Gorgeous George

I feel pretty, oh so pretty.


"I'm so pretty, I should have been born a little girl!"
—Johnny B. Badd, WCW

Professional Wrestling writers are known to use every dirty trick in the book to make a Heel hated, and Gorgeous George is one of the most basic tricks there is. Gorgeous George is an effeminate pretty-boy who, if he's not an outright cross-dresser, dresses, looks, and acts very androgynous. He wears sequined robes and feather boas, he keeps his hair perfectly coiffed, his nails perfectly manicured, and if somebody hits him in the face, watch out! Needless to say, this is all designed to exploit the wrestling fans' homophobia; by presenting an effete image, coupled with the standard heel tactics of lying and cheating, he inflames the anger of the crowd. Gorgeous George never outright says that he's gay - it's constantly implied and hinted at, but if he actually admitted it, it wouldn't be Gorgeous George anymore.

The original Gorgeous George was George Wagner, who began wrestling in the 1930's, making this trope Older Than Television. Wagner became popular in the wrestling circuit for his outrageous character, and with the advent of television became one of the biggest celebrities of the era. Muhammed Ali and James Brown both credited Wagner as part of their inspiration for their own flamboyant behavior. Subsequent wrestlers took on similar personas, including Johnny B. Badd, Rico, Goldust (who subverted the trope by turning face), "The Model" Rick Martel, and "Adorable" Adrian Adonis.

See also Sissy Villain, Depraved Homosexual, Depraved Bisexual and Psycho Lesbian. Contrast The Fighting Narcissist whose sexuality is rarely questioned.

Examples of Gorgeous George include:

Professional Wrestling

  • Of course, Gorgeous George himself.
  • Shawn Michaels had shades of this during his 1990s heel runs. He was a flamboyantly dressed, stripping narcissist who pranced around in front of a mirror and came out to a theme song called "Sexy Boy" and once posed for Playgirl. He also had TONS of Ho Yay with heel sidekicks Kevin Nash and Triple H. Parts of his heel runs subverted this, however, by having him hang around with Sensational Sherry or Jenny McCarthy. His face runs tended to downplay the vanity and the Ho Yay (unless Triple H was around), but still pretty much ran with the trope.
  • "Exotic" Adrian Street was, according to many wrestling fans, the best wrestler to ever play this gimmick. Street found exactly the right balance between the antics and having good matches. He even had a "girlfriend", Miss Linda, who played a feminine inversion of the gimmick by dressing in leather and getting physically involved in matches. Despite pushing 70, Street has remained in shape and still uses the gimmick on occasion.
    • He was also, as noted by Wrestlecrap, an extremely stiff (har har) worker, which he also used if anyone mocked him in bars (the old days of Kayfabe and all that.)
  • "Adorable" Adrian Adonis was a shameless rip-off of Street. In the AWA, he was formerly (at least gimmick-wise) a badass biker, where he teamed with Jesse "The Body" Ventura as part of the East-West Connection (Adrian being from New York, Ventura being from California). The team was brought into the WWF, but Ventura was forced to retire after developing blood clots in his lungs. Instead, Adrian was given pink trunks to wear, as well as legwarmers, scarves, sunhats, and ribbons for his hair. While Street had a bodybuilders physique, Adonis' weight quickly ballooned past 300 lbs.
    • Ventura may have worn feather boas and other flamboyant attire, but his gimmick was more of a tough hippie, inspired by "Superstar" Billy Graham.
      • He wore glasses with rhinestones. That alone qualifies him for this trope.
  • Dustin Rhodes, unable to move out of his father Dusty's shadow, enthusiastically became Goldust when joining the WWF. He combined this trope with a whole lot of other bizarre mannerisms. He was also one of the first of this type of wrestler to turn face.
    • His half-brother Cody Rhodes is supposed to be a different trope with his current gimmick, but some consider him metrosexual. It comes from each week on Smackdown!, he gives grooming tips, which vary from the normal (suggestions on bathing frequency and deodorant) to the metro (lip gloss, clear nail polish). When he enters the arena, he turns to one of the screens behind him which acts as a mirror, showing a real-time video of him on the stage.
  • WCW had The West Hollywood Blonds, Lenny and Lodi. They wore body glitter and, when Lenny won the WCW Cruiserweight Title, decorated it with sparkles and bows. They got pulled off television when the GLAAD threatened to sue WCW.
    • After WCW's demise, Lodi signed with TNA and replaced Lenny with Bruce, who had formerly worked in WCW as Alan Funk and Kwee-Wee.
  • Since we mentioned Kwee Wee, he sorta fit this trope. His character was a fashion designer whose outfits were lavender and neon orange. However, he had a feminine girlfriend (Papaya) and never really acted ambiguously gay, aside from dressing flamboyantly and liking clothes. He was closer to metrosexual, despite the fact that metrosexual hadn't been invented back then.
  • Billy and Chuck, who were an Ambiguously Gay Duo. They eventually turned out to be straight after all.
    • Too Cool, Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2-Hotty, were originally known as Too Much. "Too Sexy" Brian Christopher and "Too Hot" Scott Taylor. The duo never really got pushed or over and they were taken off TV in under a year and then repackaged as Too Cool and teamed up with Rikishi. Word is that the gay marriage angle that Billy and Chuck went through was originally intended for them.
  • Billy and Chuck also had Rico, their "stylist". After the breakup of Billy and Chuck, Rico started trying to imitate Adrian Street's version of the gimmick, complete with a valet named Miss Jackie.
  • Long before the West Hollywood Blondes, WCW had Johnny B. Badd, one of the earliest face examples of this trope. Then again, possibly the only reason he was a face was because he was a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Little Richard.
  • Going back to the 1950s, Ricki Starr was a legitimate ballet dancer, who ended up in professional wrestling. He used ballet for much of his wrestling moves, wore ballet slippers in the ring, and had stereotypical gay mannerisms. For most of his career, he was a Face. Yes, in the 1950s.
  • Subversion: Ric Flair stole Gorgeous George's schtick of bleaching his hair blond and wearing robes and feather boas, but he was never portrayed as anything other than proudly heterosexual: "a wheelin', dealin', kiss-stealin' son of a gun!"
    • While Flair definitely looked, acted, etc., like Gorgeous George, he actually "borrowed" his gimmick from "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers....who had "borrowed" it from Gorgeous George.
  • Subversion: "Sweet & Sour" Larry Sweeney. He wore pink and purple almost exclusively and came to the ring in feather boas and sparkly robes. He strutted more than he walked, but Sweeney was 100% all man. AIN'T NO DOUBT ABOUT IT, BABY!
  • TNA now has Orlando Jordan. Although this might be a subversion since Jordan is the only wrestler on this list who actually is openly bisexual or gay in real life.
    • "Effeminate," nothing. Jordan looks downright transsexual.
  • Razor Ramon HG, aka Hard Gay, is not actually gay in real life but his wrestler persona sure comes off as it and he formed a tag team with a guy who apparently really was gay to keep up the illusion. He was also the top Face of HUSTLE.
  • Masked women's swimsuit wearing wrestler Japanese Pool Boy is a more comedic version than most other examples but still manages to get under a lot of fans' skin.
  • Vito, the toughest man to wear a dress, was initially a more subtle version. If one noticed the trope in all it would be in the mafia-type tough man's butterfly finishing move. Then he came out in the dress and started forcing other men's heads under it, making it obvious to everyone.

Film

Live Action TV

  • One Chappelle's Show skit had a gay version of the world, including an entire gay boxing ring named Friday Night Sissy Fights.

Video Games

  • Ash Crimson, Ash Crimson, ASH CRIMSON. At the moment you're reading this, at least one person on the planet is bashing the series solely because of his existence.
  • Super Punch-Out!! had Heike Kagero, a shirtless woman without breasts who boxed. He had a slim build, lilac trunks, lipstick, long silver hair which he used as a lethal weapon, and he used to skip back and forth when he knocked you down. He also punched in an effeminate manner—It was just very, very painful. Oh, and he laughed in a high-pitched cooing tone when he won. As far as can be told Kagero was actually trained in kabuki before taking up boxing as a means of defending himself. Based on his mannerisms, he was most likely an onnagata—meaning that he played female characters.
  • Valtome from Fire Emblem 10 (Radiant Dawn). Wears makeup, has perfectly done nails, flirts with Zelgius and some interesting desires concerning Elincia.
  • One of the characters in Heroes of Might and Magic IV was a pirate named Pete Girly after his long blond hair. He was very vain about his appearance, especially the hair. Of course, the first person who called him "Pete Girly" ended up dead - he started wearing the nickname with pride later.
  • Zhang He in Dynasty Warriors, who gets campier and campier with every installment in the series, and has a seriously badass moveset. Whether he's a Heel or a Face depends on your interpretation of the Wei kingdom, which has traditionally gotten the Historical Villain Upgrade.

Western Animation

  • Mocked in the Looney Tunes cartoon "Bunny Hugged" with "Ravishing Ronald, the De-Natured Boy" (based on both Gorgeous George and "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers), a timid, mincing wrestler who kept his long blond hair in a net and bobby-pins. In an odd inversion, Ronald appeared to be a Face; it was his opponent, The Crusher, who was the Heel (and thus, the subsequent target of Bugs Bunny's wrath).
  • Futurama: In the episode "Raging Bender", after Bender is successfully established as the tough "Bender the Offender", he's forced to become an exaggeration of this trope -- "The Gender Bender"—as part of a Face Heel Turn, in order to build up another rising star.

Real Life

  • Nong Toom was a kathoey (or "ladyboy") Muay Thai kick boxer, who would enter matches wearing make up and even kissing defeated opponents. She eventually used the money made as a kick boxer to get gender reassignment surgery.
    This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.