WWE announcer Michael Cole, who has moved into headliner status for his well-received WrestleMania angle with Jerry Lawler, caused controversy this weekend after Tweeting a gay slur at fellow announcer Josh Matthews.
Cole’s Tweet of the word “faggot” at his fellow announcer sparked an outcry, prompting negative media coverage from TMZ. Exacerbating an already-sensitive issue is the fact that GLAAD recently responded to the use of seemingly-homophobic material in some of John Cena’s recent promos.
At the time, WWE said that it spoke to its talent to stress that it is “against bullying or discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.”
Cole has since taken the post down and responded, “I apologize to any and all who were offended by my tweet toward young Josh Mathews. It was obviously not meant the way it was taken.”
WWE also responded, telling TMZ, “WWE has alerted GLAAD to the situation and spoken to Michael Cole about his post. He has removed it and apologized for using hateful language. Michael will be included in the training session being done by GLAAD. WWE takes this very seriously and is against discrimination of any kind based on sexual orientation, gender, race, religion or other.”