Jake Atlas made WWE history in 2019 when he signed a three-year contract with the organization and became its first openly LGBTQ wrestler. Last month, he was let go from his contract early. Now, in an interview with podcaster Denise Salcedo, the 26-year-old is speaking out about the experience, which ended up being more damaging than he ever could have anticipated.
Shortly after becoming the first out WWE wrestler, Atlas, whose real name is Kenny Marquez, saw his social media following grow and found himself being profiled by major outlets like People magazine. His star was on the rise.
But within six months of signing his contract, he says he was having mental breakdowns nearly every day and being ignored by his bosses.
“My mental health was probably the worst it’s ever been in the last two years that I was with WWE,” Atlas explains. “There are days when I would just cry.”
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Atlas adds, “I just didn’t feel like I was breaking out or being myself or getting people to get behind me. I didn’t feel like I was offering anything authentic. I remember watching my matches back, and I would see this Jake Atlas on the screen and I remember just being so disconnected from what I was watching on TV.”
He also struggled with management. He didn’t feel supported and says he could never get execs to meet with him to discuss his contract or ideas he had as the only LGTBQ representation on the roster.
“There were a lot of things that I wanted to do and talk about and I was just given the runaround.”
Eventually, Atlas grew frustrated both with feeling ignored and with his mental health struggles and so he asked to be let go from his contract early.
“You have to understand that my mental health was really bad,” he says. “I am strong now, but the entire time it was not good. So, I felt like I needed to leave for myself, like I needed to put myself first.”
Last month, WWE agreed and released him. He was at a restaurant when he got a from call from WWE Talent Relations head John Laurinaitis, who he had never talked to before in his life.
“I was at dinner. It was that Friday night and I got a call from WWE incorporated,” he says. “I didn’t ask any questions. I was already expecting it and I kinda just numbed myself for the phone call.”
The call with Laurinaitis lasted less than 30 seconds. Atlas says he wasn’t upset because his “mental health comes first and I was suffering.”
Looking back, Atlas says he was afraid people might think he was “ungrateful” for no longer wanting to be involved with the organization, but he really couldn’t take it anymore.
“My entire run in WWE was the most, and I don’t know how to word this, it was probably the worst mentally I have ever been,” he says, adding, “It wasn’t a ‘I wanna leave,’ it was more so a conversation of ‘ I want to be here, and feel like I have so much value, and I feel like I am not being heard.’”
“I just want people to understand and not think that I was ungrateful for having a job because they’ve been releasing left and right. I take my mental health and my sanity and being alive before I take having a job.”
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
v6origal97
Darren Young was openly gay and signed to their roster about ten years ago. Orlando Jordan was openly bisexual, and he was on their roster 20 years ago. One of their most legendary agents, wrestlers, and executives, who recently passed, Pat Paterson, was also openly gay. I’m a big wrestling fan, though I gravitate more towards AEW – who also have openly gay members on their roster – and it’s great that the WWE had an openly gay man on the roster, but he wasn’t the first. This company is known to be a mental grind on talent. They recently released a former world champion and second generation superstar who moved a ton of merchandise, because of budget cuts, and allegedly, because he also requested time off for anxiety. Ditto for another talent who is now killing it in AEW. They’ve released over a hundred employees this year. The fact that he did not have character input is not something related to just him. Talent in that organization, as a rule, are hired to then play characters created by writers who fans criticize as being extremely out of touch. I’m sorry he struggled and felt his story wasn’t being told, but they likely hired him to tout his ties to the LGBTQ community, while not utilizing him for anything else. This is the same company who had a roster member do a weeks worth of press to talk about her father dying in 9/11 and what it meant to her to wrestle in MSG this past Friday as a tribute to him on FOX, and then cut her match from the card. It’s sad, but they’re about getting PR when they can, and ultimately, they view people as paid actors.
Donston
None of those dudes you mentioned were unabashedly out publicly when they signed. This was the first time that they tried to use unabashed “gayness” to sell a male performer and seemed to sign a guy for that purpose. That’s probably why he felt he would be elevated. However, it seems like they mostly signed him to use his queerness for some press and politics and then pushed him aside. So, in that sense, I do understand his annoyance.
Hank31
He got that contract as part of an appearance on Undercover Boss with Stephanie McMahon. It was a real contract, not just for show. He has done interviews where he has said that the WWE “saved his life” by paying for his therapy. So they gave him everything he wanted, signed him up, let him fulfill a dream of being a pro wrestler, paid him, took care of him — but somehow they are still to blame. Because his pro-wrestling fictional character wasn’t “authentic” or because he wasn’t
“heard” or something.
Donston
A lot of “queers” contend with depression, mental health issues, internalized phobias, gay resentments, masculine insecurities, self-destructive instincts, stifling paraphiliacs or fluidity, etc. And too many look towards the world to fix those problems. Though the world often doesn’t help/often just makes things worse, a lot of people’s issues are more internal.
Many folks throughout the years have talked about WWE being a mess, being too controlling, not giving a shit about their talent. While the main reason they’d probably be looking to hire unabashedly queer males is for some PR/to be seen as “progressive”. They should perhaps be called out for the empty gestures and tokenism. However, it seems like a lot of this dude’s issues are not connected to the WWE. He was looking for them to fix his problems and his ego. It does seem he’s doing better, and a different environment and different goals might be what’s best.