Multiple LGBTQ wrestlers leave Las Vegas WrestleMania week as champions
WrestleMania week earlier this month saw three out LGBTQ pro wrestlers capture new championship gold in Las Vegas.
Mark
Of the dozens of out LGBTQ wrestlers and 100+ matches they wrestled over WrestleMania week in Las Vegas earlier this month, several left Sin City with new pieces of gold around their waists.
The title wins kicked off at Wednesday’s Pandemonium Pro Wrestling event, “Whatever. Forever.” Pacific Northwest staple Zeb Saint One came out on top in a five-way scramble that also featured fellow out wrestler Parm Singh Mann, Javi, Vengador and Dustin Nguyen to win the vacant Pandemonium Pro TV championship.
The “Queer Criminal’s” win makes him the third out pro wrestler to hold that title, joining Kidd Bandit and Honest John in the title’s lineage.
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The next title win came later that night at The Collective as Mercedes Martinez won the vacant Pro Wrestling Unplugged Women’s championship in a triple threat match against former WWE stars Priscilla Kelly and Lacey Lane with fellow out pro wrestler Kiera Hogan as guest referee.
It was the first match of an eventful week for the GCW Indie Wrestling Hall of Famer in her final year of active in-ring competition. Martinez was recognized as the inaugural PWU Women’s champion on the broadcast, but “The OG Badass” actually held the previous version of the LGBTQ-led promotion’s women’s title, the PWU Unified Women’s championship, in 2006.
The title wins for queer performers weren’t reserved for the independent wrestling world as Paige, the former Saraya in AEW, made her surprise return to WWE at night one of WrestleMania Saturday night to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles with Brie Bella.
Paige replaced Nikki Bella in the match after an ankle injury kept her from participating in the match. Bella and Paige battled the teams of Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax and Lash Legend and Bailey and Lyra Valkyrie to leave Las Vegas as champions.
While the live crowd erupted for the former WWE star’s return, the start to Paige’s second stint with WWE was met with criticism from queer audiences due to both her silence on and support of transphobic comments and actions by her now ex-boyfriend Ronnie Radke, lead singer of Falling In Reverse, when they were together.
Paige has yet to comment fully on her actions and comments, including saying that Radke did more for the LGBTQ community than others in response to backlash to Radke’s band featuring pro-Trump and queerphobic out trans YouTuber Blaire White in a music video in 2024, since the two split up a little over a year ago.
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