Three Famous Gay Men in Wrestling
Although they generally perform half-clothed and in close quarters, professional wrestlers are rarely thought of as gay. While most people consider the sport to be more of a “macho man” sport, there are nonetheless many gay men that make it into the sport, either as promoters, advisors, or wrestlers themselves!
Professional Wrestling & Being Gay
It may be a bit challenging to find the perfect gay partner who’s also a professional wrestler. One way would be to use the best gay hookup sites, although famous athletes would probably register anonymously, and less-known would be hard to find because not many guys decide to come out in such a masculine sport. However, thankfully, the sport as a whole is constantly changing, so although openly gay wrestlers aren’t particularly common, we hope to see more of them in the near future, and on online dating sites too! Let’s work our way back into the past to see how gay men have influenced professional wrestling throughout the years.
Darren Young
Most people know him by his stage name, “Darren Young,” but this 38-year-old professional wrestler was named “Frederick Douglas Rosser III” at birth. He competed in several backyard wrestling federations while he was in high school before deciding to enroll in Camp IWF (West Paterson, New Jersey). After his professional debut in 2002, Young wrestled for Chaotic Wrestling, the Independent Wrestling Federation, and others until 2005, when he made several appearances in 2005 & 2006. Once 2009 came around, Young signed a contract with the WWE under the name “Darren Young.” On August 15, 2013, Darren became the first WWE wrestler to come out as gay while still in the industry. Thankfully, this was well-received overall by fans. After working in the WWE for a number of years, Young appears to have moved on: he currently wrestles in both the New Japan Pro-Wrestling & the National Wrestling Alliance.
Matt Cage
Although nowadays he’s retired, Matt Cage is another professional wrestler who came out as gay. In a post on Facebook, Matt announced that he was gay to the world. Support flooded in from his friends & family. However, the rest of the internet wasn’t as kind to Matt. Nonetheless, he continues to actively engage with his fans on his social media accounts, undeterred by any haters he encounters along the way. In 2018, Cage posted, “I love that some people are so ignorant or stupid that they can’t wrap their mind around the fact that a gay man (or woman) can still have a child. As if the reproductive system doesn’t exist.” Unashamed of his sexuality, Matt Cage maybe hasn’t announced that he looks for dating partners online, but for those who want to peek at the pecks, he even has an OnlyFans account (you can find the link on his Twitter page).
Jim Barnett
Jim Barnett was a well-known professional wrestling promoter who died on September 18, 2004, at the age of 80. He began his career working on the wrestling magazine “Wrestling as You Like It” and went on to work in a wrestling promotion. In 1955, Barnett became a partial owner of the National Wrestling Alliance in Indianapolis. Throughout the years, Jim owned World Championship Wrestling and co-owned Georgia Championship Wrestling, which he sold to the WWE in 1984. He also served as a vice president of Titan Sports (1984 to 1987), worked for Jim Crockett Promotions (1987 & 1988), then became a senior advisor for World Championship Wrestling. He kept this job until 2001 and became a consultant for the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) in 2002. Throughout his entire career, Jim was always extremely transparent about being gay and never let it hold him back.
What Does the Future Hold?
Like football, soccer, and other major sports, wrestling has only a few openly-gay athletes, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist “behind the scenes.” Fans may not have been as open to non-heterosexual performers in the past, but we hope that more gay wrestlers will feel empowered to come out without fear of repercussions nonetheless. After all, sexuality truly has nothing to do with the sport itself, so why should it matter?
