It *is* queer baiting and as an LGBTQ fan I think that should be acknowledged. E.g. when explicitly asked if the Golden Lovers story was LGBTQ, Kenny said, "Let people think what they want to think. If LGBT people can identify with our story [...] I'm good with that. It's the story of two wrestlers [...] who became fast friends". It's benign and so, so positive but still queer baiting. I point this out because as an LGBTQ fan I hope queer representation only continues to improve in wrestling.

I heard that a lot, and I definitely understand why that statement of Kenny’s made people feel that way. Your feeling queerbaited is valid; it’s not for me to tell people how they’re allowed to feel about stuff.

However, I feel very differently about it, and I’ll explain why. You do not have to read it or entertain it if it makes you uncomfortable. However, I think it’s really misunderstanding the definition of “queerbaiting,” and pretty unfair to the work Omega and Ibushi have done to let us know this story is queer.

(cw discussion of queerbaiting, obvs)

Personally (as a queer fan), I was disappointed too when Kenny said that, but I very much heard that as classic professional-gay hedging rather than outright denial. Understand this isn’t me splitting hairs in order to make an excuse: I’m kind of old and have personally, myself, been in professional situations where I did not want to out myself, but didn’t want to lie. I probably sounded a lot like that. (Worth noting that Kenny also did not explicitly say ‘no this is not gay.’) 

Because Japan is significantly more culturally homophobic than a lot of the west, I very much get the impression that Kenny’s in a position with NJPW where he absolutely cannot come out (heh) and say ‘yep, gay as a goddamn daffodil, and it’s not a joke.’ Especially given that a huge part of the narrative is ‘how real is this, lads?’, and they are intentionally blurring that line, and especially when it wouldn’t just be himself that he’d be ‘outing’, and as a foreigner from a place where gays are more or less culturally acceptable, he would have a lot less to lose in doing so. Plus, if it is autobiographical to any extent, that’s an extremely personal thing to put out there.

In every way possible OTHER than saying directly and specifically “this is gay” or doing a big romantic kiss or something, both of them, especially Kenny (as he has a lot more freedom to do so and a lot more opportunity to speak to a more receptive audience) have consistently made it incredibly clear that it’s gay.

Kenny’s frequently endorsed/rt’d/promoted things that explicitly call it gay. He frames it constantly in terms of romantic love. Then there’s all the very obvious affectionate physical contact that goes way beyond bff levels by any stretch of the imagination. Other people have explicitly called it a romantic relationship (Cody once got all mad about Kenny getting back together with his “ex-boyfriend”, so did Hangman), and framed it narratively as a romantic relationship (for example the Bucks’ protectiveness and feeling like they’d been left behind). They used unwanted physical romantic attention as a plot point when it’s usually a punchline. Kenny called Kota “my tag team partner and my life partner.” Kota said “we’re two people who share one heart.” “This (the Best Friends) is what friendship looks like, and this (the Golden Lovers) is what love looks like.” Even if they’re not waving rainbow flags, to me, they go out of their way to make it gay when they absolutely could just… not do that.

Also, if LGBTQ folks (and Kenny/Tyson is pretty much openly bi– again he has not said “I am bisexual” but he’s made it really clear on multiple occasions) want to tell stories about their lives, but do not want to be queer standard-bearers, that’s fine. I do not feel that queer folks telling their own stories have any obligation to The Cause or The Community other than to not fuck us over or use us.

I don’t think he’s doing either of those, so if he is not super interested in Fighting For All The Queers, for me, that’s okay. I very much understand that people want more than that, and I’d like that too all things being equal, but no one is obligated to do it, and I don’t fault anyone or judge them negatively if they choose not to. That shit is insanely personal and requires a lot of risk. 

Queerbaiting is using queerness as titillation without taking on any of the risks of depicting queerness, especially when done by straight creators, made for consumption of the straight gaze, and at the expense of actual queers, often by using harmful stereotypes. None of that really fits the Golden Lovers. 

To me, the Iiconics are hugely queerbait-y: they’re cutesy, stereotype lipstick-lesbian villainous gays, who are packaged for the male gaze and whose queer undertones are deliberately cultivated to be undertones. Same treatment with Breezango. Peyton/Billie and Tyler/Fandango obviously take it seriously and do their best to expand on that and make it queerer–not as a punchline, but as a real character story–when they can, and I love them for it. But WWE clearly wants them to be ~sexy maybe-lesbians (who might still possibly fuck you, straight dude); and ~lmao shallow stereotype limp-wrist catty gays. The lesbians are there to be sexy to men, the gays are there to be a punchline. To me, the difference between that and the Golden Lovers is incredibly stark.

I don’t fault anyone for wanting more, but I personally feel it is a narrow (and western-centric) definition of ‘queerbaiting,’ that they have declined to explicitly and unequivocally define the thing as gay with their own words. And I think that sorely minimizes the huge risks they HAVE taken and the great lengths they HAVE gone to, to show us over and over again that their story–that they both have centered their entire careers around–is a love story.