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The wrestling sideshow has left GLBT media watchdog organization GLAAD furious, after the group publicly supported the wedding as a step forward for the usually homophobic pro wrestling world.
Billy (played by Chuck Palumbo) and Chuck (played by Monty Sopp), former pro wrestling champions, have been showing each other more and more affection on UPN's Thursday night "Smackdown" wrestling program over the past few months, with the two wrestlers' characters finally announcing last week on the show they were getting hitched.
According to the WWE, which scripts all its matches, neither Palumbo nor Sopp are really gay. The WWE has also made it clear that the planned wedding and Billy and Chuck's increasingly affectionate onscreen relationship were both simply part of a storyline.
"What we like to do in our genre is bring in issues that are out there in society that are topical," Stephanie McMahon, daughter of World Wrestling chiefs Vince and Linda McMahon, told pagesix.com on Sept. 9.
Initially GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, was supportive of the stunt, saying it was a step forward for the world of professional wrestling and a good message to the impressionable male teens who make up a large portion of the WWE's audience.
"Billy and Chuck were a welcomed departure from the stereotypical, often-victimized gay wrestlers of the past," said GLAAD spokesman Scott Seomin.
The announcement of the planned gay wedding got the WWE tons of press, including mention in The New York Times, The Washington Post and on the Today Show, which featured the two wrestlers out of character in an interview with host Matt Lauer. The end of the interview featured Lauer giving the two wrestlers a Pottery Barn gravy boat as a wedding gift from GLAAD.
On the Sept. 12 show, Billy and Chuck announced they weren't getting married, that they are both really straight, and that the whole storyline was nothing more than a publicity stunt. The wedding ended (predictably) with a brawl involving wrestlers on a rival WWE show that to many looked like a gay bashing. GLAAD responded angrily, saying they had been misled by McMahon and the WWE.
"The WWE lied to us two months ago when they promised that Billy and Chuck would come out and wed on the air," Seomin said "In fact, I was told (lied to) the day after the show was taped in Minneapolis that the wedding took place and all was well."
Criticism of both WWE and GLAAD's actions was swift. John McClelland, a columnist at OutSports.com said the WWE's called-off wedding sent the wrong message and was a disaster for GLAAD. "For Seomin to proclaim to the Washington Post that this story line and wedding is 'a hoot' and that it 'reaches a lot of potential bullies and gay bashers out there, and what Billy and Chuck are saying is not only 'We're here,' but they also say 'Don't mess with us,'' is absurd."
The WWE is clearly in need of publicity stunts. Its ratings are down by more than 20 percent from last year, and the company has seen its net income drop by 79 percent over the past twelve months.
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