Columns - Online World of Wrestling

WRESTLING COLUMNS

The Females of World Wrestling Entertainment
August 7, 2004 by Leslie Jezebelle

I am writing my first column for Online World of Wrestling in response to two things: a column about women in wrestling (more likely women in WWE) by Glenn Turner and what I have seen on WWE programming. I would write a response to Glenn Turner's column underneath it, but my views on the subject are big enough for a column of its own.

Before I get on with the rest of this column, I would like to state that this column may take on a very opinionated tone and may seem biased. If you do not like opinionated columns, please save yourself and myself the trouble and do not read this column. I have tons of complaints about the women of WWE. (I will refrain from calling them "WWE Divas".)

First of all, I am sickened by the T&A standards. It seems to me like wrestling is second to the women of WWE having to get silicone breast implants (Ugh!), being slutty, managing men, being humiliated and degraded by men, and posing for worthless photo shoots. I don't care if WWE wants their women to look good. Do you see female wrestlers in other wrestling promotions trying to be whorish-looking or do you see them actually wrestling"

Second of all, I am sickened by the RAW Diva Search. It makes women look like money-grubbing whores and every woman who signed up for that s**t ought to be ashamed of themselves. Besides, I bet that talent contract will not be for a trip to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) but instead a trip straight to WWE and being a replacement for Terri.

Third of all, I am sickened by who have become stars of the Women's Division. We got women like Trish Stratus, who is the current Women's Champion yet she cannot defend the belt because she has a broken hand and STILL gets attention from pervs like Jerry Lawler because she's "beautiful"; Stacy Keibler, who -- although I applaud her for being natural in a sense that she doesn't bother with breast implants and has not been in Playboy -- has not been doing a damn thing in terms of wrestling; and the Smackdown women, who might as well have not been rehired by Theodore Long at all and instead replaced by actual female wrestlers.

I am also sickened with how female wrestlers like Jazz, Victoria, Lita, Gail Kim, and Molly Holly get pushed aside for various reasons such as nothing going for them (Jazz and Gail Kim), bad gimmicks (Victoria's quasi-Nitro Girl gimmick and Molly's bald gimmick), and stupid storylines (the Lita pregnancy angle, which -- in my opinion -- is a waste of time).

Those five ladies I just mentioned should push aside being held down, bad gimmicks, bad looks (Molly's wigs), and stupid storylines, and attempt to be the standard bearers for the Women's Division, working their a**es off and showing the female wrestlers in the indies that they haven't made it until they've come to the WWE.

If Vince wants to really strengthen the Women's Division, he really needs to work with what he's got instead of groping the ladies and bring in some really good female wrestlers from the indies.

As far as intergender wrestling in WWE is concerned, I admire Chyna for having been the 1st female Intercontinental Champion, Royal Rumble entrant, and King of the Ring entrant. However, I am thinking about what could've been had there not been that contract negotiation "impasse" Chyna got stuck with. If Vince wanted to be innovative with Chyna, he could've made her the first female WWE Champion. Unfortunately, it seems like the direction Vince is carrying the Women's Division, we will perhaps never see the first female WWE Champion until Vince brings in a female who can really work against men (if only I could see indy women like LuFisto and Cheerleader Melissa {pictured left} wrestle) and the two WWE titles (held currently by JBL on Smackdown and Chris Benoit on RAW) get unified into an undisputed title for WWE.

I also admire Jacqueline for having won the WWE Cruiserweight title and not only having been the first woman to do so but also the first African-American to do so, even though Theodore Long may dismiss the "first African-American" notion. However, I was upset that her reign lasted two weeks and second her feud with Chavo turned out to be short-term.

In response to what Glenn Turner has written about women in wrestling (which, in my opinion, talked mainly about intergender wrestling in WWE), if people expect women to wrestle men and nobody getting all sexist about, the women in WWE would have to drop the T&A standards and start being total workhorses, wrestling every night until they get the respect that women's wrestling in WWE should really be getting. They would have to be experienced in intergender wrestling, which is why Chyna got to be the first female IC champ and Jacqueline got to be the first female Cruiserweight champ.

If WWE does not want to lose this female feminist viewer, then somebody needs to tell Vince to pick up the pace and/or be more innovative in the wrestling sense and not in the T&A sense. If pushed to the brink, women's wrestling in WWE would come close (or maybe closer) to women's wrestling in Japan (as far as what I've heard about it).

But, seeing as how WWE is getting to be more male-oriented in terms of male-on-male gore and female fluff because most of its shows are on Spike TV save for Smackdown, I guess I'll never see female wrestlers in WWE be the standard bearers in women's wrestling.

Oh, in case anybody's wondering, besides the standard of women's wrestling in WWE being raised, I would also like to see the following gimmicks and matches done by FEMALES in WWE that have never been done before or rather done more often.

GIMMICKS Nothing involving T&A, that's for sure. Female chauvinists (i.e. women pushing men around and bullying them with gender-oriented insults and brute physical force) Female versions of guys like Batista, Tyson Tomko, and Luther Reigns. Female pure wrestlers. Women who would make Rey Mysterio dizzy with their aerial maneuvers. MATCHES

Nothing involving T&A, that's for sure. Steel Cage (with BLOOD) Ladder (This would be up Lita's alley.) Table TLC (This would be Lita's match, too, if given the chance.) Hell in a Cell 2-out-of-3 Falls Ironwoman I Quit (Victoria and Gail Kim would be perfect.) Texas Bullrope Dog Collar Hair vs. Hair (NO titles on the line) Basically, what I'm trying to state with the gimmicks and matches is that I'd rather see female brutes and females filled with tons of talent mauling each other in violent hardcore-type matches (with blood) or physically-grueling matches, but first the wrestling has to be strengthened before all that other stuff should be attempted.

To sum up my views on women's wrestling in WWE, as well as intergender wrestling in WWE, the WWE women need to really work hard in order to be taken far more seriously and be the standard bearers for women's wrestling in the world. Same goes for any promotion that wants to have its women be the standard bearers for women's wrestling. It's just that WWE is on TV a hell of a lot more than other wrestling promotions' shows, unless somebody's got an all-wrestling channel.

by Leslie Jezebelle..

Coollarryf wrote :
Simply put, the woman would get a larger roll if the fans actually cared. The fans love the diva segments, but the woman's matches are always met with dead silence. Why push something that the fans don't want to see" Second, Chyna was an awful wrestler who may have been built, but was out of shape wrestling wise. She always was badly winded whenever working with Jericho during their fued and any other match that went past the eight minute mark. She also blew countless spots and relied on the same old spots to get cheap pops from the crowd. Same can be said with Lita really, since her return from injury, shes made Scott Steiner look like Chris Benoit in terms of her sloppiness. Also, Victoria's dancing routine was HER idea, so you really have no one to blame there.

Lil' Theater wrote :
First off, I'd love to see some quality female wrestling in the WWE. While there is quite a few good female wrestlers in the promotion, such as Victoria, Molly Holly, Lita, Jazz etc. I just don't see the need for the 'Divas' they have in Smackdown! who don't wrestle at all. I know they have their 'Catfights', but I wouldn't call that Wrestling.

I'm more than happy to say that at the WWE Vengeance 2004 Pay-Per-View, the only match on that card that I actually enjoyed was the Victoria Vs. Molly Holly match. There was Moonsaults, good mat-wrestling, Violent Super-kicks, hell, even an RVD Monkey Flip in there.

And finally, you mention those crazy Hell In A Cells, TLCs, etc. I realise this was probably an example of how you would rather watch real matches instead of Gimmick Matches, but remember, if any of these matches were to happen, you have to wonder whether the women approached to do these battles would want to participate. Let's say the TLC, well, I've heard Lita has had major surgery, and had to tone down her act, so that's out of the question, I'd say.

But as for true wrestling from the females in the WWE, I'd say, bring it on!

P.S. I'm a guy, just so you know.

Sid (not the real Sid) wrote :
Good God. It's bad enough that there even IS a women's division, and you're talking about a female world champion" There's a reason that people get "sexist" about women's matches, and it's this: No matter what you say, no matter how prejudice you say I am, you cannot dispute the fact that in general women CANNOT, and never will, deliver in the ring the way men can. And I don't want to hear about rare exceptions. Yes, there are some women out there in the world who can go toe to toe with a man, but for every one of them there's a 100 or so tough guys. Professional Wrestling is A MALE SOAP OPERA; and I'm fed up with this crap about treating the women's division like the men's, and improving it so it's equally as entertaining. From an athletic aspect, from a physical aspect: IT NEVER WILL BE EQUAL. So unless the "divas" want to show up once a month and the WWE wants to change their ppv ratings to "TV MA" so they can get naked for us, they don't belong on my favorite show. It's a disgrace.

P.S: If Victoria does that inane dance one more time I'm going to take a shotgun to my head.

Jojo, 15, Oregon City, OR wrote :
I for one agree with almost everything Leslie said in her column. It's disgusting how they make all these women wrestlers out to be completely useless, and only there for their good looks. The degradation of women in the WWE has gotten out of control, when you compare wrestlers like Chyna to people like Stacy Keibler...I mean...come on! Stacy is a sweet girl and all, but she does absolutely nothing except shake her tush in front of the fans.

I've also noticed that in women's matches, there's hardly ever any bloodshed, why is that" Are we to weak to handle that kind of thing" And another thing, all the main events in any pay-per-views are centered around the male wrestlers. This is crazy. In this day and age everything should be equal between the sexes. Women can wrestle just as well as men can, and sometimes even better if given the oppurtunity.

All these crazy gimmicks aren't doing anything to help the WWE. My friends always tell me, "why do you watch wrestling, its so fake!", and sometimes you have to wonder if they are really right. It's becoming so unbelievable and pointless.

I love wrestling, always have, always will. I just wish that the women who work so hard would be noticed for something more then their silicone breasts and short skirts and horrible gimmicks. We need to bring in some GREAT female wrestlers to show all those fans who "don't care" what they've been missing, we need some hardcore women wrestling, none of those silly catfights.

Bill Tyrrell wrote :
I am glad that you had enough guts to write that post, it was very good and true, and I applaud you for stepping up as woman, and telling your opinion.

I would like to that I am a guy, and I love women, but if I am watching wrestling I want to see wrestling, to women running around half naked, I don't mind the women being there at all, but let them wrestle, aside from Stacy those women are very talented wrestlers, and I hope that one day Cheerleader Melissa does one day get on WWE TV, because she a great wrestler, better than some men.

This goes out to Coollarryf, I hate the diva segments, I think they are pointless and unnecessary, I want to see wrestling.

K-Jamis wrote :
I have been a big diva fan for a long time. I started liking the divas because of the cat fights and little quarrels. Lita was the first woman wrestler I had seen that could do alot of "Male Manuvers" like the hurricanrana and such. I was amazing that a woman could do something like that. More and more I started saying to myself "What if other divas could learn moves like that" that started me to want to see more woman wrestlers actually do wrestling moves instead of slapping and hair pulling.

Chyna I believe revolutionized womens wrestling because of her sucess in intergender matches. The first woman to enter the royal rumble, king of the ring and the first intercontinental champion. Why not let her go all the way to the top and be the WWE/F champion. I think women should have the same rights in wrestling as men do. If they're capiable of getting in there and working the shows as good as men could then yes I think they deserve the same amount of respect.

I heard about the recent let-go of Sable in the WWE. Even though her in-ring preformance wasn't good at all she still spoke alot of truth in that online interview she did. About how the WWE is sexist against the female wrestlers. They have to look a certain way and men don't get into the buisness for the way they look so why should women be singled out like that if you can wrestle why should you be turned down because you're not a beauty pagent winner.

I hear alot of divas talk about how they're being misused ect. Most of the WWE women have no room to complain about anything. They don't go out there and work they go out there to flaunt and make the crowd lust for them. They need to take their game to the next level why would a company book you in a match and they already know you're gonna do a sh*tty job.

I respect Trish Stratus alot. She may have got into the buisness with her looks but she works. A 5 time women's champion they didn't just hand that to her she upped her game and demanded respect in the womens division. Though I wish they would stop with the crappy storylines.

Diva dodgeball I 100% do not support this. Why" Those women can't wrestle as a matter of fact why are they doing a RAW diva search when smackdown has the shortage. Raw divas (most of them) are the wrestling divas. The ones who actually go out there and put on a pretty good match cause they actually wrestle. Leslie had my idea about them just trying to find another terri runnels because I don't see any point to this search these woman can't wrestle and they shouldn't even be recieving 250 grand for doing nothing.

Leslie You wrote a great article I shared all of your thoughts I just couldn't get it typed up in a nice essay form like this and put it somewhere where people would read it. Women's wrestling and wrestling in general has changed dramatically. Give us good ol' fashion wrestling without all the complicated stupid storylines wrestling today has become a watered down soap opera.

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