Sonny Kiss On Wrestling Becoming More Queer-Inclusive, AEW’s Inclusivity

Sonny Kiss recently spoke with Renee Paquette about how the wrestling industry has had more queer representation, AEW’s booking of LGBTQ+ talent and more. Kiss touched on the topics during Paquette’s The Sessions, and you can see some highlights below (per Wrestling Inc):

On wrestling becoming more inclusive for queer people: “It’s definitely a lot better in the 2020’s from the last decade to now.. I definitely think it’s a lot better. When I came in in 2013, it was definitely not like that. It was still progressing, it wasn’t that bad but it’s gotten progressively better over the last decade for sure. And I think with people like myself, Nyla (Rose), (Anthony) Bowens, Leyla (Hirsch), Kiera (Hogan), Diamante, Aubrey (Edwards), I can name them all. Sonya Deville, Jake Atlas. Everybody’s been kind of chipping at the wall and being all ‘we’re going to break this wall down. ‘I feel that’s kind of what it is.”

On the key to booking queer talent: “Just letting them be then. Letting everyone be themselves, I think is obviously the best way to call it. Because people, as far as storylines, feel like it has to push the envelope. And I feel it doesn’t have to. You can have a storyline with an openly gay male and a cis gender straight male and still being cool. When you look at Bowens on TV, you don’t think of Bowens as the gay wrestler. He’s just Anthony Bowens. You don’t look at Leyla and even identify her really. They don’t go to that immediately. I feel just kind of like letting everybody just be them. Even with me, I pitch storylines all the time that isn’t about my sexuality, it isn’t about the way I look. It’s just straight up ideas that will keep me in dialog with the fans.

“It’s more about being used. I can’t really do it if I’m not really being used. But it’s just more about being seen by the audience, being in dialog with them. Hopefully with this year coming I’ll be able to get opportunities and hopefully I’ll be able to tell those stories and be in dialog with them, and give them a presentation from my point of view.”

On AEW’s focus on inclusivity: “I want to definitely say that I love being at AEW. And I think that it’s awesome AEW allows all it’s LGBTQ talent to be themselves and allows everyone in the company to embrace that. And the company does embrace it. Tony Khan is a brown man, Meagha is a brown women. They are being inclusive and allowing diversity to be seen for sure. I definitely want to make that statement. I’m just saying I can’t tell my own stories if I’m not shown. We’ll work on that.”