Is The WWE Ready For Another "Billy and Chuck" Angle?

[justin71]

It would be interesting to see if the could do it in a PG environment without going there with negative gay stereotypes(I.e. Orlando Jordan, Adrian Adonis, ect). Remember at the end the punchline was Billy and Chuck were not actually gay at the end of it all in spite of all the racy fail safe gay jokes they were a part of.

[justin71]

On the other side of the token Linda McMahon might see it as a political liability to do that at this point for fear of Tea Party types might hold her to task for being "gay friendly" thus not being a "true conservative".

[guayaboso815]

hey, its the PG era, talking about these kinds of angles might affect the younger audience.. the thing that they should do is get TAG TEAMS in general, i mean, The Usos vs Epico and Primo for the nth time, you have to be kidding me, i thought Air Boom would invigorate the division, but thank you Evan Bourne you buried it even further, they should get the top teams in the indie, not relive a bogus angle..

[Mack Militant]

Yeah, agreed with the guy who's name is a bunch of gibberish and numbers! We need tag teams! I dont care if theyr straight, gay, transgendered, midgets, Devon dudley's kids, siamese twins, two pigs tied together with a rope or R-truth and an imaginary friend... We need them! Brodus and santino are a (terrible) brilliant start! It would help to shove some of them monsters together and have them owm the tag titles for a whie, demanding better competition!!

[Cabana]

Initially, I thought WWE would be too risk adverse as a public company to go for it, but I think that if it can work in every other form of media, it can work here. The keys to it would be:

a) You'd probably need an actual gay wrestler. This is just because of how high profile it would be, so it might be hard to have someone playing gay. Granted, it happens in every form of media, but ya never know.

b) It could not and should not be his dominant characteristic. As another poster mentioned above, it would work best if it just so happens Wade Barrett is gay. You don't make his coming out a big deal, but rather just have it become a facet of his character. Dude's got a boyfriend, nbd.

c) While he could be a mid-carder or a main eventer, said wrestler absolutely could not be a jobber. It'd be too high profile a member of the roster.

d) Dude better have great mic skills and, again, being gay should *not* be his dominant characteristic. However, using him/her as a part of the anti-bullying campaign in conjunction with, say, GLAAD would be really cool. If, offscreen, they make a point of being a high profile and successful member of the LGBTQI community? Awesome. Can that be a part of the character? Sure, but it should be a secondary or even tertiary characteristic.

[Peoples_Champ]

The problem I have with Billy & Chuck is that it was intended to be a shock angle. "Look at those two! They're gay!" People don't think like that any more, at least not in major cities. Sure there are some people who might be homophobic and make anti-homosexual remarks, but the majority of people, especially WWE's core audience (kids and preteens) are generally not homophobic.

Not only would this angle run counter to the B A Star message, but there's no way a "gay" wrestler / tag team would be able to catch heat without upsetting WWE sponsors.

That being said, I would love for a face wrestler to come out of the closet and say he's gay. Heels could catch major heat by being homophobic and the face would be incredibly over by winning a match against a hated heel.

[Jdulemba1001]

Heres the problem with this. Your talking about a gimmick. Organizations like GLAAD will be upset when the angle ends, as they were with Billy and Chuck. Now if you used a gay wrestler who comes out, who is gay in real life, then he doesnt ever have to remove that from his gimmick, and it will work. If you used say, Randy Orton for example, at some point he would have to address that he isnt really gay, it would kill all the momentum you gain, if you used a real life gay wrestler, it could remain his gimmick.

[Shalashaska]

I like the idea on paper. A non homophobic angle about a normal wrestler who just happens to enjoy the company of other men. Its a shining tower of diversity and acceptance.

Unfortunately, as soon as that camera cuts to the announce desk for King and Cole with red faces (from embarrasment, you filthy heathens) explaining delicately about the homo erotic video package we are about to watch: I'm laughing my ass off, GLAAD are pissed, the wrestler in question's career is over, and the boys in the back are shifting from side to side, looking at eachother nervously and Vince is wondering "Why did I greenlight this shit?"

Great idea to have sexual tolerance in the real world, but trying to tackle it on a wrestling show just isn't going to happen. too many lawsuits. TOO MANY LAWSUITS OHHHHHHH OHHHHHH......

[ultramattman]

WWE couldn't get away with a gay 'character'. WAY too much of a minefield. It wouldn't play in 2012.

If something like this were going to happen, it would have to be a wrestler who is actually and openly gay. If the right guy came along to get over with this, you'd end up with another 'mixed reaction' character like you get right now with Cena and Daniel Bryan. He'd be booed in some cities, cheered in others.

[AzLunchbox]

First off, To the topic starter, Billy and Chuck were not the first "gay team" in the history of wrestling.

I'm pretty sure WCW beat them to the punch with The West Hollywood Blondes (Lenny and Lodi)

And also one of the things people seem to be forgetting about Billy and Chuck was that they got over because they WEREN'T gay. I mean they made it seem like they most likely were but they didn't say it through almost the whole angle.....when they brought it up near the end (for the marriage angle) the whole gimmick tanked and they ended it.

They used to always be seen helping each other stretch or something awkward like that but they would always say "Chicks dig them" they even said when they gave each other the matching headbands that chicks would dig them.

Then they "came out" and had the gay marriage that they didn't go through with and then the whole angle bombed!

So the "Gay angle" didn't work for them....the humorous "Maybe in the closet" angle is what worked and got them over.