It’s funny; in my life, I’ve taken my share of whimsical flack, criticism and questioning the fact that I’m a fan of professional wrestling. How it’s “fake,” which is true that all results are pre-determined, but the physical action is still very much real, and how it’s the equivalent of watching a men’s soap opera, which I also cannot really refute.
And that “it’s stupid,” because it’s a closed-minded good ol’ boys club where grown men in spandex tights bash each other in the heads with chairs in some rehearsed homoerotic dance that only rednecks like.
Now there was once a time and place where this was a more succinct description of the industry, but that time is in the past, and this is where I disagree such an assessment.
This line of thought came to fruition, when watching this past week’s episode of RAW, that ended with a segment featuring two female wrestlers, Paige and Charlotte. The context behind their relationship is that Paige is the challenger to Charlotte’s Divas Championship,* but here’s the kicker; the segment wasn’t a match at all, but solely a contract signing, for their upcoming match at Survivor Series.
*I really hate the fact that it’s called such, and feel that it is metaphorically holding the entire division of women’s wrestling back as long as it’s called such, but that’s “their brand.”
To sum it up, the final segment to a television ratings juggernaut over the last two decades typically involving men beating each other up under the guise of wrestling, involved two female wrestlers who didn’t actually wrestle.
And they absolutely killed it – in that “that was pretty good” kind of way.
Throughout the episode of RAW, there were highlights of Paige and Charlotte’s careers throughout the show, with a teaser of their contract signing to be later on. As hour one went into hour two, and hour two went into hour three, with more and more highlight packages, it became apparent that the contract signing wasn’t just a segment of the show, but it was the segment, the primary segment of the show that got to go last, even above a wrestling match; on a wrestling show.
This might not seem like a big deal, but consider the fact that typically on an episode of RAW or any wrestling show to begin with, the last segment is what’s considered to be the most important; the one that encapsulates the week’s storylines, and/or the one that carries the company into their next shows. You would think that wrestling should be the vehicle used to carry the wrestling business, but the business has obviously changed throughout the decades, and sometimes it’s just as important to simply push solely the story, so that the physical wrestling itself can be saved up for later.
Furthermore, the fact that a main event segment put the brightest and biggest spotlight on two female wrestlers is an even bigger deal. For the longest time, women’s “wrestling” in WWE were mostly glorified fitness models and/or pretty faces/bodies with no wrestling talent trolloping around the ring while the audience either went to the bathroom or dudes hoped for a tit to pop out somewhere. This wasn’t the first time that women have been put in the main event segment of a show, but up until this past RAW, every single time a women’s storyline was the main event, one of the women was Stephanie McMahon, heiress to the company.
I’ve become quite a master of condensing a three-hour episode of RAW down to just around an hour, since frankly, I don’t have the time or patience to actually sit through a live episode of RAW. A third of an episode are commercials, and for the few times I actually watch a match, I know when to start hitting fast forward based on Michael Cole’s commentary, and/or the fact that the action has spilled to the outside of the ring. Needless to say, I skip a lot of the actual wrestling, but there are a couple of things that I do not skip anymore:
- The New Day segments
- Women’s matches
Ever since the “Divas Revolution” began after Wrestlemania, I’ve found women’s segments to be refreshing and exciting, more so than most of the trite and rehashed storylines and tropes being circulated and regurgitated around the men’s wrestling. It’s interesting to see the rise of Sasha Banks and the emergence of Becky Lynch. Down in NXT, the developmental territory, Bayley is developing a cult-like following. I’m reluctant to include Charlotte in this discussion as I don’t think she’s as strong of a worker as her first-year-on-the-main-roster counterparts, but she definitely brings the pedigree of being Ric Flair’s daughter.
The old(er) guard of Divas in the Bella Twins and Alicia Fox are uncomfortably being phased out by simply being outworked by vastly superior talents. Naomi is in an awkward position of being in between the timelines of the Bellas and the Revolution, but is still a strong worker, and then there’s Tamina who just kind of, exists. Natalya is still technically rock-solid, but I think she’s just too symbolic of an older guard to really get any sort of rub other than being the female jobber to the stars.
But if there was ever any doubt to is at the head of the supposed Divas Revolution, it really is Paige, contrary to what storyline or Stephanie McMahon would have the audience believe. Without the development of Paige in recent months, the entire storyline would have run out of steam and eventually fallen back to the bathroom break status of women’s wrestling in years prior, because as much as crowds love to chant for “wanting Sasha,” there’s nobody who steering the division as a whole as much as Paige is, right now.
Sure, she’s very much channeling the CM Punk character with some horrifically brutal worked shoot promos, but the thing is people are listening, and when the day is over eliciting an emotional response is the number one priority for any superstar. Seriously, I thought it was a pretty cheap shot when Paige referenced John Cena and Daniel Bryan for being the reasons why the Bella Twins were still around (their respective boyfriend and husband), but when Paige made a reference to Reid, the dead brother to Charlotte and son of Ric Flair; in front of both of them, I was like holy shit.
Seriously, I think Paige might have to start vetting her promos with Vince before being given a mic again, because she just might be taking worked shoots a little to far; but it’s still great.
The fact of the matter of all this is though, is that here we are, talking about women’s wrestling. And not just in the who’s hotter game between Stacy Kiebler, Candice Michelle and Maryse (although none of the Revolution girls are slouches by any means). I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but women’s wrestling has rapidly become one of the more intriguing and captivating aspects about the WWE, and the upcoming Paige vs. Charlotte match at Survivor Series seems a lot more promising than, Undertaker and Kane versus The Wyatt Family.
Ultimately, the train of thought goes back to the fact that I think the act of criticizing professional wrestling is becoming dated as the reasons why people criticize in the first place. Yes, professional wrestling was once very much a conservative business with closed-minded ideals meant for rednecks and the lower-class, but those times are very much a thing of the past.
At least in the WWE’s case, it’s a publicly traded company with a corporate infrastructure that understands business to a completely different degree. In the past year alone, the WWE has instituted things like a zero-tolerance policy for drugs (unless you’re Randy Orton or on his pay-grade), and a concussion policy meant to protect its superstars, while the NFL knowingly trots players with or at high concussion risk out onto the field every week.
There’s also a wrestler that is openly gay, that’s also black, and the fans choose to cheer or boo him based on how his persona is portrayed and the rate of his work, and not his sexuality or the color of his skin.
And of course, women’s wrestling has evolved into not just a watchable product, but something with drawing power and actual intrigue behind it. Admittedly, I kind of rolled my eyes when Charlotte cut a promo about how she wanted to main-event Wrestlemania, because one I thought it was cliche, and two, there’s no way the WWE would ever become that progressive.
But with enough want and care for it to happen, if this past Monday’s RAW was any indication or a glimpse of what could be, frankly, I’d be willing to buy it. With proper build up, character development and planning of a good match, and hopefully inclusion of Paige, there’s zero reason to believe that women couldn’t main event the biggest show of the year.
Not a bad journey of progression from an industry perceived to be sweaty dudes in underwear bashing each other with chairs while rednecks cheer them on.
