41 Most Disgusting Promotional Tactics In Wrestling History RANKED
15. 2015 - Exploiting The Death Of Reid Fliehr
In 2015, WWE launched the Women’s Revolution.
The company, as was the style at the time, got harangued into it. On the February 23 Raw, the Bella Twins defeated Paige and Emma in 30 seconds. Emma, portrayed as a dimwit who was caught napping checking on Paige, took Brie’s finish immediately.
In response, WWE fans tweeted #GiveDivasAChance. Further criticism from AJ Lee to Stephanie McMahon accelerated a trend that Paul Levesque had developed in NXT. Inspired by the Four Horsewomen of MMA - and devising another tactic with which to babyface himself in contrast to Vince McMahon - a slow push to present women as “wrestlers” instead of “objects” was already in motion.
As was also the style at the time, WWE pretended it was their own idea, and that they were in fact doing the women a favour.
To put into perspective just how prehistoric WWE’s attitude towards women’s wrestling was, Vince Russo (!) beat them to it by almost eight years. The Knockouts division, highlighted by the Gail Kim Vs. Awesome Kong series, was stellar.
In a grim irony, by November, the women were acting out similar stories to the men. Two minute bathroom break matches had been traded for cheap, ghastly heat. Hey, you wanted parity…
Paige - visibly uncomfortable reciting the material - told Charlotte Flair ahead of their Survivor Series match that she was confident of winning; after all, her brother “didn’t have much fight in him, either”. This went far beyond traditional wrestling bullsh*t. Too far.
Reid Fliehr was just 25 when he died, of a drug overdose, on March 29, 2013. It’s one thing to exploit a grizzled veteran who knew exactly what the game was, who participated in the tacky side of it themselves. Reid died tragically, at no age whatsoever, when he hadn’t even worked 50 matches.
Moreover, this sort of thing is questionable enough when all parties agree to get desperate. The line was not approved nor even ran by Ric. He broke a self-imposed rule to not criticise WWE - in fear of how Charlotte may be treated - to express his sadness on his podcast.