#Sonny Kiss

[samixayn]

[elitehanitje]

Anthony Bowens is the future of Pride and a shining example of the power of being out & proud

When you think of professional wrestling, queer acceptance might not be the first thing that comes to mind. In reality, progress towards changing that perception is being made, in large part thanks to PRIDE’s Grand Marshal, Anthony Bowens, and his decision to be out and proud — in and out of the ring.

“I feel extremely welcomed. That was actually one of the drawing points of coming to All Elite Wrestling [AEW], back in 2020 when I was trying to choose between two companies,” Bowens recalls to PRIDE. “It was how welcoming the locker room was and how free the performers were, because AEW had the first ever trans woman to win a major national title named Nyla Rose, and they had Sonny Kiss, and both were just walking around being themselves and there was no issues. It was just we're all one big family, it didn't matter who you were. And I thought that was so impressive.”

Bowens says that this spirit of welcoming and acceptance is mirrored by his fellow performers, the management, and, of course, the fans. There was a time when being an out gay wrestler would have been an oxymoron, but the sea change is occurring and has never been more evident than in a truly stunning moment of solidarity shared by a crowd of wrestling fans. If you’d been at the AEW Dynamite show last June at Chicago's Wintrust Arena, you’d have seen (and heard nothing but) a sold-out crowd erupt into chants of “he’s gay” in support of Bowens.

While Bowens is the first to admit that pro wrestling still has a ways to go in terms of its queer acceptance, he can’t help but see positive signs everywhere he looks. “We have shows on the independent [promotions] like Effy's Big Gay Brunch that features all LGBTQ athletes, I think he runs it multiple times a year now; it used to be every WrestleMania weekend. And then also on AEW, I think that at one point one of our shows had I think seven or eight out LGBTQ athletes on the show. That doesn't happen anywhere else. And that certainly didn't happen when I first started,” he says.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE AND INTERVIEW

[rennarita]

[christianstepmoms]

My first show as a full-time Camera Op for Enjoy is star-studded.

[dynamitekansai]

📸 Mike Durband Productions

[kopw]

SONNY & JOEY for @allelitewrestlings' pride month event

"The dynamic Joey and I have, it’s something people can relate to and that’s why I love it so much. He’s a cisgender heterosexual male and then you have this gender-fluid person. It’s this awesome dynamite because sometimes people don’t know how to interact because they think the interaction has to be something else. You can just interact how you would normally interact with another human." — Sonny Kiss for Pro Wrestling Junkies, 2021

[suplexjones]

[jasvvy]

[are-we-really-doing-this]

Pic of all time, y’all can go the fuck home now.

[cosmoseinfeld]

[blueonwrestling]

I really do want to make a point here about Jay Briscoe and his previous homophobic comments in 2013, yes of course they were bad but out of everyone who has posted dumb shit that’s wrong Jay has been someone who has went out of his way to make amends for those comments, education himself and be better.

You can see here with just a few members of the LGBTQ+ members of the wrestling world just how much Jay meant to them and how nice he was to them, I think getting the Effy/Max/Sonny stamp of approval means alot for someone who made those comments in the past.

Anyone who is still making a comment of “Jay Briscoe was homophobic so why are you celebrating his death” are people not worth fucking oxygen and can genuinely go fuck themselves with a rusty knife, don’t fucking interact with them don’t bother wasting your time with the fucking underbelly of society that just want attention when someone has died.

[samixayn]

sonny kiss makes her impact debut

[elitehanitje]

😘

[keybladeofsteel]

Seriously???

[the-kipsabian]

[dynamitekansai]

Sonny Kiss' contract with AEW has expired and is now a free agent

+ bonus: just a SMALL portion of the overflowing love in response