Guest art_vandelay Report post Posted February 23, 2002 NOTICE: First of all, before I you all flame me, I mean absolutely no offense with the title, I just thought it sounded good. Secondly, before I get flamed even more, I am not a Billy Gunn mark. Repeat: I am not a Billy Gunn mark. About a year ago, Billy Gunn was in the midst of a rapidly declining career. From a failed singles push, to a failed tag team with the Big Show, to being ridiculed by every wrestling fan on the internet; it seemed like his prime was way past him. A few months ago, he began teaming up with a young talent named Chuck Palumbo, whom had many past sucesses in WCW. Much like Gunn, Palumbo is a young wrestler with a great physique but dismal wrestling skills. Slowly but surely, together they would reach success once again. They started out wrestling as faces wearing matching red-tights on the WWF's B-programs: Jakked and Heat. After a week, they decided to turn heel. Then, on the December 24th episode of Raw, a momentous event took place which would mark the beginning of their triumphs; they gave each other matching headbands. It wasn't the headbands that made the angle, but because they gave them to each other in a very geeky fashion remeniscent to Edge & Christian, but there was just something about 2 physically larger men that them seem... gay. Since then, vignettes and matches featuring various homosexual innuendos have helped the Ambiguously Gay Duo of the WWF garner tremendous heat from the predominantly homophobic male crowd, while entertaining them at the very same time. On this week's past episode of WWF SmackDown!, Billy and Chuck etched their successes into the record books by defeating the team of Spike Dudley and Tazz to attain the WWF Tag Team Championship titles. A first time for Palumbo, and an unprecedented 9th time for Gunn. When the writers originally approached Billly Gunn with the idea of a gay gimmick, I'm sure he had second thoughts before going ahead with it. But in retrospect, I'm sure any two wrestlers at the bottom of the roster--that includes all of the Alliance guys--would jump at the chance to play the a gay tag team. It has completely saved one man's career. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest X-Factor Corperation Report post Posted February 23, 2002 Billy's one of my favorite wrestlers, so I'm glad to see him on TV. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Who? Report post Posted February 23, 2002 Cowboy to queer...sounds like (Blackjack) Bradshaw's career... I couldn't resist that one. Maybe if they turned Triple H gay the marks would hate him...hmmmm.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Your God Report post Posted February 23, 2002 I said this in another thread and I'll say it again...I think the gay gimmick between Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo is very effective. Seeing as Palumbo is not that great of a wrestler (former partner Sean O'Haire was much better IMO) and Billy Gunn is...well...Billy Gunn, they need a gimmick to get them over as opposed to their limited and horrible workrate. The gay gimmick is perfect for their heel status, as a whopping deal of WWF fans are homophobic and will hate Chuck & Billy on that alone, getting them extremely over and becoming a worthy addition to the stale WWF tag scene. Due to their entertaining gimmick alone, I actually was quite glad to see them pick up the tag titles on SMACKDOWN and I really hope they have a good run with them (The Outsiders don't need them to get over; Chuck & Billy do); after all, I'd much rather see it on them than the Hardly Boyz. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Janus527 Report post Posted February 24, 2002 I think the reason that the Chuckabilly (remember Rockabilly?)gimmick is working is that they seem to be legitimately having fun, which is a rare commodity in wrestling. I've found that the angles which are most enjoyable are the ones where the wrestlers really seem to be enjoying themselves. The Rock/Jericho fued, Edge & Christian as a team, the Angle/Austin fued with the milk truck--these come to mind as situations where the participants really seemed into their performance. For contrast, consider the Dudleys recently. They seem to be putting in time, going through the motions without any passion. Same with the Hardyz. And 'Taker. And their performance, both in-ring and on the mike, suffers. Billy and Chuck seem to be having a great deal of fun in their new roles (and I don't mean any sort of subtext there), and it's really coming through in their performance. And that is the secret ingredient to heat. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
