WWE boss hints at adding gay characters

Wrestling boss Stephanie McMahon has said she could see more openly gay wrestlers appearing in WWE in the future.

McMahon is the current Chief Brand Officer of World Wrestling Entertainment – and is the daughter of WWE CEO Vince McMahon.

Speaking to the Daily Beast, the businesswoman said she didn’t have any issues with more out wrestlers appearing in WWE.

She said: “Darren Young was the first WWE superstar to really come out as being homosexual, but his character in the show is not. At least, we haven’t done anything with it either way—just yet.”

The wrestling boss added: “It could very well pop up in WWE because we are all about what’s relevant, and what’s pop culture, and what people want to see. So if there is an opportunity, we might just take it.”

However, she said: “I think the big worry that WWE has is that they think their audience is really stupid. So they worry that they’re going to have a character who comes out as gay, and it’s going to be like the Mexican soccer fans in Charlotte chanting [anti-gay slur] ‘culero’.

“I think they think that their fans would chant something homophobic at him, and that’s going to get press and make WWE look not progressive.”

She said: “You know, in WWE our storylines are a year long. They don’t go episodic, week to week—they really are the arc from WrestleMania to WrestleMania. So sometimes it takes a little longer than people would like for the seeds to grow. But we’re constantly planting them.”

• Dec 01 2023

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