon-Triple H love triangle, in which Stephanie betrayed her former fiancé Test by willingly consorting with Triple H, the man who had abducted and forcibly married her.

The obvious reading here, and the way in which most of the crowd reacted, is that women are not to be trusted. However, the deeper meaning, articulated at the time by heel announcer Jerry Lawler, was also clear: Kane and Test had both failed in their masculine duty to protect “their” women and, as such, had deservedly lost them to stronger men. This kind of storyline has been played out many times in modern wrestling history. Another variation is the storyline involving Chris Jericho, Christian and Trish Stratus in 2004. In this angle, Jericho and Christian made a bet over which one of them could successfully seduce Trish first. Jericho was successful but, when the truth of his motives was revealed, Trish understandably rejected him. However, Jericho had by now supposedly fallen in love “for real” with Trish and seemed to successfully communicate this to her. However, at Wrestlemania, she turned on the now sincere Jericho and abandoned him for Christian, who had never claimed to be anything but a cynical user. The message here seemed to be that Jericho was punished for having real feelings, that is to say, for not being macho enough.

A frequent tactic of heel wrestlers used to gain heat is to physically hide behind their female valets/managers during confrontations with their babyface rivals. This clear inversion of the traditional male job of protecting women demonstrates just how central the idea of man as protector, woman as damsel in distress is to portrayals of heterosexuality in pro wrestling. When we couple this with the other babyface male values displayed in wrestling – never back down from a fight, don’t attack from behind and so on – we see that the male role in pro wrestling is very much that of a straightforward macho hero. This is the best point at which to start looking at depictions of male homosexuality within wrestling.

One of the key moments here came in 1941 when wrestler George Wagner transformed himself into “The Human Orchid” Gorgeous George. While not portraying a gay character as such, George was outrageously effeminate. His long dyed blonde hair, elaborate robes, use of Chanel No.5 and gold plated bobby pins (which he called Georgie pins) transformed his image. In the macho world of pro wrestling, he stood out like a sore thumb, and audiences loathed him for it. This hatred made him one of the biggest names of his day, not just in wrestling but in any form of entertainment, and George is credited with paving the way for the theatricality that dominates professional wrestling today (an achievement that was recognised by his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame this year). George had also paved the way for a new staple of the wrestling business: the effeminate heel.

Not all gay men are effeminate and not all effeminate men are gay; this is undoubtedly true but remains a fact that is often lost on straight men. Gorgeous George was a display of camp rather than gay but the implication for his audience was loud and clear. As the years went by, others would take this even further. “Exotic” Adrian Street was a Welsh wrestler who went a step further, portraying a character not just “flamboyant” or camp but actually gay. Wearing glitter, with his hair in pigtails, Street would kiss an opponent to break a hold that he could not get out of legitimately. Just as with George, crowds responded passionately to Street, who became a notorious, hated and therefore successful heel. In the late eighties Adrian Adonis would extend his career in WWE by adopting the moniker “Adorable” and prancing around in make-up and women’s clothing. “The Model” Rick Martel, while not going to the extreme of wearing women’s clothes, nevertheless adopted a narcissistic character, using perfume (which he would also spray in opponent’s eyes to gain tainted victories) and even having a “not in the face” match with Shawn Michaels.

All of these men had two things in common. Firstly, they made themselves into successful villains by transgressing the expected macho behaviour of male wrestlers. Secondly, in reality they were all straight men. The message was clear: being gay (or rather, displaying the outrageous camp behaviour many straight men associate with being gay) was not acceptable in pro wrestling. It was a deviation from the accepted behaviour of wrestlers which automatically made one a villain. It could, therefore, be a viable and lucrative career option but this still did not speak well for the acceptance of male homosexuals within pro wrestling. Here, however, we run into an old problem: do wrestling promotions shape attitudes by presenting camp characters as villains or are they merely reflecting the wishes of their audience? I would suggest that, mostly, this is a case of the latter but that we cannot be sure until a wrestling promotion is brave enough to try a different presentation of a gay wrestler – then see how the audience responds.

Behind the scenes, however, is another matter. Does being gay actually hurt a man’s chances of making it in the pro wrestling business? Looking at the career of Pat Patterson, we would have to say not necessarily: gay men can make it in pro wrestling. Being openly gay for most of his life did not stop Patterson from being a hugely successful wrestler, both as a singles wrestler and especially in the tag team ranks and then going on to become one of the most influential men in the business, basically being Vince McMahon’s right-hand man for many years. Likewise, Steve Lombardi (better known as The Brooklyn Brawler) is a long-time WWE employee. Having said that, the only time Patterson incorporated his sexuality in his on-screen wrestling career, it was in the tradition of Gorgeous George, that is to say as an effeminate, make-up wearing heel.

Things did not change much in the nineties. The emergence of Goldust saw another character in the mode originated by Gorgeous George. While it was notable that Goldust went on to get over as a babyface, that was probably more due to the humour of the character and the work of Dustin Rhodes who, beneath the face paint is also a skilled wrestler. This century we have seen Billy & Chuck, with their stylist Rico and The Heart-throbs in WWE but, again, these were heel teams. Billy and Chuck in fact not only acted as “gay” heels but turned babyface when they turned on Rico, refusing to go through with the “commitment ceremony” he had arranged for them and revealing that they were, in fact, straight and had thought that the whole thing was just a publicity stunt.

So, it seems that behind the scenes being gay is fine but on the camera being gay automatically means conforming to outrageous stereotypes in order to be a villain. Is it possible for pro wrestling to have a gay wrestler who is simply gay, without being the second coming of Liberace? One man seems to prove that it is, Simon Sermon, the Georgia based independent wrestler. You can check out the trailer for his documentary on being a gay wrestler at this link. Sermon is a heel wrestler not because he is gay but because he is a smug, arrogant cheat. The fact that he is gay is simply by the by. He wants everyone to know he is gay, however, simply because there is a shortage of gay athletic role models for young gay males. The attitudes thus depicted in pro wrestling, not to mention the homophobia in sport generally, mean that finding “out” gay athletes is difficult. Sure, one can argue that Pat Patterson was an openly gay wrestler long before Simon Sermon but the point is he didn’t exactly advertise it either. Sermon is letting the whole world know that he is gay but he is not letting his sexuality dictate how he does his job.

This is also what Kanyon wanted to do. In point of fact, Chris Kanyon offended a great many people (not least Sermon himself) with his claims of being the first openly gay pro wrestler but the fact is that Kanyon wanted to do this in WWE, something that had never been done before. The storyline he envisaged would have begun by implying that he was fired for being gay (something that is not true, incidentally – Kanyon had not come out at the time of his release from WWE). It’s the kind of story that needs to be run, in my opinion. A Simon Sermon style character who is gay but not “flamboyant” and not the same old tired stereotype of outrageous heel would be great, if only as an experiment to see how people react. I would advocate the placement of such a character on the next series of NXT, if there were to be one. This show is all about young hopefuls trying to make it in the business. Why not try a gay guy, let everyone know he is gay but don’t make it define his character? Then we will truly see whether or not WWE put out homophobic content because it is what their audience want, or just what they think their audience want.

Which brings us to Orlando Jordan and his current push in TNA as an openly bisexual wrestler. This is drawing a lot of reaction on the Internet, much of it negative. Jordan has already had a run in WWE where his sexuality was not brought up. As with Lombardi or Patterson, it was not a secret and many fans knew it but at the same time, it was not referenced in any way. Jordan had a decent run in WWE, being the right hand man of the evil John Bradshaw Layfield during JBL’s run as WWE Champion and also capturing the United States Championship himself before he was released. His run in TNA is quite different. They are making his sexuality the focal point of his character and are splitting audiences by doing so. His recent appearance, where he squirted a liquid that was clearly supposed to look like semen onto his chest, drew considerable criticism. There are two ways of looking at this. On the one hand, one could argue that TNA are bravely presenting a new type of character. They cannot control how people react. I would argue, however, that TNA are deliberately trying to shock and again, are falling into the trap of making the, in this case bisexual, wrestler “bizarre” and “shocking”.

I would much rather see Jordan act normally but with a boyfriend. Let’s see him kiss his boyfriend and then go to work and if people don’t like it say “what, I’m bisexual, deal with it”. Oddly enough, due to the prudishness of TV companies generally, TNA would probably find that harder to get away with it than the bizarre stunts that they are currently displaying. TV is another issue to consider, of course. How much are major promotions like WWE, TNA or the erstwhile WCW constrained by their TV channels in their presentation of gay characters? It’s hard to say with any certainty but one thing is for sure: TV channels have long been leery of broadcasting gay men kissing each other.

As far as the practicalities of working within the business go, as noted the example of Patterson and Lombardi is positive. Simon Sermon is on record as saying that nobody has ever refused to book him or wrestle him because of his sexuality. As far as the “gay community” themselves are concerned, organizations such as GLAAD have been heavily critical of WWE in the past while currently I have seen articles on the internet from sexual rights groups both praising and decrying Orlando Jordan’s storyline in TNA. Given the fact that Spike TV reportedly edited Jordan kissing his onscreen boyfriend out of a TV broadcast, though, one finds it hard to see how this can change. Even if wrestling promotions show the will, partners such as advertisers and TV stations may stymie their efforts.

Turning away from gay men, let’s now have a look at the situation of lesbians in pro wrestling. In the last decade we have seen quite a lot of this, from Eric Bischoff’s “Hot Lesbian Action” on Raw, to “stalker” angles such as Tori on Sable or Mickie James and Trish Stratus, Dawn Marie’s blackmail seduction of Torrie Wilson and Allison Danger’s lesbian character in Ring of Honor. And all that is without even getting into the constant titillating teasing of implied lesbian antics between women like Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler or Sable (obviously before WWE went PG). I am not aware of any openly lesbian women in wrestling and see the storylines I have mentioned as nothing more than cheap attempts to titillate the largely male audience. That said, pro wrestling is hardly alone in this. It is commonplace for TV shows to do this, often hiding behind the idea that they are advancing the cause of gay rights by including a lesbian relationship when, in fact, such things are now old news on television. In the PG age, most of this will disappear from WWE.

Of course, the big difference is that lesbians do not have a long history of being used as wrestling villains. In this case I think wrestling simply followed a societal trend and WWE realised that this was an easy way to excite male viewers. Again, with WWE now reporting a rising percentage of female viewers I expect that they will be less interested in this kind of tool. The other difference is that, thanks to the influence of such people as Martina Navratilova there are already a few (ok, a handful) of athletic lesbian role models out there. As far as gay men are concerned the only one currently playing that I can think of is Gareth Thomas, the Welsh rugby union legend and now Crusaders rugby league star. Given the fact that rugby of both codes is almost completely off the radar in the USA this doesn’t really have much relevance to pro wrestling in America.

In summation, then, it is clear that the representation of sexuality in mainstream pro wrestling is, at best, somewhat caricatured. Whether this is because this is the way fans want it, promoters want it or broadcasters want it is open to debate but it is past time that some of this was challenged. We will not know for sure how much resistance there is to positive gay role models in pro wrestling, amongst fans and broadcasters, until a promotion has the guts to give it a try. Given that one might expect pro wrestling to be a macho and homophobic culture, backstage it seems surprisingly accepting. Ultimately, wrestling promoters will generally do anything that they think will draw money so, if we wish to see more positive role models, maybe we the fans need to make it clear that we will pay to see them.