Lesbian Wrestling League (Series Book 1)

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So, yeah, I take kind of like a personal responsibility to be that openness for kids or young people that are in the shoes that I was in a decade ago.” The significance of that role isn’t lost on Deville, as her push for authentic LGBTQ representation and visibility within WWE remains a goal seven years after her first appearance on WWE programming. This isn’t about one generation. It’s about every single voice - past, present and future - stating that we belong and we are here, from the ring to the very last eyeball taking it all in. What was it like for you coming up and cutting your teeth in an era when women’s wrestling was so sexualized?

Kinney’s is the kind of passion needed not just to succeed in wrestling but also to inspire those watching, craving a figure in which they can see themselves. That desire was always there, but her journey in pro wrestling might have found its catalyst later, if not for a childhood VHS switcheroo. Last year’s introduction to the Queer Wrestling Index 100 ended with the point that LGBTQ pro wrestling had grown as a movement and community to the point where “ignoring their presence isn’t an option anymore.” It’s something that’s super important because I went through that same journey that a lot of people are going through in the LGBTQ community, which is struggling with my sexuality and being open about it,” Deville said on Outsports’ LGBT In The Ring podcast. “That’s the position I was in seven-plus years ago.” Paige was raised in a wrestling family and even had her first match at 13 tagging with her mother no less, so you could literally say that wrestling is in her blood.These depictions were damaging in their ability to define lesbian identities to wrestling audiences, but they also masked the industry’s actual lesbian history. Names like Susan Green and Sandy Parker defied women’s wrestling gatekeepers like The Fabulous Moolah that did their best to outlaw LGBTQ wrestlers’ public expression of their identities within their stables.

Obviously, still existing in the midst of a global pandemic complicated things when different regions of the globe afforded different amounts of in-ring time to its performers. I sincerely hope this is the last year where the virus becomes a weighing factor in how the QWI is constructed (get your vax and booster!). I originally intended to watch The Lion King but someone swapped the tape out for Royal Rumble 2000,” Kinney revealed on the Outsports podcast LGBT In The Ring. “Instead of watching the story of Simba, I watched Taz beat up Kurt Angle.” She suspects it was her brother that caused this bit of serendipity, but Kinney was hooked regardless. As a result of the growing public and societal acceptance of diverse lifestyles, more and more athletes and celebrities are feeling safe enough to come out and embrace their orientation proudly. The erroneous stereotypes of being gay meaning you’re weak or strange are being shattered every day and that is especially the case in the wrestling world. Since his release, Fred Rosser has been wrestling on the indies under his own name. In 2018 he appeared in Big Time Wrestling and Chikara, as well as Nuclear Heat Wrestling, where he had a great match against another openly gay wrestler, Jake Atlas (more him in a bit). So far this year he hasn’t been in the ring, focusing on podcasting and working with LGBTQ charities. He hasn’t announced a retirement, however, so there’s a good chance we haven’t seen the last of Fred Rosser.Now, decades later, the defiant spirits embodying that openness and desire for visibility among wrestling’s lesbian community refuse to keep their identities in the shadows. People like Ashley Vox and Rebel Kinney wear their identities openly in the ring without apology. Charlie Morgan’s promo in which she came out publicly in the ring at a Pro Wrestling EVE event is forever immortalized for its raw reality and ability to usher new LGBTQ fans into a welcoming wrestling space. Miss Lynn Sexpot played by Britney Spears vs. Miss Kenedy Tightass played by Cori Nadine Story by ??????? If you blinked in 2006, you may have missed this buxom beauty’s run in the WWE under the ECW banner. Shelly Martinez was signed by WWE in mid-2006 to be a valet for wrestler Kevin Thorn, a failed short-lived character who was previously another failed and short-lived character, Mordecai. Thorn was an odd vampire character and Shelly was his gothic, witch-like manager named Ariel. Some use their presence in the ring to shed light on other organizations that actively kept lesbian women obscured. The Great Bambina’s in-ring presentation is partially a radical response to the lesbian erasure perpetrated by the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, whose history was dramatized in the film A League of Their Own, Venere has now switched to a more aggressive mood, but Lucrezia shows everyone how strong she is, trying to resist and not giving up. With some more training she could easily be a top wrestler, however today she is facing a determined and proud fighter with one only goal in mind: winning.