![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/paige.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s funny; in my life, I\u2019ve taken my share of whimsical flack, criticism and questioning the fact that I\u2019m a fan of professional wrestling.\u00a0 How it\u2019s \u201cfake,\u201d which is true that all results are pre-determined, but the physical action is still very much real, and how it\u2019s the equivalent of watching a men\u2019s soap opera, which I also cannot really refute.<\/span><\/p>\n And that \u201cit\u2019s stupid,\u201d because it\u2019s a closed-minded good ol\u2019 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.<\/span><\/p>\n 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.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This line of thought came to fruition, when watching this past week\u2019s episode of RAW, that ended with a segment featuring two female wrestlers, Paige and Charlotte.\u00a0 The context behind their relationship is that Paige is the challenger to Charlotte\u2019s Divas Championship,* but here\u2019s the kicker; the segment wasn\u2019t a match at all, but solely a contract signing, for their upcoming match at\u00a0Survivor Series<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n *I really hate the fact that it\u2019s called such, and feel that it is metaphorically holding the entire division of women\u2019s wrestling back as long as it\u2019s called such, but that\u2019s \u201ctheir brand.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019t actually wrestle.<\/span><\/p>\n And they absolutely killed it – in that \u201cthat was pretty good\u201d kind of way.<\/span><\/p>\n Throughout the episode of RAW, there were highlights of Paige and Charlotte\u2019s careers throughout the show, with a teaser of their contract signing to be later on.\u00a0 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\u2019t just\u00a0a<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0segment of the show, but it was\u00a0the<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0segment, the primary segment of the show that got to go last, even above a wrestling match; on a\u00a0wrestling show<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019s considered to be the most important; the one that encapsulates the week\u2019s storylines, and\/or the one that carries the company into their next shows.\u00a0 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\u2019s just as important to simply push solely the story, so that the physical wrestling itself can be saved up for later.<\/span><\/p>\n Furthermore, the fact that a main event segment put the brightest and biggest spotlight on two female wrestlers is an even bigger deal.\u00a0 For the longest time, women\u2019s \u201cwrestling\u201d 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.\u00a0 This wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s storyline was the main event, one of the women was Stephanie McMahon, heiress to the company.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve become quite a master of condensing a three-hour episode of RAW down to just around an hour, since frankly, I don\u2019t have the time or patience to actually sit through a live episode of RAW.\u00a0 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\u2019s commentary, and\/or the fact that the action has spilled to the outside of the ring.\u00a0 Needless to say, I skip a lot of the actual wrestling, but there are a couple of things that I do not skip anymore:<\/span><\/p>\n Ever since the \u201cDivas Revolution\u201d began after Wrestlemania, I\u2019ve found women\u2019s 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\u2019s wrestling.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to see the rise of Sasha Banks and the emergence of Becky Lynch.\u00a0 Down in NXT, the developmental territory, Bayley is developing a cult-like following.\u00a0 I\u2019m reluctant to include Charlotte in this discussion as I don\u2019t think she\u2019s as strong of a worker as her first-year-on-the-main-roster counterparts, but she definitely brings the pedigree of being Ric Flair\u2019s daughter.<\/span><\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 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\u2019s Tamina who just kind of, exists.\u00a0 Natalya is still technically rock-solid, but I think she\u2019s just too symbolic of an older guard to really get any sort of rub other than being the female jobber to the stars.<\/span><\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 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\u2019s wrestling in years prior, because as much as crowds love to chant for \u201cwanting Sasha,\u201d there\u2019s nobody who steering the division as a whole as much as Paige is, right now.<\/span><\/p>\n Sure, she\u2019s very much channeling the CM Punk character with some horrifically brutal worked shoot promos, but the thing is\u00a0people are listening<\/em>, and when the day is over eliciting an emotional response is the number one priority for any superstar.\u00a0 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\u00a0holy shit<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019s still great.<\/span><\/p>\n The fact of the matter of all this is though, is that here we are, talking about women\u2019s wrestling.\u00a0 And not just in the who\u2019s hotter game between Stacy Kiebler, Candice Michelle and Maryse (although none of the Revolution girls are slouches by any means).\u00a0 I can\u2019t speak for anyone but myself, but women\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 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.<\/span><\/p>\n At least in the WWE\u2019s case, it\u2019s a publicly traded company with a corporate infrastructure that understands business to a completely different degree.\u00a0 In the past year alone, the WWE has instituted things like a zero-tolerance policy for drugs (unless you\u2019re 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.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s also a wrestler that is openly gay, that\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n And of course, women\u2019s wrestling has evolved into not just a watchable product, but something with drawing power and actual intrigue behind it.\u00a0 Admittedly, I kind of rolled my eyes when Charlotte cut a promo about how she wanted to main-event\u00a0Wrestlemania<\/em>, because one I thought it was cliche, and two, there\u2019s no way the WWE would ever become\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0progressive.<\/span><\/p>\n But with enough want and care for it to happen, if this past Monday\u2019s RAW was any indication or a glimpse of what could be, frankly, I\u2019d be willing to buy it.\u00a0 With proper build up, character development and planning of a good match, and hopefully inclusion of Paige, there\u2019s zero reason to believe that women couldn\u2019t main event the biggest show of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n 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.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s funny; in my life, I\u2019ve taken my share of whimsical flack, criticism and questioning the fact that I\u2019m a fan of professional wrestling.\u00a0 How it\u2019s \u201cfake,\u201d which is true that all results are pre-determined, but the physical action is still very much real, and how it\u2019s the equivalent of watching a men\u2019s soap opera, … Continue reading Paige, the WWE Divas and the progression of the industry<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[83,15,54,55],"class_list":["post-41971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-observations","tag-og","tag-wrestling","tag-wwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41973,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41971\/revisions\/41973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n