(Wrestling Thoughts) Domestic Partnership: A New Twist on an Old Routine

The upcoming OSCW show has me thinking of wrestling and how refreshing it is to see new twists on tired gimmicks.

For example there's a tag team on the indy scene right now called Domestic Partnership made up of Deryck Cross(e) and Bobby Fletcher. They work the "bad guy of ambiguous sexuality gimmick", which is as old as the hills, hearkening back to Gorgeous George, down to Adrian Adonis to the Genius, to Goldust to Billy & Chuck and a million indy workers looking for cheap and easy heat.

But when Domestic Partnership does it, it works, and to me, there are two things that set them apart.

a) They MIGHT be gay, but they can DEFINITELY kick your ass
A lot of times the 'gay character' is played as cowardly, and physically ineffectual, with an offense of eye pokes, slaps, and effete back scratches. Problem is, it makes it very hard to use them except as comedy characters because nobody can come out of a match with them looking better than they came in. If the good guy beats the gay character, it's no big deal since the guy is an effete wimp, and if the good guy loses, he looks like a complete buffoon. Domestic Partnership are credible as ass-kickers so there's no shame in losing to them and beating them is an accomplishment. It gives them a nice versatility so you can use the characters in anywhere on the card.

B)They aren't Pro-man, they're ANTI-WOMAN
DP spend a lot of time running down women, which I don't remember seeing any other gay characters do a lot. It's something that sets them apart from the rest of the ambiguous sexuality pack (always a good thing when being a memorable character is your bread and butter) while making them more despicable. Bleeding heart liberals (yes, some of us watch wrestling too) like myself feel uncomfortable booing a character based on his sexual orientation. But Domestic Partnership aren't just possibly gay...they're MISOGYNIST gays, so I can boo them guilt-free to my politically-correct heart's content.

Kudos to them for taking an old gimmick and making it fresh and memorable.

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