Holly Prentice: Wrestling has always been queer, and I am keen to embrace it

With Elimination Chamber Perth just a few days away, the wrestling world is laser-focused on Australia.

On the other side of the country, Sydney is gearing up for Mardi Gras, the biggest LGBTQI+ celebration in the nation.

In my mind, these two events overlap in a spandexed Venn diagram.

I am a wrestling fan and an out queer woman and by no means the only one. As the years have passed, I have seen the demographic of wrestling fans change.

Wrestling is a massive part of queer media because of what pro wrestling is at its root.

Wrestling, above all things, is camp.

The pyrotechnics, the larger-than-life characters, and the melodramatic storylines.

There’s a scene in the Netflix series GLOW where an actress is taken to a wrestling match to understand how the industry works.

As her friend explained the plot of the match, it dawned on her why so many people love it, as she exclaimed, “It’s a soap opera!”

Queer people are drawn to wrestling in the same way we’re drawn to soap operas, or drag shows, or trashy reality shows.

They’re all high-drama, high performance, high spectacle.

This was even acknowledged on the queerest TV show of them all: RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Judge Michelle Visage said during an episode that so many queer people are drawn to pro wrestling because it has a large overlap with drag performance.

Wrestling is widely joked about in the queer community as “drag for straight people,” but I’d argue that the queer fanbase of wrestling is more alive than ever.

On a recent episode of All Elite Wrestling’s show Rampage, wrestler Anthony Bowens came out to the crowd during a segment where a woman was hitting on him, telling her, “I don’t know if you can tell by my gear, but lady, I’m gay.”

This wasn’t scripted or part of a narrative; this was a wrestler flatly coming out to the crowd.

In previous years, this would have been used as a plotline to put the wrestler through a demeaning storyline, with his queerness played for laughs and detriment.

The response from the crowd was an uproar of cheers, followed quickly by chanting of “he’s gay, he’s gay”, while in the background, a fan held up a sign reading “support LGBT rights”.

The outside audience has long viewed wrestling as a lower form of media for conservatives (and true, endorsements from people like Trump haven’t helped this). Still, this moment was a loud declaration that wrestling was for everyone and that the previously silenced queer crowd was here to stay.

And for old-school wrestling fans, yes, that was Billy Gunn, AKA Mr Ass, cheering alongside Bowens.

That in itself is a testament to how times have changed. Gunn comes from an extremely homophobic and problematic era of professional wrestling, and he stood in the middle of the ring during a landmark moment for progression in the industry.

The WWE has also started making more progressive changes. Wrestler Sonya DeVille married her long-term girlfriend, Toni Cassano, this month.

Finn Balor’s merchandise comes adorned with the pride flag, reading “Balor Club Is For Everyone” (I am proud to say this was the first piece of wrestling merchandise I owned).