10 Worst Romance Angles In WWE History
8. Billy And Chuck
WWE has a pretty turbulent relationship when it comes to the gay community.
While the now-publicly traded company is always happy to commemorate
Black History month or celebrate International Women’s Day, WWE never
officially acknowledges similar celebrations by and for LGBTQ people. In fact,
outside of a few examples, WWE would probably have you believe that gay people
don’t exist within the realms of wrestling kayfabe.
One such ill-fated example was the sad tale of Billy and Chuck, an allegedly gay tag team managed by an effeminate hairdresser called Rico. After some will-they-won’t-they back and forth, WWE scrapped the ‘allegedly’ part and the duo were to be wed on a special episode of SmackDown.
Back in 2002 (when it was illegal for two men to marry in any part of the USA), the skit was booed to high heaven, and the entire angle was played either for laughs or for cheap heat. This culminated in the actual wedding itself, wherein it was announced that the marriage was a sham - a publicity stunt designed to generate controversy.
On the subject of controversy, the elderly minister overseeing the ceremony was actually Eric Bischoff in disguise, who enlisted Three Minute Warning to help him destroy Billy and Chuck’s pretend wedding (the same Three Minute Warning who beat up a pair of half-naked ‘Lesbians’ on the previous episode of RAW).
Despite all this, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation had been on board with the angle up until this point, naively assuming it would be a positive portrayal of gay men on television.