Photo Courtesy of Darren Young – Official WWE Universe Facebook Page

We’ve come a long from Adorable Adrian Adonis, and he wasn’t even really gay.

WWE superstar Darren Young came out as gay to TMZ yesterday and so far, the WWE and the WWE Universe have responded favorably. Young, who is a low- to mid-level wrestler on the card picked, a weird venue to declare his sexuality, but nonetheless, it’s now out there.

Let’s hope the WWE ignores the declaration on television because the company has a questionable history of portraying gay characters on television.

Adonis “came out,” on an episode of Tuesday Night Titans. The WWE portrayed him as a fat, flamboyant, grotesque parody of a straight man’s nightmare version of what a gay man looked like. Adonis wasn’t even gay; it was a character he portrayed on television. Adonis went on to host “Flower Shop” vignettes and feud with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.

Adonis, who died in 1988, used to spray cologne on his opponents during matches in a gimmick that was somewhat of a ripoff of Exotic Adrian Street, a wrestler from a decade prior.

The WWE, of course, had a moderately successful angle with “Billy and Chuck,” two straight men who wrestled as a gay tag team in the 1990s. The WWE went as far as holding a wedding ceremony on live television, only to have Billy and Chuck back out at the last minute to tell the crowd that the whole thing was a joke.

The WWE also heavily pushed the character “Goldust,” who would grope other wrestlers private parts in the ring. In his most famous angle, Goldust feuded with Piper and made seductive gay innuendo jokes and references toward the legend.

All of that, of course, was storyline, and Young’s announcement is legitimate. The revelation is no joke. Cris Kanyon came out as gay a few years ago and committed suicide a few years later. Prior to his death, he said that he never felt welcome as a gay man in wrestling.

It’s great that the Young has come out. The WWE is the greatest wrestling company in the world, led by the greatest wrestling promoter of all time, Vince McMahon. Let’s hope that the WWE doesn’t take a misstep in how they handle the announcement. He’s gay — and so what?

Let’s get back to talking about Summerslam and let’s hope Daniel Bryan wins.

Joshua Molina is a mixed martial arts and pro  wrestling writer for www.rantsports.com. Follow him on  Twitter @JECMolina  and  add him to your  network  on Google.


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