IC match set for next week’s Smackdown, Kiera Hogan says she was bullied in school for being gay

Gunther will defend his Intercontinental Championship on next week’s episode of WWE Smackdown. On tonight’s episode of Smackdown, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Ludwig Kaiser to earn a shot at Gunther next week.

The match is the sole announced bout for next week’s show, which airs live Friday night on FOX.

RINGKAMPF vs STRONG STYLE pic.twitter.com/K71gtWoWuj

— GUNTHER (@Gunther_AUT) August 6, 2022

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While talking to Thunder Rosa in the latest Taco Vlog (via Wrestling Inc), Kiera Hogan spoke about discovering that she was gay and how she was eventually bullied for it in high school. She noted that at one point she considered that she was bisexual but realized she was attracted to women. Here are highlights:

On realizing she was gay: “So growing up, I feel like in middle school when it first started, I saw girls differently than I felt like was ‘normal.’ I thought girls were beautiful more than friends, but not all of them. I was like ‘I feel like I’m looking at girls different.’”

On being bullied for her sexuality: “It was traumatizing. I got bullied about it and people wrote s—t on my locker. My mom pulled me out of school for a couple of weeks. I couldn’t go. I had to be picked up on the last day of middle school in eighth grade. I was scared I was going to get jumped. Girls used to leave threats on my voicemail, straight up in eighth grade. It was really sad.”