Monty "Kip" Sopp (born November 1, 1963) is an American professional wrestler born in Orlando, Florida and residing in Austin, Texas who is best known for his work in WWE as Billy Gunn. After four years in the indies, Gunn debuted in the then-WWF as part of the Tag Team, The Smoking Gunns along with his "brother" Bart Gunn. The Gunns held the WWF World Tag Team Titles
3 times. After Billy and Bart broke up, Billy briefly aligned himself with the Honky Tonk Man under the name Rockabilly. Rockabilly had a brief feud with "The Real Double J" Jesse James, which led both to realize that they should team up, and Rockabilly dropped Honky Tonk Man (by nailing him with an acoustic guitar). Both men renamed themselves, James becoming "Road Dogg" Jesse James and Rockabilly the "Bad Ass" Billy Gunn, together they were The New Age Outlaws. Together, the Outlaws won the WWF World Tag Team Titles 5 times, aligning themselves with and eventually joining D-Generation X. Gunn eventually left DX and broke up with the Road Dogg, renaming himself Mr. Ass, a wrestler who mooned opponents and briefly wore see-through tights. For a brief time he renamed himself "The One" Billy Gunn and teamed with The Big Show and they became the Show Gunns.
Afterwards, Gunn teamed up with WCW refugee and former Alliance member Chuck Palumbo, becoming Billy and Chuck. The two began acting more "affectionate" toward each other over time and hired the services of the flamboyant hairdresser Rico Constantino. Things came to a head when Chuck proposed to Billy and gained national media attention. The pair had to finally admit that they were not gay, it was just a wrestling gimmick and publicity stunt devised by Rico. Angered, Rico turned on the pair and teamed with Eric Bischoff and 3 Minute Warning. Billy and Chuck won the WWE World Tag Team Titles 3 times and got revenge on Rico and 3MW. In 2004, after 11 years in the company, Gunn was released from his WWE contract. Over the course of his WWE run, he held the WWF Hardcore Title twice and the WWF Intercontinental Title once.
Gunn also worked in TNA, under the name The Outlaw. He also reunited with the Road Dogg (then known as BG James) in 3LiveKru (becoming 4LiveKru after he joined). Changing his name to Kip James, the pair became the James Gang and then Voodoo Kin Mafia after 4LiveKru dissolved. In 2008, Kip turned on BG and became the image consultant for the all female Alpha Bitch stable The Beautiful People, renaming himself Cute Kip. A year later, he was fired by the Beautiful People and then fired from TNA altogether.
In 2012, Gunn returned to WWE as a trainer for NXT. Two years later, the New Age Outlaws won the WWE Tag Team Titles, further cementing him as one of WWE's most decorated tag team wrestlers. In 2015, Gunn was fired from WWE for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs in a power lifting competition.
He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019 as part of D-Generation X's group induction. He's currently employed by All Elite Wrestling, mostly as a producer but also as a wrestler. His last singles action was in the Dynamite Dozen Battle Royal on the November 20, 2019 episode of AEW Dynamite, but he's since returned to the tag team ranks, teaming with his son Austin as Gunn Club, and then being joined by his other son, Colten. After his sons eventually turned on him, he sided with their former-friends-turned-enemies The Acclaimed, with the three of them winning the AEW World Trios Championships on August 27th 2023.
Not to be confused with actor, writer, and director Bill Gunn.
"I'm a trope man":
- The Artifact: The Billy Gunn name was a holdover from his tag team with Bart Gunn, The Smoking Gunns. Despite that tag team breaking up in 1996 and Bart Gunn being unceremoniously fired in 1999 after the infamous WWE Brawl for All debacle, Billy continues to use the name to this day.
- Bash Brothers: With the Road Dogg, Chyna in DX and Chuck Palumbo in Billy and Chuck.
- The Big Guy: In DX, Billy was the de facto "muscle" of the stable. He was much taller and heavier than the others and used "powerhouse" moves like the Gorilla Press.
- Broken Pedestal: Mace Mendoza and Buff E of the exotico Christopher Street Connection confronted him and expressed disappointment after he and Chuck Palumbo admitted they were using implied homosexuality to set up a publicity stunt.
- The Brute: Of The Beautiful People during his later days with them, they hired Moose and eventually inducted Lacey Von Erich to serve as such in his absence.
- Butt-Monkey: If not for the scathing promos about him from The Rock and Edge, then maybe for Ken Shamrock bringing so much more enthusiasm to the task of beating him up than anyone else did, with no explanation ever offered. There is also him getting kicked out of The Beautiful People in TNA for being seen as creepy.
- Camp Straight: Billy Gunn already was as an individual wrestler, even more so as Mr. Ass and further still as Cute Kip, a male member of an otherwise all woman posse/sorority.
- Catchphrase: "And if you ain't down with that, we got TWO WORDS FOR YA!"
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The New Age Outlaws formed after Flash Funk had defeated Rockabilly on Shotgun Saturday Night and the renamed Road Dogg had convinced Rockabilly to leave the Honky Tonk Man and team with him. Rockabilly agreed, nailing HTM with his guitar. This example was particularly treacherous, as Rockabilly and Jesse had teamed together a couple of times in recent weeks while HTM was Billy's manager, not doing half bad in the process.
- Cool Old Guy: As of writing, he's enetered his 60th year and is probably in the best shape◊ of his life. Most men half his age don't look that good.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: In Season 6 of WWE Tough Enough. At the very least he's the closest to it amongst the coaches.
- Everything is Big in Texas: Actually born in Florida but resides in Texas.
- Fan Disservice: When Kip was with the Beautiful People, he started doing ring intros similar to them. When Angelina Love and Velvet Sky do it, it's hot, but when Kip did, well, his Mr. Ass days were far behind him.
- The Fighting Narcissist: As "Mr. Ass" but it was more focused on his rear end. Became a more traditional one during his time in Billy and Chuck.
- Faux Yay: Billy and Chuck. When Rico found out, he started managing Three Minute Warning, who attacked them in their "commitment ceremony", in revenge.
- Finishing Move: The "Fameasser"/"Famouser", a leg drop bulldog. Also, the "One and Only", a cobra clutch into a side slam.
- Foil: Billy Gunn, to Road Dogg's fast talking cowboy.
- The Generic Guy: After he was forced to give up the "Mr Ass" moniker by Right To Censor, and briefly being billed as "Billy G", Gunn became "The One" Billy Gunn, who had very few memorable qualities aside from his pretty decent entrance music. Gunn himself considered the name pretty weak.
- Identical Stranger: This picture◊ of him and Dolph Ziggler says it all. He even took up the fameasser.
- Ignored Expert: Revealed on the Steve Austin show that, knowing of his reputation in Florida as a toughman, he warned Jim Ross against putting Bart Gunn in the WWE Brawl for All, stating that he could win the whole thing, let alone beat "Dr. Death" Steve Williams.
- I Have Many Names: Billy Gunn in WWE, Kip James in TNA and Cute Kip as a member of the Beautiful People.
- Jerkass: As a heel, particularly as a member of the New Age Outlaws. He was perhaps the least jerkish of the Beautiful People not named Lacey Von Erich, though that's more damning of the others than complimentary of Kip. Lacey was at least oblivious.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: He was put on probation during his Beautiful People run and that was as descriptive as it got.
- Mooning: In DX and later as "Mr. Ass", he mooned his opponents. He got Torrie Wilson to join in with him to the benefit of those of otherwise unfavorable orientations.
- The One Guy: His time in the Beautiful People as Cute Kip.
- Only Sane Man: He was the only member of The Beautiful People who knew that "The Governor" was not Sarah Palin. The rest of the TNA roster knew too, but refused to say anything to help him. Angelina Love and Velvet Sky not realizing, at least, can be explained (if not excused) by the fact that TNA's website claimed Sarah Palin would be appearing, but they knew (and were enamored with) her husband, not the Vice Presidential candidate herself.
- Parent-Child Team: Initially worked as a tag team called The Gunn Club in AEW with his younger son Austin. His older son Colten later made them a trio before they turned on him and joined The Firm.
- Pet the Dog: He put a stop to the rest of The Beautiful People's attack on "The Governor", believing they had more than made their point.
- Power Stable:
- (in WWE) D-Generation X
- (in TNA) Planet Jarrett, 4LiveKru, The Beautiful People
- Punny Name: The name of his tag team with the Big Show, the "Show Gunns" (pronounced like "shoguns"), given that neither he nor Big Show were Japanese, much less using samurai or feudal lord gimmicks. The James Gang too, since it's hard to have a gang with only two members.
- Putting the Band Back Together: Tried to in TNA, at the expense of the 3 Live Kru. To put a stop to this, Ron Killings and Konnan eventually just let him join, leading to the 4 Live Kru.
- Ratings Stunt: The Billy and Chuck "gay wedding" debacle was viewed as this.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Besides his tights, Cute Kip had a "Fashionist" gimmick.
- Red Baron: "Rockabilly", "Bad Ass", "Mr. Ass", and "The One" in WWE and "Outlaw" and "The Megastar" in TNA.
- Ring Oldies: Just past 60 years old and still ready to go. And he's barely slowing down either.
- Ship Tease: With Chyna around 2000/2001.
- Significant Anagram: Voodoo Kin Mafia, VKM, Vincent Kennedy McMahon. For a company that is pretty adamant in its policy not to mention WWE by name, they seem just as adamant to do everything but that to let you know about them.
- Still Got It: Road Dogg claims Billy Gunn doesn't age. When it comes to athletic ability, it is somewhat believable. He's still a formidable in-ring presence in AEW even as he's pushing 60.
- Stuffed Into A Trash Can: He and Road Dogg dropped Mankind into a dumpster after defeating him in a handicap match.
- Summon Bigger Fish: He was the biggest fish The Beautiful People had when Awesome Kong came for their heads. He, like everyone besides Angelina Love, ended up on a stretcher.
- Team Killer: Attempted to be the 3 Live Kru's when he came into TNA before Ron Killings got him to cut it out, for the most part. The 4 Live Kru ended up not having much longevity, but that damage was done by Konnan.
- Tweener: The New Age Outlaws were mostly booed following their 2012 return to WWE, but that all stopped when Jesse James started their pre match routine.
- Underwear of Power: And sometimes even less than that until Right To Censor put an end to his Mr. Ass gimmick.
- Unrelated Brothers: Billy Gunn was not related to Bart Gunn in real life.
- Vapor Wear: A rare male example were his transparent tights that he once wore as Mr. Ass.
- Word Salad: Voodoo Kin Mafia had absolutely nothing to do with voodoo, kin, or mafia. Eventually, "Voodoo Queen" Roxxi Laveaux was added to the group (basically a white female Papa Shango) but as time went on, the Voodoo element of Laveaux's gimmick became so watered down as to be non existent. Yet she remained with BG and Kip James until Kip "fired" her.
- Wrestling Doesn't Pay: A wrestling cowboy with his "brother" in The Smoking Gunns.
- Wrestling Family: Previously tag-teamed with his sons Austin and Colten as The Gunn Club.
