10 Signs WWE’s Women’s Revolution Is Dead
6. Inability To Book Asian Performers
Over the past half decade, WWE have signed and introduced to our screens a plethora of talented Asian women. It’s just a pity that the company doesn’t really know how to book them. No, this isn’t just about putting Asian women into tag teams together for no reason. Promos are a part of it but the problem extends beyond language barriers in a company that prizes slick talkers. There are also some lazy and ugly stereotypes at play that should have been abandoned decades ago.
Virtually Every Asian performer to sign on with Vince McMahon is either subjected to “hilarious” cultural and linguistic misunderstandings or given literal magical powers. This is a problem that effects the men as well, but it feels particularly egregious with respect to Io Shirai and Asuka.
The former is a best in the world level in-ring talent whose match quality gave NXT a pass on actually crafting storylines. When they did try, she was given an American tag partner, grossed out by her “weird” Japanese food. Given that 2.0 is essentially helmed by the same team that run the main roster, her current role making up the Dusty Cup numbers doesn’t bode well.
The latter is an irrepressibly charismatic on screen presence, who survived having her badass aura sacrificed to James Ellsworth, of all people, and achieved the near impossible by being reliably entertaining during the height of the pandemic. She’s currently missing in action because creative have nothing for her.