Chuck Palumbo has discussed his time working with Billy Gunn in the renowned Billy and Chuck tag team in an exclusive interview with Inside The Ropes.
Palumbo first came to WWE as part of the contingent from WCW when it was acquired by Vince McMahon in the spring of 2001. Primarily teaming with Sean O’Haire at the beginning of his run with the company, the two men found themselves sharing the ring with the likes of The APA, The Hardy Boyz, and The Brothers Of Destruction.
Fast forward past the end of the Invasion storyline and Palumbo’s career took an interesting twist when he began teaming with Billy Gunn. Now as the bleach blonde Billy and Chuck, the duo found success as they captured the World Tag Team Championship and even successfully defended their crown at WrestleMania X8.
Later in 2002, the team caused a stir when Palumbo apparently proposed to Billy on SmackDown with the two men later taking part in a marriage ceremony on the 2002 season premiere of the blue brand. However, that ceremony was to barely last three minutes as both men decried the whole thing as a publicity stunt.
Speaking exclusively to Inside The Ropes’ Kenny McIntosh, Chuck Palumbo reminisced about his time teaming with Gunn:
“Fantastic time. A lot of fun. Obviously, I’m working with Billy Gunn, very talented guy – taught me a lot. The whole idea behind the character, I don’t know if this started from day one, but once the characters were developed, I knew they were going to use us for cable television network ratings week. That last night where we had the actual ceremony. So we had to peak out there, I got that.”
Following the marriage ceremony falling apart, the two men feuded with former manager Rico and his new charges Three Minute Warning. After losing to this team at Unforgiven, Billy Gunn was taken out of action with an injury, and the team was finished.
Palumbo continued:
“They disbanded it shortly after. It could have continued on. It was over. Cutting edge at the time. Very cutting edge, like you said. All this gender topic talk now, it’s right there in pop culture, and that community has made such advances in society. Happy for them. At the time, not talked about often.”
“Think about it. 2002, same sex marriage? So it was great, in so many ways, and we had a lot of fun doing it. The thing was, we never took it personal. These were characters and we played the parts to the best of our ability and we ended up having fun doing it. We would try to make each other laugh every night. You know, I laughed. I smiled more when I played that character than probably any other character ever played. Great time!”