Metropolis Reality Forums - 'WW'EDDING Ring

Sponsored by: The Fans!

Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register.
Nov 23^rd, 2024, 8:58pm

Upcoming Premiere Dates:
Survivor 23, Season premiere
Thursday, September 14 (8:00-9:30 PM, ET/PT) on CBS

Metropolis Reality Forums Ť 'WW'EDDING Ring ť

   Metropolis Reality Forums
   Off-Topic Forums
   In the News (Moderators: lakelady, yesteach, MediaScribe, Bumper, Isle_be_back)
   'WW'EDDING Ring

Previous topic | New Topic | Next topic »

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic

Author

Topic: 'WW'EDDING Ring (Read 537 times)

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

'WW'EDDING Ring
« on: Sep 11^th, 2002, 4:50pm »

Quote

Modify

'WW'EDDING Ring
NY Post

IT won't be your normal Thursday night "Smackdown" this week.

The popular wrestling series will feature the first-ever televised gay wedding between two male wrestlers.

World champion tag-team partners, Billy and Chuck, will tie the knot, say World Wrestling Entertainment officials, who confess the wedding is more over-the-top than from the heart.

"It's a same-sex wedding or - as the gay and lesbian community would call it - a commitment ceremony on our season premier edition of 'Smackdown,' " confirmed Stephanie McMahon, World Wrestling Entertainment's creative television director.

"The issue is certainly topical," McMahon said, citing the New York Times' recent decision to list same-sex wedding announcements and a slew of similarly themed TV programs, including a new reality series on cable's Bravo channel called "Gay Weddings."

Billy and Chuck have been different from a slew of other pro-wrestlers of the past, ranging from "Gorgeous" George Wagner in the 1940s and "Adorable" Adrian Adonis in the 1970s who played with gender roles by donning wigs and dresses - and usually lost to more popular wrestlers.

Billy and Chuck, on the other hand, were world champions for at least five months this past year and dress in more simple hot pants and white robes. Fans have been left guessing if their relationship is more than merely professional.

Gay-rights groups, which protested against at least three gay-seeming wrestlers during the 1990s, appear to like Billy and Chuck.

Scott Seomin, a spokesman for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation, told a reporter they are an improvement on their predecessors.

"What we like to do in our genre is bring in issues that are out there in society that are topical and bring them into our story-lines," said McMahon, the daughter of World Wrestling chiefs Vince and Linda McMahon.

Like much of everything else on WW, the Billy and Chuck story is made up though - neither wrestler (Chuck Palumbo and Monty Sopp) is gay in real life.

But McMahon says that shouldn't have a negative effect on the storyline, since there are many heterosexual actors who play gay characters on TV.

"We're entertainment," she said. "When watch 'Six Feet Under' on HBO and one of the gay characters [played by Michael C. Hall] says in an interview 'I'm not really gay,' it doesn't effect your enjoyment of the show when you're watching as long as the actors themselves are doing a good enough job."

"This wedding is designed to be entertaining and garner viewers and do what we do best," she said.

Wrestling could use some more viewers for sure.

In the last year, the once high-flying lost a law suit to the World Wildlife Fund and had to change its name from WWF to WWE and its logo to just plain WW.

And along the way, the company - which produces several shows including UPN's "Smackdown" and cable's "Raw" on TNN - watched the bottom drop out of its ratings. This year alone, its net income is down 79 percent over this quarter last year, and its ratings are off by as much as 20 percent.

IP Logged

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

Re: 'WW'EDDING Ring
« Reply #1 on: Sep 11^th, 2002, 4:55pm »

Quote

Modify

Now maybe I'm just being cynical, but I'm really wondering how having a gay wedding in the wrestling ring is going to raise the ratings in their particular demographic.

Doesn't wrestling normally appeal to young males and the renecky audience?

I understand publicity stunts to raise raitings, but this just doesn't strike me as the direction they probably wanna go in to raise viewership in their target audience. I am not a homophobic, I have no problems with a gay wedding frankly, but I kinda see this as the death bell tolling for the WWE.

IP Logged

BlankWillWin
ForumsNet Member

The Psychotic Predictor

Gender:

Posts: 1257

Re: 'WW'EDDING Ring
« Reply #2 on: Sep 11^th, 2002, 6:42pm »

Quote

Modify

Well, I'm not a wrestling watcher, certainly, but I believe that traditionally the tag-team champions are more often villians than heroes, so this would give the fans another reason to despise them, or some "Defender of Truth, Justice & the Bible-Thumping American Way" wrestler to come out and break it up with a chair. :uhoh:

Eric.

IP Logged

The Artist formerly known as Tina, Ethan, Neleh, Helen, Deena, Tijuana, & AmberWillWin.

east
ForumsNet Member

sigh

Gender:

Posts: 3487

Re: 'WW'EDDING Ring
« Reply #3 on: Sep 12^th, 2002, 10:11am »

Quote

Modify

on Sep 11^th, 2002, 6:42pm, <Blank>WillWin wrote:

Eric.

with eric! i am not sure how i feel about this (not the gay wedding part because i am in favour of this) but rather what could be seen as mockery by 'bill and chuck's characters' of the gay community....i will ask around and get back to you with my thoughts... :thinking:

IP Logged

read, study, reflect, write, read, study, reflect, spell check, write

Cody_Little
ForumsNet Member

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Posts: 9

Re: 'WW'EDDING Ring
« Reply #4 on: Sep 14^th, 2002, 9:23pm »

Quote

Modify

Hey heres the follow up to what happened :

Stephanie McMahon endured "three minutes" of horror as the hotly anticipated commitment ceremony between Billy & Chuck went terribly awry for the for the former Tag Team Champions.

The ceremony, which received widespread media attention from such outlets as the New York Times, Variety, and Good Morning America, was supposed to have established a union between Billy & Chuck as life partners.
But just before a justice of the peace was set to complete the ceremony, a nervous Billy & Chuck stopped him in his tracks. Billy & Chuck revealed that the whole thing was a charade thought up by Rico as a publicity stunt and demanded to know why Rico didn't put a halt to the ceremony as planned.

But just before a justice of the peace was set to complete the ceremony, a nervous Billy & Chuck
stopped him in his tracks. Billy & Chuck revealed that the whole thing was a charade thought up by Rico as a publicity stunt and demanded to know why Rico didn't put a halt to the ceremony as planned.

As Rico berated Billy & Chuck for not having the guts to go through with the stunt, the elderly justice of the peace stated that the bond between the tag team was sacred, whether it lasted for months or just three minutes! Stephanie's eyes widened in shock as the justice of the peace stripped off his rubber mask and revealed his true identity as RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff! Before Stephanie
could flee, Rosie & Jamal swept into the ring to dispose of Billy & Chuck and nail the SmackDown! GM with a Samoan Drop! The SmackDown! locker room emptied as a dozen superstars raced down to chase the RAW invaders from the building!

IP Logged

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic


Previous topic \| New Topic \| Next topic »