Top 5: Pride Friendly Wrestlers

If you’ve seen the news, you know that June is celebrated by the LGBTQ community as Pride Month. Pro wrestling’s relationship with members of the community can best be described as “complicated”. While many within the business are homosexual or bisexual, including some of the most powerful people involved over the years, wrestling promotions have used fans’ lack of tolerance to get heat as far back as I can remember. We all know that wrestlers will do whatever they can to get a reaction from a crowd, and for most of wrestling’s existence, doing something perceived as gay was a good way to get some boos & some off-color chants.

We’ve all seen the garden-variety gay heels. They’re better off left in the dustbin of history. Some have taken the gimmick & ran with it to the point where they transcended the “cheap heat” barrier with their creativity. Some have lived their lives as members of the LGBTQ community, have faced down discrimination & rose above it to excel at their profession.

These are the Top 5 Pride Friendly Wrestlers.

5. Pat Patterson

Pat’s sexuality was an open secret going back to the sex scandals of the early 1990s & Jim Ross hollering “HE’S SINGLE FELLAS!” on late 1990s Raw commentary. It wasn’t officially acknowledged on WWE television until the final episode of WWE Legends’ House in 2014, and was further covered in Pat’s book that was released in 2016. Patterson’s illustrious in-ring career along with his longtime status as Vince McMahon’s right-hand man & numerous creative contributions show that sexual orientation can’t by itself effect how much someone can accomplish in the wrestling business.

4. “Exotic” Adrian Street

Back in the old days, you had to be a tough motor-scooter to work a gimmick where your sexuality wasn’t known. Wrestling fans thought that Adrian Street wasn’t one of the toughest people in the world & were more apt to go after him than the larger, “manlier” wrestlers. They were in for a bad time if they tried anything. Street was a legit shooter that had no problem busting heads or tying people in knots. He had to in order to survive. Adrian & his valet/wife Miss Linda were among the most hated people wherever they went & always provoked a reaction from a crowd. Since it was the 1970s & 80s, the reaction usually wasn’t good. Street had no problem dealing with it.

3. Goldust

As somebody that had seen Dustin Rhodes come up in WCW, the Goldust character was pretty jarring. The Natural had carried on the Rhodes family tradition for several years, and he gave it up to be a guy wearing a blonde wig, gold facepaint, a gold bodysuit & a golen robe while speaking in movie quotes & playing “mind games” with his opponents. It took a couple of times for me to realize that it was in fact Dustin Rhodes.

1996 was nowhere near ready for Goldust. Announcer, fan & wrestler reaction to him was pretty typical for the time. There were even some men that refused to wrestle him. It was a brave character direction for Dustin to take, and only years afterward did he begin to receive his just due for it. Some would still say he hasn’t.

2. Dalton Castle

Early Ring of Honor was not welcoming to wrestlers that weren’t 100% super straight. The Christopher Street Connection’s role for most of their run was to have fans chant homophobic slurs at them & get killed by serious tag teams. Watching ROH back then, you never thought that a fella that came down to the ring with his boys playing an androgynous showman & was pretty darn flamboyant would get over as the top babyface. I don’t think Dalton Castle would have been accepted by ROH fans in 2002, but by 2015 everybody was ready for him.

A few years before, that act probably would have been booed out of the building. In fact, Dalton had played the more traditional flamboyant heel character in the indies before. He honed his game, brought more of a glam rock feel to it, and everybody bought in. He’s the World Champion of a company owned by ultra right-wing Sinclair Broadcasting. I still wonder how it happened.

Honorable Mention: Chris Kanyon

Kanyon was one of the most talented in-ring performers of his time. He was such a solid hand that WCW entrusted him with training their various celebrity performers & handling the stuntwork in Jeremy Lambert’s favorite movie, Ready to Rumble. Unfortunately, Kanyon’s battle with mental illness led to him passing away at a far too early age.

Honorable Mention: Sonya Deville

Everybody can be proud of WWE’s first openly lesbian competitor. Sonya is still relatively new to the main roster, but has already scored some major victories. The sky’s the limit for Deville, who would have no problem shutting up anybody taking exception to her lifestyle in or out of the ring.

Honorable Mention: Darren Young

Young’s status as WWE’s first openly gay wrestler wasn’t followed up on by the promotion & he was released a couple of years later after doing little of note. It’s tough to conclude that WWE didn’t miss some kind of opportunity there. Even if they didn’t focus on his sexuality in his storylines, there would have been a fanbase there to engage.

1. The Golden Lovers

There have been a number of tag teams over the years that have hinted at a homosexual persona. None have pulled it off as well as Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi. I wouldn’t be able to do most of the story justice, so follow the tweet thread below if you haven’t seen it before:

I don't really have wrestling-related followers but all I want to talk about is how the best thing in professional wrestling right now is a complex, epic, and (currently) happy gay love story, 9 years in the making and featuring two of the best in the world. It's remarkable. pic.twitter.com/B6sPxSyLYw

— Simpsons Reference (@EffingBoring) February 23, 2018

After reuniting with Kota, Kenny realized that the hate & negativity that had been driving him for years wasn’t enough to attain his ultimate goal of becoming IWGP Heavyweight Champion. He needed to embrace the love he got from his friends, his lovers & the people that supported him. Once he did that, he was able to beat Okada.

Omega tells reporters that people can make whatever they will of his relationship with Ibushi. It’s not something that’s going to be the focal point of storylines. Everybody will be happy if it enhances the appeal of pro wrestling to all types of people. Omega’s matches have certainly opened a window to new possibilities, and his storytelling with Ibushi, the Young Bucks & Cody Rhodes has given New Japan a relatability it didn’t previously have with North American audiences. It’s not just about really cool moves anymore.

The Golden Lovers are for everybody. So is pro wrestling.