Matt Hardy Reflects on Billy & Chuck’s Controversial WWE Gimmick – Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo formed a tag team in WWE during the early 2000s, gaining notoriety for their heavily publicized “wedding” segment on SmackDown in 2002, which ultimately turned out to be a publicity stunt. The duo also held the WWE World Tag Team Championships and successfully defended them at WrestleMania X8 in a four-team match featuring The APA, The Dudley Boyz, and The Hardy Boyz.
Speaking on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt Hardy shared his thoughts on working with Billy & Chuck during that time. He acknowledged that the gimmick was far more controversial in 2002 than it would be today. Hardy noted that Billy Gunn, being the veteran of the team, took a more hands-on approach, ensuring that both he and Palumbo were comfortable with the storyline.
“I mean, you got to think about that, 23 years ago being quite a while back, it was much more controversial then than it would be now obviously. I do know that they were — Billy more than Chuck, Chuck was like a newer talent, Billy had been around for a while, he was more of a vet. Billy was very hands on and wanted to make sure they were comfortable with everything they were doing, I do know that. I think they had explained to them kind of how they thought this bit was going to play out. They both felt okay doing it and I think they both felt okay fully committing to the bit.
“I thought it was interesting. I mean, I thought Chuck Palumbo had some true talent, I thought he had a lot of upside, especially when he did stuff with Sean O’Haire. I thought those two could have been something really good together, they were still trying to adapt to the WWE style. Putting Chuck Palumbo with Billy Gunn, it was a great fix because Billy is going to be working with them day in and day out and helping him adapt to what the WWE style and what they really expect and prefer from their talent as a WWE wrestler. That was a good move and I was probably unsure of it, like is this going to work, is this too much, are they pushing the envelope too much, is this too offensive, or like, what are we doing here for sure, but it was something that generated a lot of buzz, especially after it went on for a little. They cut it pretty rapidly when it ended but once they got into the heat of it and people kind of understood what they were doing, it did generate a lot of buzz.”
Matt Hardy Reflects on Billy & Chuck’s Controversial WWE Gimmick
