“It’s sweaty guys in underwear picking each other up … it’s pretty gay.” Becoming a HeelĪnd I’ve been working on my Halloween costume all summer. “I’ve always said you have to be a little gay to be a wrestler,” said Perry, who performs as Amon, Demon Marquis of Hell when he is not working as a supervisor at Uspiritus, a residential psychiatric facility for kids. Literature nerds love to dissect the elaborately-detailed, naked fireside wrestling scene in DH Lawrence’s “Women in Love” (Passed off by Lawrence as two good friends larking about), so when I asked Stu Perry, the new champion, about it, his self-awareness was refreshing: This milestone for gays probably shouldn’t be surprising - homoeroticism has always been the elephant in the wrestling ring. The characters have often relied on stereotypes and jingoism, but it’s 2018, and maybe pro wrestling is finally ready for a wider audience. That there are athletes who are gay isn’t unusual, but for a lot of us, this particular, er… sport - a hybrid of showmanship and athleticism - evokes gargantuan, mulleted white men who can barely be restrained, with spittle flying as they shout threats at their opponent. Ohio Valley Wrestling has its first openly-gay heavyweight champion, and fellow queers, we’ve been missing out.
