In the words of Vince McMahon any publicity is good publicity. Turns out in the case of Lenny Lane this isnt always true. Predominantly on the losing end of WCWs Cruiserweight Scene, Lane would capture the divisions Championship with a shocking upset over its kingpin Rey Mysterio Jr. After defending the Championship against such illustrious opponents as Shaggy from the Insane Clown Posse, Lane was stripped of the title and taken of television due to media backlash over his character. Alongside his tag team partner Lodi, Lane was portrayed as an ambiguous homosexual. In the most cliche way possible he would wear pink trunks and glitter whilst sporting pigtails; a lollipop completed the stereotype. This soon caught the attention of LGBT communities who not being able to separate fiction from reality determined that the characters inspired homophobic behaviour among fans. As an apology Turner Broadcasting and WCW took the pair off television. Lane would not even appear to drop the Cruiserweight Championship, instead it was awarded to Psychosis via a statement on the company website. Showing just how genuine their apology was when Lane and Lodi returned WCW renamed them 'Standards and Practices', a group solely designed to mock the executives who took the duo off air - a variation of the WWEs Right To Censor faction in you will. Four years later history would repeat itself in the WWE. The tag team of Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo portrayed basically the same characters and were met with the same backlash. As you would imagine Vince McMahons apology was just as disingenuous as WCWs.
