Two steps forward, one giant step back.
That's all I have to say about WWE and their Women's Revolution at the moment. Why is that ??
Well up until this point WWE was doing a fantastic job bringing their women's division of wrestling out from the dark ages. When I say the dark ages, during the Attitude Era the norm for female competitors was bra and panty matches, mud wrestling, and other demeaning things: Trish Stratus and Lita were the only women to put on actual legit matches worthwhile during the time. In the Ruthless Aggression Era, it wasn't much better as not only did they change the name of the WWF Women's Championship to the WWE Diva's Championship; between Diva Searches instead of finding actual wrestlers, poor "matches", and alienating the only good female competitors (Gail Kim, Mickie James, Trish Stratus, and Lita), they destroyed women's wrestling in the company.
Whatever was left kind of was floating in limbo until AJ Lee got the Diva's Championship.
That's all I have to say about WWE and their Women's Revolution at the moment. Why is that ??
Well up until this point WWE was doing a fantastic job bringing their women's division of wrestling out from the dark ages. When I say the dark ages, during the Attitude Era the norm for female competitors was bra and panty matches, mud wrestling, and other demeaning things: Trish Stratus and Lita were the only women to put on actual legit matches worthwhile during the time. In the Ruthless Aggression Era, it wasn't much better as not only did they change the name of the WWF Women's Championship to the WWE Diva's Championship; between Diva Searches instead of finding actual wrestlers, poor "matches", and alienating the only good female competitors (Gail Kim, Mickie James, Trish Stratus, and Lita), they destroyed women's wrestling in the company.
Whatever was left kind of was floating in limbo until AJ Lee got the Diva's Championship.
AJ Lee had a historic year long run with the title including defending it in a match against every other woman on the roster at Wrestlemania. It was that match and the following night when she lost the title to the then NXT Women's Champion, Paige, and between those two we had the start of the women's revolution. Paige and AJ Lee were both tremendously talented female wrestlers and were able to put on great matches against one another. They did for quite awhile and it made women's wrestling look legitimate. AJ Lee having been married to CM Punk caused an issue as when the problems between Punk and the company boiled over and he left, she retired. This also left WWE with a terrible feeling and rather than give Paige a run as Diva's Champion for a year to replace Lee and erase her name in the record book, they gave it to John Cena's girlfriend Nikki Bella. Now not to say Bella was totally awful but in comparison to AJ or Paige she was a shell. What was fantastic though, even though Nikki Bella was having mediocre matches because Paige and Natalya could only carry her so much; was that the crop of women in NXT were amazing and putting on classic matches.
NXT's Women's Division is what WWE was trying to put together, it was what women's wrestling should be. it's what wrestling should be. Women like Bayley, Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair, and Becky Lynch were tearing up the league and putting on amazing matches with each other. They were so talented they became known as The Four Horsewomen, now that is high praise, to be compared to the Horsemen. The matches made NXT TakeOver PPV's almost more exciting to watch then whatever PPV was going on in correspondence. Then it happened story wise, Paige had been cheated out the belt several times and Stephanie McMhaon finally saw enough, she called up everyone except Bayley (who was current NXT Women's Champ and too popular to call up) to the main roster. Everyone was amazed at the astounding difference in quality of the women's division and the "Women's Revolution" had started. That next Wrestlemania, the Diva's Championship was gone and the WWE Women's Championship was instated.
Fast forward to now, the women's division on both RAW and SmackDown have been fantastic, the competitors have been putting on great matches and thrilling the fans, and despite certain mistakes the company has made (like ruining Bayley on the main roster) the division and talent has never been so good.
Bayley, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Asuka, Alexa Bliss, Ruby Riott and the Riott Squad, Paige (pre-neck injury) and Absolution, Nia Jax, and more.......all of these women are amazing and putting together fantastic in ring performances and rival any main event male superstar, they are fantastic and truly show that evolution, that women's revolution, that WWE was trying to put together.
It has all been great until now (except for say the mishandling of Bayley's character and certain other decisions the writers have made).
Except for one glaring issue, one thing, that to me has put them almost back into the dark ages as of right now. WWE has been given money by Saudi Arabia in order to put on what they called "The Greatest Royal Rumble"; because of this Saudi Arabian money and due to the religious laws in a strict Muslim country like this, Saudi Arabia made a simple request to WWE.
Absolutely by no means, in any shape or form, do we want female competitors to have matches at the events in our country.
Now to me it already isn't able to call itself the Greatest Royal Rumble, this year's actual Royal Rumble introducing not only a male but female rumble match, now that's great but something as ass backwards as this is far from great. I'm not going to go on and on but as far as WWE saying they wanted to revolutionize women's wrestling and over the past year not only have women had high profile matches but had their own: Hell In A Cell, Elimination Chamber, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, etc, matches they have all the same things at their disposal as the men. Then this happened, now forget a "revolution" for women's wrestling because they truly showed they don't care because it's easier and better to take sleazy money from the Saudi royal family (who all got fancy seats and special arrangements at the Rumble) than it is to stick up for the women and say, "sorry that demand is too much, we have a lot of pride in our company, and the women in WWE have been a big reason people have been paying attention to our shows lately". It would show some class to have done that and maybe if it was a one off show I'd let it slide but WWE has said, "we are planning on hosting another event in Saudi Arabia at some point this year as well". Well, that's fantastic WWE, I'm glad you can so easily throw some of your best talent on the roster under the bus just to make a few dollars.
To top off how stupid this whole thing is, the Saudi Arabian government went so far as to actually apologize to it's citizens for a WWE advertisement that accidentally had Sasha Banks in it.
Bayley, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Asuka, Alexa Bliss, Ruby Riott and the Riott Squad, Paige (pre-neck injury) and Absolution, Nia Jax, and more.......all of these women are amazing and putting together fantastic in ring performances and rival any main event male superstar, they are fantastic and truly show that evolution, that women's revolution, that WWE was trying to put together.
It has all been great until now (except for say the mishandling of Bayley's character and certain other decisions the writers have made).
Except for one glaring issue, one thing, that to me has put them almost back into the dark ages as of right now. WWE has been given money by Saudi Arabia in order to put on what they called "The Greatest Royal Rumble"; because of this Saudi Arabian money and due to the religious laws in a strict Muslim country like this, Saudi Arabia made a simple request to WWE.
Absolutely by no means, in any shape or form, do we want female competitors to have matches at the events in our country.
Now to me it already isn't able to call itself the Greatest Royal Rumble, this year's actual Royal Rumble introducing not only a male but female rumble match, now that's great but something as ass backwards as this is far from great. I'm not going to go on and on but as far as WWE saying they wanted to revolutionize women's wrestling and over the past year not only have women had high profile matches but had their own: Hell In A Cell, Elimination Chamber, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, etc, matches they have all the same things at their disposal as the men. Then this happened, now forget a "revolution" for women's wrestling because they truly showed they don't care because it's easier and better to take sleazy money from the Saudi royal family (who all got fancy seats and special arrangements at the Rumble) than it is to stick up for the women and say, "sorry that demand is too much, we have a lot of pride in our company, and the women in WWE have been a big reason people have been paying attention to our shows lately". It would show some class to have done that and maybe if it was a one off show I'd let it slide but WWE has said, "we are planning on hosting another event in Saudi Arabia at some point this year as well". Well, that's fantastic WWE, I'm glad you can so easily throw some of your best talent on the roster under the bus just to make a few dollars.
To top off how stupid this whole thing is, the Saudi Arabian government went so far as to actually apologize to it's citizens for a WWE advertisement that accidentally had Sasha Banks in it.
What a sad state they've put themselves into. I feel awful for hard working women who end up getting extremely shafted by the company they've put so much effort into to make it an even playing field, a better place, and honestly put on better matches sometimes then the dudes do. Before I go into more of a tangent, just it's easy to say as far as this goes WWE really did take two steps forward with the women's revolution and maybe two steps back already.
Needless to say this new Blu-ray & DVD box set that WWE is putting out soon seems a tad hypocritical after all of the money and flashy trinkets that any big government or corporation will flash at them that will make them loads of money regardless of how they are treating their female superstars.
Needless to say this new Blu-ray & DVD box set that WWE is putting out soon seems a tad hypocritical after all of the money and flashy trinkets that any big government or corporation will flash at them that will make them loads of money regardless of how they are treating their female superstars.
It quite literally has been an evolution for sure WWE........too bad you are messing it up big time.