Too Hot For TV

WWE Wanted To Portray Brock Lesnar As A Homosexual Early In His Career

Too Hot For TV



Photo by WWE.com

According to Cageside Seats, the concept would be ping-ponged around, eventually becoming the highly controversial Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo marriage angle. The storyline revolved around Gunn (known at the time as Mr. Ass, no joke) and Palumbo having a budding homosexual relationship that would culminate in an in-ring wedding ceremony. Alas, the tale ended with Gunn and Palumbo announcing that they weren’t actually gay, and that it was all actually just a publicity stunt and that they were actually straight (which caused the crowd to erupt with cheers), which instantly drew savage criticism from GLAAD, who had worked with WWE to get mainstream media coverage for the story.

Lesnar, of course, isn’t actually gay. He was engaged at the time with a baby on the way and would later wind up marrying former Women’s Champion Sable. Whether or not that factored into the WWE’s decision-making process is up for debate.

Today, the WWE still has trouble avoiding stereotypes with any sort of minority character. To their credit, they do have an openly gay wrestler on the roster right now (current tag team champion Darren Young), and haven’t royally screwed that up yet. Progress, maybe?



Page 2 of 2: