SSDD – WWE superstar under fire for unpopular opinions on social media, feat. Lacey Evans
I don’t particularly care to go too in depth on what Lacey Evans said or supported on social media, I’m sure anyone interested could simply google it and find it with relative ease, but basically it has something to do with her basically being a believer in some conspiracies about how autism and ADD are fake or something of the sort, and the internet coming down on her like Hulkamania, forcing her into internet defense mode, and last I checked, she’s deactivated all her shit and gone dark, as one really should do when the heat gets a little hot.
The point of this post is though, that if there were ever one small sliver of an advantage that Lacey Evans has in her life right now, is the fact that she’s a professional wrestler, an occupation oft-seen as carny and not to be taken too seriously, and if she and interested parties play their cards right, I feel like there’s a hell of a gift to be found and cashed in upon, and Evans can be absolved of dumb doing, and the WWE can possibly make some money in the process.
Long story short, the WWE hasn’t had much luck in finding a working formula, creatively, for Lacey Evans. And Lacey Evans, personal beliefs notwithstanding, is one of those talents that actually excels more on the physical spectrum than character work, which is kind of a rarity these days, as lots of wrestlers have realized that it’s more important to be able to entertaining versus demonstrating technical ability.
We had the, kind of Rosie the Riveter She Can Do It version of Lacey Evans when she was still in NXT, she was called up to the main roster to be the sassy southern belle, which had a little bit of success, but her personal life derailed her career just when things were getting interesting in a program with Charlotte Flair when she got pregnant and had to go off television. But to her credit, she had a kid, got back into shape, but has been spinning wheels trying to get back on television, even trying to lean into the usual layup of All-American veteran-turned pro wrestler.
Just when things were seemingly trying to get back on course again, by pairing Evans up with the hall of fame Sgt. Slaughter, she had to get in her own way by spouting off on Twitter, which frankly social media should be avoided by all celebrities if they know what’s good for them, and the internet is all over her because her opinions are not popular, regardless of the fact that I think they’re dumb too personally.
But the thing is, as Eric Bischoff once said, controversy creates cash, and whether Lacey Evans and the WWE realize it or not, they’ve been given a tremendous gift right now, in the form of an extremely effective emotion-eliciting potential persona for Lacey Evans:
Lacey Evans: the Karen of the WWE.
Her autism non-believing was all just a work to establish the character, and rile people up. She sides with all the right wing idiots who defend and/or support her, and PG fights back against any and all detractors of her opinions.
When she shows up on television again, she’s a face in red parts of the United States, cheered like Daniel Bryan at the height of the YES movement, but when the company tours blue cities, she’s a heel who draws the ire and heat like a pre-Bloodline Roman Reigns when the fans absolutely refused to accept him as the face of the company.
For a company that thrives on eliciting reaction from the people, this is a boon that could be on the tier of Bret Hart’s face/heel reactions based on being in the US or not, except it could happen within the United States.
In the ring, she changes her attire to high-waisted mom jeans, and wears the same kind of ear protecting headgear that Rick Steiner used to wear. Aside from her above-average in-ring arsenal, she begins arguing with referees excessively, and even starts beefs where she doesn’t accept the black female referee and demands there always be a second referee during her matches.
She picks fights with talent that relies heavily on sex appeal and skimpy ring attire, so she goes after talents such as Nikkita Lyons, Tiffany Stratton and Alexa Bliss. If Mandy Rose weren’t fired, then Lacey Evans trying to get her cancelled would’ve been a layup of a storyline.
Her new finishing move would be straight ripping off Britt Baker’s Lockjaw, and renamed Censorship or Cancellation, which is a win on two fronts for stealing a marquee competitor’s signature move as well as being something that would be a great heat magnet.
If she loses, she complains excessively to Adam Pierce and demands to speak with his manager, which then loops in Triple H and/or Stephanie McMahon, and through this rub with the brass, she eventually gets up into the main event, where she would be a great foil for any of the champions be it getting racially uncomfortable with Bianca Belair, or attempting to cancel Ronda Rousey for being too violent or in objection to calling herself the baddest bitch.
In today’s current environment, there’s little reason why a Karen character wouldn’t succeed as a white hot heel. What’s old is always new again, and much like the WWE’s parodying of the Parent-Teacher Council when they created Right To Censor, they did pretty alright for themselves, and it’s often been said that the best characters in the industry are people being themselves, but turned up to 11.
Let Lacey Evans’ inner-Karen come out and be herself, turn it up to 11, and let the ratings flow.
Stamford, I’ll email you my address for my royalty checks. Happy Chanukah Kwanzaa Merry Christmas!
