Women’s Wrestling: Sexism and the WWE/NXT Divide

There was a ton of hype surrounding Wednesday’s latest NXT special ‘Rival’. With three potential ‘Match of the Year’ candidates, the WWE developmental show continued its hot streak and once again overshadowed its main roster counterpart.

Before the brilliant psychology and storytelling of world’s best babyface Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens and after the back-and-forth stunner between Finn Balor and Adrian Neville, the NXT women’s championship changed hands in a cracking Fatal Four Way between Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Bailey.

It was a match which more than lived up to its co-main event billing. Telling a great story, with inventive moves aplenty, spot on timing throughout and a creative finish (which was smartly foreshadowed by the commentary team) this was another top quality effort from the NXT women.

The crowd were hot for the action throughout and their chants of ‘NXT’ and ‘This is wrestling’ – in addition to their enthused reaction and ‘Thank you Regal’ chants when the match was first announced – should have sent a very loud message to WWE management.

Only, the WWE top brass aren’t listening. Or, at least, Vince McMahon and his right-hand man Kevin Dunn aren’t.

The NXT women’s division has been one of the crown jewels of a consistently entertaining programme for the last couple of years. It produced the likes of Paige and Emma, before allowing female wrestlers like Charlotte, Natalya, Sasha Banks, Bailey and more to enjoy the spotlight and thrive through their performances in the ring, but also by all having different, well defined characters and gimmicks.

The women’s matches on NXT are promoted as being as important as the men’s. All of the women’s title matches on the five NXT specials – Paige vs Emma, Charlotte vs Natalya, Charlotte vs Bailey, Charlotte vs Sasha Banks, and the Fatal Four Way – have been placed in the co-main event slot, before the NXT championship match in the main event. Rather than being the ‘death slot’ as it so often is on the main roster’s big shows, the co-main event spot on NXT is given the time to shine, and the women generally get 10-15 minutes to tell a proper story in the ring. Don’t expect Nikki Bella and Paige to get that sort of time at Fast Lane this Sunday.

For me, Sasha Banks is the best female worker in NXT right now. That’s why I was delighted to see ‘The Boss’ capture the title at NXT: Rival; a demonstration that hard work and a dedication to your craft does pay off, at least on WWE’s developmental show.

It’s when these talented ladies are called up to the main roster that the problems really start to appear.

Look, for instance, at the glaringly different ways in which Charlotte vs Natalya was portrayed on Raw as opposed to NXT.

In NXT in May last year, these two fought over the vacant NXT women’s championship. With a good backstory of their families’ legacies – Bret Hart and Ric Flair accompanying their relatives to ringside added to the special, big match feel – and the fact that both were allowed to let loose and given over 15 minutes to work with, Charlotte and Natalya conspired to produce, probably, the best women’s match ever contested on a WWE show.

Contrast that with Raw where Charlotte, in her first ever appearance on the main roster and as the reigning NXT women’s champ, was pinned in less than three minutes by her old rival. What a waste.

It’s a concern which extends to other female workers. Emma worked some great matches in NXT, yet was utterly wasted on the main roster. She danced a bit, but wrestled almost never. Granted, her legal troubles didn’t help matters as it gave WWE an excuse not to push her but Emma was doing nothing even before that incident. Now she is back on NXT hoping to rebuild her career.

Paige has had a better time of it. She’s won the Divas title twice, and had some decent matches with AJ Lee along the way (although, again, given more time I feel they could have done much better together). Her different look to all of the other women on the main roster has made her stand out, plus the fact that she can assemble better matches than most of her contemporaries on Raw, yet she is still much more sexualised than she was in NXT and it’s a shame her aggressive ring style is not allowed to shine through as often as it was before her call up to the main roster.

And don’t even get me started on Natalya who is the best female worker in WWE but rarely, if ever, gets the chance to prove it.

Wrestling fans should be excited by the prospect of the NXT women getting called up to the big show. Could you imagine, for instance, if Sasha Banks and Natalya were permitted to work an extended programme together? Or Paige and Charlotte given the green light to cut loose on Raw? It would be fantastic. Sadly, we know that such opportunities are next to impossible for women in the WWE.

A piece of news doing the rounds this week courtesy of the dirt sheets, is the rumour that Dunn and McMahon are not convinced Charlotte can be a star because Charlotte ‘doesn’t look like a supermodel’ and ‘doesn’t fit the typical model of how a WWE Diva should look’.

It’s the type of closed minded thinking which has stifled WWE’s creativity at the top level for far too long. The ‘WWE look’ is not something which is limited to the women on the roster either. One look at the current controversy surrounding Roman Reigns’ planned push over Daniel Bryan is a vivid reminder that McMahon and Dunn also gravitate towards presenting male wrestlers with model looks, failing to recognise that variety is a good thing and fans don’t wish to see a cookie cutter product with an interchangeable roster.

However, the crucial difference between the men and the women is that, although management will always favour the guy who fits their tall, muscular mould, they will still (sometimes grudgingly) push male wrestlers who offer something different. Daniel Bryan and CM Punk are, of course, the most obvious examples of this, but WWE management are also well known to be very high on Bray Wyatt, hence why he is expected to face the Undertaker at Wrestlemania this year. However, Wyatt does not fit the stereotypical look of a WWE headliner and certainly doesn’t look like a model (although I would love to see them try a sexy calendar shoot in a swamp with ‘The Eater of Worlds’).

This flexibility does not apply to women in the WWE though, who are expected to look like models, get breast implants, and act like sex objects. It’s a terrible message to send to young girls watching the product, that attractiveness should be the thing that they strive for over talent, but sadly McMahon and Dunn’s mindset appears to be stuck in a very different era.

Triple H’s comments about women’s wrestling in his appearance on the Live Stone Cold Podcast were particularly interesting. He spoke highly of the NXT women’s division and noted that, as well as returning to a 2 hour show, more focus on the Women’s / Divas division would be something he would change on Raw if given the chance.

On the podcast, Triple H said, “I would like to see the women get more time and more dedication, because I think they have a lot to offer. And we have a large fan base of women that watch and I think that they’re inspirational. Just having them have that time (to tell) the stories and all of that.”

Compare that to what CM Punk said about Vince McMahon in his infamous appearance on Colt Cabana’s ‘Art of Wrestling’ podcast last year. Talking about the UFC, Punk claimed McMahon told him, “Oh my God, Phil. No, we can’t do that. That’s barbaric. Somebody is going to die. . . . Did you know that they’re going to have women fight in the Octagon soon?” To which Punk said he replied, “Yeah and it’s the f***ing coolest thing in the world and it’s going to be the hottest f***ing thing, you’ll see.”

Of course, given that those comments came from an ex-WWE wrestler on very bad terms with the company they must be taken with a pinch of salt but, even so, it fits the general consensus that Vince McMahon has a very archaic view of women and of female athletes that does not fit the 21st century.

After all, Punk was right. The women are tearing it up in the UFC and the relative success of female fighters in the Octagon should give McMahon and Dunn pause for thought, if they actually watched mixed martial arts. UFC women’s bantamweight champion ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey – a huge pro-wrestling fan who actually sat in the front row at WWE Summerslam last year, remember – has demonstrated that being a talented female athlete at the highest level is something fans are interested in seeing.

I’d say that McMahon and Dunn’s sexist attitude towards women’s wrestling belongs to another decade, but the likes of Bull Nakano, Aja Kong and Manami Toyota were redefining women’s wrestling in All Japan Women as far back as the late-1980s and early 1990s.

It’s this kind of attitude from the WWE brass which makes many fear for female workers when they are brought up from NXT to the main roster. Charlotte’s looks have already allegedly been deemed more of an issue than her undeniable talent. What on earth would McMahon and Dunn say about Bailey? A likeable and talented wrestler, with a great gimmick, but who clearly doesn’t fit into the fake tan and big boobs Raw model.

It seems that McMahon and Dunn would prefer that a former model be trained as a wrestler, perhaps because it actually proved successful once with Trish Stratus, who evolved into one of the greatest WWE women’s champions of all time. However, the likes of not-so-legendary former Divas champions like Kelly Kelly and Maryse show that Stratus was something of an exception to the general rule.

The problem is, times are changing in mainstream wrestling and McMahon and Dunn (not for the first time) are too blind and stuck in their ways to realise it.

A good portion of the fan base wants to see good wrestling matches, above anything else. That, of course, is always going to be a problem for the heads of WWE who want to produce a ‘sports entertainment’ product. There is a reason why the likes of AJ Lee, Paige and Sasha Banks have a certain connection to the audience; because pro-wrestling is a dream they have wanted to pursue since they were children and it’s something they have all worked damn hard to achieve (see how all three reacted when they won titles; overcome with the emotion of achieving their goal).

It begs the question why WWE largely refuses to bring up women from the independent circuit. How Cheerleader Melissa – who looks like a model and can work a tremendous match – never got the call from WWE is baffling. Sara Del Ray, a champion in many of the top women’s promotions, was signed by WWE but has never been seen on television as she was positioned instead as a trainer. (On the plus side, a big part of the NXT women’s division’s success can be traced back to this appointment).

A great example of WWE management’s complete lack of understanding about women’s wrestling was their use of Gail Kim from 2008-2011. The company re-signed Kim hot on the heels of her mesmerising TNA feud against Awesome Kong, which produced the hottest mainstream women’s matches in U.S wrestling history. However, Kim did basically nothing in WWE upon her return, despite being widely considered the best female worker around at the time. And, again, this is all the more baffling when you consider that Kim does fit the kind of look that McMahon and Dunn apparently want, and she can wrestle. Now, she’s back in TNA tearing it up every week.

Perhaps Awesome Kong herself – renamed Kharma in WWE – could have been the wrestler to change the staleness of the scene on the big show. However, unfortunate personal circumstances meant she was gone before she ever really had a chance to truly shine in a WWE ring.

Sadly, Divas matches on Raw nowadays are generally only there to promote the next episode of Total Divas, a show which has proven to be a double-edged sword for women in WWE.

The reality television show has brought a level of exposure to the WWE women’s division that it hadn’t really received in years. However, for many, it is the wrong kind of exposure, as it continues to make pro-wrestling look like a joke to a mainstream audience. The storylines on the show, which are often even more rubbish than Raw at its worst, do the women no favours either.

The recent storyline on the show between Paige and Rosa Mendes on Total Divas was another example of how WWE only seem able or willing to promote a feud between two female wrestlers on the main roster by using a faux-lesbian storyline. Look at the biggest women’s match in Wrestlemania history; Trish Stratus vs Mickie James in 2006. That could have easily been built on the back of both wrestlers’ in-ring experience and backgrounds. Perhaps James could have brought up her indie experience and pointed out that Stratus was ‘just a model’ before she came to WWE. Instead, we got kissing and crotch grabbing.

Charlotte’s comments in a recent interview with Fansided were telling. She said, “If they were able to play our matches on Raw it would be great to show that the women can work like men. I’m not saying the Divas on the roster now aren’t capable of doing that. but the training in NXT has really helped us.

“I think over the years with the Divas searches and very little training, it makes it hard to make the division legitimate. I hope over my career that they don’t look at our matches as a ‘popcorn match.’ I truly believe we are paving the way for a great division.”

With Charlotte, Natalya, Sasha Banks, Paige, Bailey, Becky Lynch, Emma, AJ Lee, Naomi and, yes, even the Bella Twins, the WWE has a roster of good to great female workers.

Unfortunately, WWE’s treatment of their Diva’s division means that fans who attend Raw and Pay-Per-Views (or WWE network shows; whatever we’re supposed to call them now) have been conditioned not to care. They don’t believe in the women’s division because they haven’t been given a reason to invest in their characters or performances for years.

Triple H’s vision of women’s wrestling is a positive one and it’s one which a lot of present day wrestling fans want to see. The problem is, can we really wait until Vince McMahon relinquishes the reins of the company? HHH needs to make his voice heard now. With the female talent the company currently has, the WWE Divas division could be the best it has been in a decade.

The sexism needs to stop. WWE needs to ‘Be A Star’ and give women’s wrestling its chance to shine at the top level.

What do you think? Do you agree that WWE should bring more focus to women’s wrestling and allow their top female workers to shine? Or is the Divas division fine in its current state?

If you enjoy the column, you can follow me on Twitter at @AlexWattMMA

Researching a piece for 411 and just found out that Naomi's real name is Trinity. Changing a name that perfect is #WWE logic in a nutshell.

— Alex Watt (@AlexWattMMA) February 15, 2015

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