***WARNING: YOU ARE NOW ENTERING A WRESTLING NERD DISCUSSION ZONE!!! *** PLEASE KEEP EYES AND EARS INSIDE OF KAYFABE AT ALL TIMES *** This should be a time for celebration. However, for reasons we’ll get into later, I’m mostly frustrated by both this episode’s reaction and those of idiots on twitter to the incredibly important, historic and absolutely awesome news that the WWE will finally be having an all-women PPV in October.
It’s been far too long of a time coming, especially on the heels of the Greatest Royal Clusterfuck in KSA where women were banned not just from performing but appearing on screen at all. The women need more time on all the shows, but not just because of some high-minded idea on equality. They have been consistently the best performers on the show since #GiveDivasAChance began trending and have the biggest star in the company on their side of the ledger. Ronda Rousey is a transcendent supernova the likes of which the WWE hasn’t seen since LT main evented a WrestleMania.
But, of the many many differences between those two instances, Ronda seems to sincerely love not just wrestling but the wrestling business and is in it for real, even if not necessarily the long haul. There’s a joie de vivre in her performances that elevates the entire scene in the same way that having performers who weren’t just the promoter’s son or played football at his alma mater have since the early mid-90s. She seems happy to be there, happy with her life and her career choices, while also understanding that there’s a lot of moving parts to make this all work.
And that will be her ultimate legacy: making this a viable career choice for people (men, women, NB, trans, et. al) in professional sports as well as acting. It’s her more so than anyone else IN THE PRESENT MOMENT — which is to say I understand that, as someone on twitter put it, Trish, Lita, Mickie, Luna, Sherri and so many others walked so the women of today could run — that will be selling this PPV to non-wrestling fans and little girls all over the world looking for an entree into the world of professional wrestling, which has far too long pushed literally half the population to the side to appeal to a bunch of sad, toxically masculine blowholes.
WHICH BRINGS ME TO MY SECOND POINT, which should be significantly more succinct. If you are thinking of saying something like “Why are people okay with a women’s only show after just complaining about the GRR,” I have a word of advice for you: don’t.
And here’s some more advice, for free, out of the goodness of my heart: Start understanding things like political and historical contexts, as well as the difference between taking money from oppressive, misogynist regimes that subjugate women as opposed to wanting to showcase a specific division of a show/give them the full breadth of experiences to a group of people who have been denied those which their colleagues have enjoyed for half a century.
But most importantly, Twitter neckbeards, try to remember this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3CLc0IGstk
or you’ll end up drowning.
***WARNING: YOU ARE NOW EXITING A WRESTLING NERD DISCUSSION ZONE!!! *** PLEASE ENJOY YOUR COMPLIMENTARY CHILI CHEESE PRETZEL DOG MILKSHAKE, NOW WITH EXTRA DOG SHAKE!!! ***
