When news broke that Mansoor and Mason D. Madden, aka the group formerly known as the Maximum Male Models in WWE, was appearing on Effy's signature show, Effy's Big Gay Brunch 8, as part of GCW's slate of shows surrounding the Royal Rumble in Tampa Bay, it turns heads around the professional wrestling world.

After beginning their careers in WWE as relatively serious characters, even if Madden's run changed up pretty quickly when he became a member of Retribution, the duo rose to fame – or infamy – as members of the Maximum Male Models, a pair of, shall we say, androgynous performers with whom the promotion played fairly loosely with in terms of their presentation, if you catch my drift.

Both straight men in real life, the idea of Mansoor and Madden working a match at a show with the word “gay” in the title rubbed some folks the wrong way, but after Effy came to their defense, any unfavorable tide subsided to smooth sailing, with the duo now among the most highly anticipated additions to the card for their match against Bussy.

Asked about the elephant in the room in an interview with Fightful's In The Weeds, Mansoor explained that Vince McMahon didn't actually see the duo as gay per se, with the “joke” instead being that they were “metrosexuals.” This, however, didn't stop the duo from hamming it up for the cameras anyway, as they knew which fans they were wrestling for and how much support they had from this underserved community.

“It was actually something we were a little concerned about. The last thing we wanted to do was appropriate culture that we weren't a part of and represent anybody in a negative light. The thing that is funny is, the only fans we had basically, whenever we would go to house shows, were members of the LGBTQ community. We would run out in Montana, and 99% of the fans would be booing and booing, and then we'd look over at a section in the front row and it's people going ‘Yasss! Yasss!' [Snaps]. We did it for them,” Mansoor explained via Fightful.

“What Effy was trying to communicate was, when we come out as the Male Models at that show, the place is going to go f**king crazy. We did it for the girlies and the gays. That's who we did it for. When Vince McMahon told us that we were doing this male model thing, he was very serious, ‘Listen, it's not a gay thing. Okay. Not a gay thing. You're metrosexual.' ‘Yeah, okay.' At the same time, we want to be entertaining, so, sorry Vince. We were rubbing body oil on our YouTube show in our speedos. It's very funny because it's this throwback. I also say, the very first heel gimmick is Gorgeous George, that's just what we're doing. For people who are all up in arms about it, ‘What's this gimmick doing on the show?' That gimmick is as old as wrestling itself. What are you getting hot about? I'm very excited for the show, especially working Effy and Allie, BUSSY! You just know it's going to be a f**king hysterical match.”

In hindsight, was the Maximum Male Models faction a mistake that was insensitive at best? Sure, Mr. McMahon isn't exactly known for batting 1000 when it comes to portraying anything sexual, and it probably would have been better to allow actual LGBTQ wrestlers to incorporate their own stories into their characters instead of saddling a pair of job guys with a last-ditch comedy gimmick. Still, sometimes it's not so much what gimmick a wrestler has but how they work it, and it's safe to say Mansoor and Madden turned a single into a home run Goldust-style to the point where fans want to see it portrayed once more on the indies. All in all, a happy ending to a very unusual story.

Read Effy's reasoning for booking Mansoor and Mase.

Speaking of Effy's decision to not only book Mansoor and Mason D. Madden for a match at Effy's Big Gay Brunch 8 but place them in the (presumed) main event against himself and Allie Katch, the pink leather-clad grappler revealed the reasoning behind his booking on Fightful's Indied podcast, which is a perfect mixture of capitalism and fan demand.

“I'm so excited. People have said, what's the deal with Mace and Mansoor, are they gay? They are not gay, but the rules of Big Gay Brunch are this: You either need to be an LGBTQ talent on the come up, or you need to be something that the people want to see. I've been watching a lot of their Twitch shows, these guys are hilarious. They have the attitude that I want, they have the charisma and uniqueness, and talent that I want. They're coming in to do the work,” Effy explained via Fightful.

“Mansoor goes way back with Dark Sheik, Hoodslam, and that crew. Mace is just one of the funniest dudes I've ever seen perform live. Fans are clamoring to see, once they've seen them on TV, they want to see Bussy next to Mace and Mansoor, and we're gonna give them what they want. I'm a promoter in the sense of I want to sell tickets to the show and this a match that people want to see. This is one of their first appearances as a team together, and I think they are ready to show the world that they are here to put in the work too. They're not here just for a short little nostalgic run. Mace and Mansoor want to go out and continue doing weird stuff, wild stuff.”

Since their 90-day non-compete clauses officially came to an end at the end of December, Mansoor and Madden have been slowly gearing up for a fun future filled with in-ring action, with the former working two matches, one singles versus the Dark Sheik and one as a tag team, and the latter having yet to make his singles debut, with a lone appearance alongside his MxM partner at DPW Live 4. Fortunately, EBGB 8 will serve as a fun stepping stone along the path to their new, wide-open world, as there will be plenty of eyes on the show to see what this new version of the Models is all about.