Treat Women with RESPECT
Treat Women with RESPECT!
The AEW preshow conference call was taking place with Tony Khan. Most of the usual media like Fightful and Wrestling Observer were asking Khan questions about Full Gear and the AEW talents. They were asking, recording and taking notes of Tony perspective and philosophy when it comes to the shows. There was an important question that led to huge uproar from a woman. This woman named is Ella Jay; who is the creator of her podcast called A Wrestling Gal. She asked the following question: “Does AEW have any plans or hopes to contribute an all women event-“ but she couldn’t finish her question because Tony Khan cuts her off. His response was “I'm gonna cut off your question right there because I don't think I get enough credit…”; basically rambling and wanting a gold star for sending four to five women to NWA’s all women show: Empowerrr. He wanted a pat on the back for (once again) bare minimum within women wrestling; WHILE barely promoting said all women show… and yet didn’t even ask the question at hand when it comes to AEW having their own all women show. He was tone deaf, rude to a woman asking a simple question and gave women wrestling fans another slap in the face. Fans have been very criticism and patient when it comes to the AEW women division. We have hear empty promises from AEW management and then excuses after excuses about why the division has yet to progress. The past two years have showed that they don’t have faith in their women. All Ella wanted was a clear answer on AEW doing an all women show and it’s disappointing but typical for women to get disrespected. If Tony Khan was to let the woman finish her question and politely answered with honesty as in “No …at the moment, we are not preparing for an all women show but we might take it under consideration..”; something along those lines or a simple “no” would have been a lot better than him being problematic the way he was with his response. Everyone called out Tony Khan for his comments and gave Ella support. He apologized privately to her since… but honestly he should have did it publicly too.
Men booking and writing women wrestling is bad enough as it is; especially with the lame storylines of slut-shaming, “I’m prettier than you” and reducing them to just their bodies. However, those same men -who don’t even believe in women wrestling to begin with- want credit within treating the women performers as equal to the men is ludicrous. “Well we gave you a tournament…” and “well we gave them the main event on this show” and that’s the issue; the women get moments but AEW drop the ball. They don’t build on consistency with the women. Most the women (like Big Swole and Shida) get put on YouTube for months, one women match happens on Dynamite, Rampage and on PPVs. The women get barely twenty minutes on two hour programs and AEW isn’t the only wrestling promotion that has this with their women. WWE especially (with Smackdown) and the Queen’s Crown tournament recently has had short matches with their women especially outside their main event scene. As much as WWE progressed with their women division the last couple years (because of PR), they still have long ways to go with consistency within all the women talent and giving the women equal time and focus as the main event. The forced “Women Revolution” tagline WWE puts out -to make themselves feel like they gave women a chance when they treated their women like shit for decades- is hilarious. It was so much for PR ….especially when they only gave us Evolution so fans wouldn’t be critical about them going to Saudi Arabia at the same time… and they gave that show a poor build even. WWE only cares now about women wrestling because they saw how Serena Williams and Ronda Rousey was conquering sports so they wanted in on that feminism pie. They saw that women can draw and how inspirational it can have especially when they have Stephanie McMahon announcing history making moments and milestones. Yet they didn’t want to give the women an all women show especially when Mickie James ask management. She said it was met with a lot of resistance and it showed there’s still men backstage with the disgusting mindset on women wrestling not mattering to them. The only American promotion ( that is ran by men) that always saw it in their women since the beginning was Impact Wrestling. Impact Wrestling feature most if not all their women through two hour shows consistently. Their booking of the women shows that they always took them seriously, treating them with respect, not limiting them in wrestling ability… Impact allowed their women to have risk taking matches like Iron Women matches, steel cage matches, Last Knockouts Standing, Monsters Ball match… etc. They treat the women like actual wrestlers ever since Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong days. This is even coming to the Knockouts title. After Bound For Glory, Impact has been billing the Knockouts the title the “The Knockouts World Championship”. Impact management wants the title to be seen as a world title and on equal prestige as the men’s title. They respect their women division! It’s shown you can feature women prominently on a two hour programming; it’s not that hard.
Whenever women wrestling fans are vocal on companies failing the women rosters, there’s men that want to “Well actually!…”— man-splaining our criticisms and telling us to shut up. Men were mansplaining to Ella, myself and anyone being vocal against Tony Khan treatment and answer on that conference call. Like these men can tell us how to feel about women wrestling? Like we can’t be critical on the piss poor booking in the women within the past decades till now especially in multiple companies ? We can’t want women to get equal booking to the men, get more time, be in the main events and get all women show like Evolution 2... We can’t expect more from the women themselves not to be bodyshaming and slut-shaming each other for a cheap pop? I’m sick of men speaking over us and it’s been going on for too long. Men policing and shaming women bodies. Calling out botching from women yet will not have the same energy for their no personality male flipper. Saying this (black) woman is “green” and that’s why she will not be good in opportunities. Downplaying the matches of women main eventing PPVs and saying “their story don’t deserve it…”; Sasha and Bianca getting that treatment when fans campaigned for them to be the main event. Men downplayed Sasha and Bianca all because the story and Reggie; saying they didn’t deserve the main event because of it. What they failed to realize was the story came from was the representation of two black women main eventing. That representation between two great talented black women trumps any story WWE was telling in the lead up of wrESTleMania. These same men say they all about feminism and calls out WWE for the treatment of said talent but then they turn and say these disgusting rhetoric. They look down upon women being feminine (Nikki Bella for example) but praise slut-shaming material and love anti-diva esque icons like AJ Lee or Paige. They are disgusted over divas; not the treatment of the divas but the divas themselves. The Divas championship, the likes of the Bellas and Torrie Wilson getting better overtime, and downplaying their legacy. Their misogynistic, double standards and women-hating attitude speaks of little dick energy and they don’t know how to handle a woman in real life. They can’t handle a gorgeous woman owning their looks, being good at their job and being sexual. Want a real life example? Look at Chlöe Bailey and the narrative of her “doing too much” with her sexuality… some women even throwing that narrative out there too. Overall, They aren’t much better the old head billionaires that book these women. Their behavior to women -throughout the years- has been revolting to say the least. They grab upon women at these shows with creepy posing photos and touch them inappropriately. However, they also tear down women in disgusting ways. Mocking Alicia Fox for her alcoholism, shaming women for their leak photos, the likes of Bryan Alvarez shitting on Naomi and her going through racism, shaming the likes of Charlotte for her plastic surgery, shitting on the Bellas for being on reality TV (and having relationships with Bryan and Cena), tearing down Stacy Keibler career when she was announced for the Hall of Fame…fat-shaming plus-sized wrestlers like Nia and spreading a lie about Sasha and Bayley crying on the locker-room floor. Some fans shaming Becky Lynch for coming back after having a baby. For her to come back at the top of her career and send an inspirational message that women can kill it as a mom and be a top star is powerful… but shaming her for that is mind-boggling. To imply a woman can’t be a mom and a wrestler at the same time shows how simple minded you are; especially when you don’t hold the same energy for the male wrestler who has a baby too…A lot of talent women got shitted on despite showing they can wrestle and be entertaining. These are just the examples throughout the recent years; but there’s more and more bullshit wrestling fans have put these women through. Don’t get me started on the Speaking Out Movement and how they will shame any victim for telling their experience on their male fave cuz “he wrestle good”. Get fuck out of here! Believe victims! It’s all fucking gross! Wrestling white media is disgusting when it comes to reporting the allegations on these men, major companies keeping said talent signed and protecting them. It’s trash! The media has all this attention on something like the Becky/Charlotte title swap situation and painting Charlotte like she is WWE’s Tessa but they silent on reporting on the Speaking Out movement and allegations whenever someone like Jay Lethal is signed to AEW. Just say you don’t care about women and go! Women deserve more! These are athletes. They are women. They are talented. Women can be muscular. Women can be feminine. Women can be different. They can be anything! They can be sexy and can wrestle; they have range to do that. Learn some fucking respect!
Give these women respect. All the women! From wrestlers, commentators, the wrestlers of the past… to currently, all of them (**except Moolah and Tessa Blanchard) . These women sacrifice their life to change the game for the future. Their bumps and getting less at the time (especially in the divas era) led to the future generation getting more. They deserve their flowers and earned their credit. Every woman can have a seat at the table and shine on TV. None of them are the same. It’s still a long fight for women to get respect and equal treatment but we won’t stop until they get it across the board in these companies. For these men within the companies and male wrestling fans to realize that women are equal (and let’s be real here… they are better than the men). That they are the main event! That they are the draw! But until these companies get their shit together with their women, there are multiple platforms that give us all women shows. Joshi companies like Stardom and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, Shimmer, Women of Wrestling (before they stuck with Tessa Blanchard), RISE and Mission Pro Wrestling. These shows give their women their full attention especially with women booking the shows. Thunder Rosa books Mission Pro Wrestling and it’s becoming bigger and bigger for women wrestling this year. She is giving back to wrestling while still having a career. She training, booking and helping upcoming women shine. Molly Holly working as a producer in WWE. Mickie James, Gail Kim and Maria booking all women programs recently. Sarah Del Ray training the NXT women. Natalya basically having a wrestling school; training her coworkers. And if we giving credit to men contributing to women wrestling… TJ Wilson and Fit Finley get their gold stars for helping the women, producing their matches and getting them to the next level. TJ produces the highly acclaimed matches like Sasha vs Bianca’s Mania match. Fit was training the women during the divas era: helping them take bumps, adapting their moveset and helping them with their performances each time. Those two get their credit- not an ego driven, can’t handle criticism for shit asshole in Tony Khan.
So I know this was LONG and you’re tired of seeing so many words … but I hope every word for worth your eyes. We have to be better (including me) with the women. These women give themselves to us on TV screens… not just for our entertainment, but to inspire little girls. They inspiring the next women wrestlers. Each time they get in the ring, they chipping away at women wrestling being the norm. In 2021, women should be having equal time, more storylines, better booking and be treated with respect. We shouldn’t have to demand promoters to book their women fairly. From the UK (like Progress), joshi promotions, American women wrestling… all these women earned their shine. We shouldn’t be vocal anymore, the fight should be over! But we still got long ways to go until then …so we gonna keep loud for the women to get respect! We all have different opinions and views on women wrestling and who is “good” or not…but we can come together to defend one of our own in Ella Jay. She’s a woman who contributes to women wrestling growing and she was brave for asking that question on that media call. I’m proud of her and hope her brand keeps growing. Hopefully you enjoyed this article and agree with me that: WOMEN WRESTLING MATTERS!
-From a women wrestling fan and more specifically… a woman
(Btw check out Ella Jay’s podcast A Wrestling Gal. She’s a great podcaster and she interviews upcoming women wrestlers. Give her a follow.)
