Women in WWE: you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them, you can’t powerbomb them through a table without incurring the wrath of the guy who last month she hated but now she’s married to and will more than likely double cross at the next PPV when she finally realises that he’s got no money, titles or potential for emotional growth (actually, skip that last one). More callous and unprincipled than the most devious heel and more gullible and saccharin than the more innocent of Bischoff’s nephews, the role of women within the WWE has changed significantly over the last 20 years without moving either forwards or backwards and the blame for this sloth lies solely at the feet of one person, but I’ll come back to that.
Whilst the mention of the WWE Women’s title will appear a few times during this column, it would be remiss to suggest that the history of champions and challengers is a suitable chronicle for the treatment and perception of women in wrestling’s top promotion. The belt revolves around such a small group of legitimate performers that, assuming you are there for a month or so and display a modicum of wrestling ability, you will hold the title at some point. This likelihood of championship glory diminishes considerably when you take into account the 2005 crop of WWE divas whose best chance of metal on their waists appears to be the staple down the centre of a copy of Playboy. The incredulity for this last decision was compounded in the minds of many fans by the near complete clearout of the women’s division in the aftermath of the Diva Search competition which appears to have set the promotion of female wrestling in WWE back to the level of 1996.
But first, a quick sprint up to recent times. The first thing I ever saw on WWF television was Jake Roberts slapping Miss Elizabeth and I marvelled at the furore that it garnered; seems kind of tame now doesn’t it? Then through Wrestlemania IX we were subjected to the frankly nightmarish combination of Luna Vachon and Sherri Martel whose feud seemed to be based on who could make themselves less attractive than the other. Alundra Blayze (Madusa) was next up switching the reintroduced women’s title with passing-through opponents like the late Bertha Faye and the strangely sexual Japanese star Bull Nakano. The big difference at the time was the return of the female valet with Sunny, Sable and Marlena (Terri Runnels) appearing regularly on tv shows either with their wrestlers or in lurid backstage segments of their own. Chyna appeared to be something different but rapidly became more vain and self-obsessed than any performer in WWE history. Debra McMichael was the first woman to make it appear perfectly natural to be standing in the ring in one’s underwear and was the first one to receive the ‘puppies’ chant (coined by Road Dog Jessie James, not Lawler as you might think). When Sable decided that she wanted to wrestle occasionally the women’s title returned once again, accompanied this time by Jacqueline Moore, Tori, Ivory and Lita, until Stephanie McMahon decided that it would be better served as a distraction from her prematurely sagging breasts and the scene fell quiet again. Molly and Trish were added from completely disparate backgrounds, Jazz came in from ECW and the fall of WCW meant that WWE picked up Torrie Wilson and Stacey Keibler. Since then the women’s division has gone in two completely different directions, which unfortunately interject on occasions, and the recent removal of many of the female workers has left fans wondering if women’s ‘wrestling’ is on Vince’s agenda at all.
Now, those of you who want more sporting purity associated with the women in WWE and less of a sexual overtone should be prepared for a shock; it’s all sex, or more specifically, sexual attraction. Even if every titillation gimmick match was banned forever the marketing and promotion of female wrestlers would still be based around the idea that she’s unattainably out of your league in terms of looks but you might have a chance because she’s so morally questionable. Granted, the obviousness and flippancy with which the WWE and wrestling handles female sexual empowerment is something akin to cheap porn but it’s certainly no worse than that which is afforded to the men. If I was the type to be sensitively peer-pressured by my choice of cultural icons then I could take offence to the liberal and unnecessary use of baby oil on male superstars or the fact that Orton could wrestle just as well in sweatpants and a jumper as he can in his short-shorts. The main problem seems to be one of objectification, ignoring the deeper good in someone and focussing on the superficial veneer, but this is surely as much a drawback of the cult of celebrity than a sexist pandemic. My only concern with the sexual aspect is when it overshadows the wrestling to the point of obscurity and the upcoming Wrestlemania title contest between Trish Stratus and Christy Hemme is a fair example. I’ve said before that I’ll give Christy the benefit of the doubt, and I will, but the fact remains that if it wasn’t for her Playboy spread she wouldn’t be getting the match at what is supposedly a showcase of ability. Even if she gets through the match without blowing a spot and manages to look vaguely competent it is still the case that her training will be a mannerism giving her the appearance of a wrestler without the experience and knowledge to fall back on should something go wrong or, more worryingly, become dangerous. Whilst it is unlikely that anyone will emerge from this match with anything worse than a bruised ego I would hate to see all the hard work and dedication that Trish has afforded the women’s title be undone by a publicity stunt.
Should the WWE be running with such a small nucleus of female performers of whom only a few are genuine workers? Without deeper inspection it does appear as though Vince’s decision to release the majority of the female under-card last year is an admission that the women of WWE have nothing but ‘bra and panties’ matches to look forward to but I feel as though it could bear fruit in the long term. With the exception of Gail Kim, who would always have fallen foul of the ‘visibly foreign’ ethos still prevalent in western society anyway, the released female employees would never have made marketable mainstream performers based on either their looks or their abilities. If the WWE had persisted with that more than adequate group of women then the division would have stagnated with any new talent being lost in the mix quite easily. Now that the only remaining active workers are Trish, Victoria, Molly and the injured Lita it is fair to say that impending debutantes like Alexis Laree will receive far more of the spotlight and have a shorter climb to get near a title challenge. Speaking of Lita, I wonder if her injury caused more of a shake up than we think. At the time of her accident, Trish and Lita were the only two women in the title picture and that was showing no signs of changing. It seems more likely that Wrestlemania would be the host for a wrestling based gimmick match between them (either a cage or a streetfight) and that would leave Christy free from wrestling duty to promote her Playboy cover and involve herself in a T&A match with Torrie, Stacey or the other bland divas. However, I’m personally glad that the WWE has shaken off some of its female deadwood and can now rebuild using the cream of its talent as the foundation, assuming the Diva Search contestants don’t take over.
The best thing that can be said about the 2005 new breed of divas is that hopefully while they are around they will take the bulk of the T&A gimmick matches and the workers can concentrate on wrestling. I’m going to have to bottom line this because I’ve written about this subject before and I’d be repeating myself. There is nothing about the way in which these women got involved in our passion or the way in which they are treated that means we should called them wrestlers. They receive different pay, different expenses and so they should, they don’t come from the same background as the wrestlers and they’re not evaluated as such. As much as it may frustrate an under-card performer that he is being out-earned by a glorified model it in no way makes the fans see them as anything less than what their craftsmanship makes them and they should take sufficient solace from that. Some of these divas will stay around while others will be gone by the end of the year. Some will have grown and become more than their vacuous origins and one day we might even get another Trish Stratus from it. Who knows? I do know this though, opportunities can be given but respect has to be earned and hard work should be rewarded. Let’s see eh?
I said in the opening paragraph that one person is to blame for the current image of women in professional wrestling and that person is you. Obviously not specifically you but wrestling fans. If busty cheerleaders or slutty jezebels didn’t work as legitimate, marketable characters then Vince wouldn’t do them. And even though there are just as many knowledgeable female fans out there as there are men, would you ladies watch wrestling with as much interest if they all looked like Rosey or Big Show? Hey, I’m as much a tart to the vagaries of appearance as the next pervert but I also have the utmost admiration for the sacrifice that certain women in WWE have made over the years and continue to make on a daily basis. Why don’t we show them some respect?
Lee
