5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (April 18)
2. WWE Hypocrisy: Then. Now. Forever.
At WrestleMania 34, Nia Jax provided her fans with a rare happy ending; at the culmination of a body-shaming storyline, she decisively defeated tormentor Alexa Bliss to send an uplifting message to WWE's female demographic: talent matters, not size. Searing hypocrisy aside - this is a company that crowned Jinder Mahal WWE Champion around this time last year - perhaps this truly was a turning point for WWE's cosmetic mentality.
It wasn't.
On this week's RAW, Roman Reigns responded to Samoa Joe's Backlash challenge by saying "Why don't you come on down here and see what your lazy fat ass can do?"
Vince's real boy spoke through Vince in a promo both awful and counterproductive. Joe has made everybody invest in his awesome recent heel work, transmitting a powerful aura that actually registered, garnering much Twitter praise, beyond a landscape-changing fortnight. Joe is a badass. But he's also a fat ass, which renders the idea of investing in him thoroughly pointless because fat asses don't become serious, established players in WWE. A reminder, too, that we're meant to like Roman Reigns. Casting him in such an ugly light only serves to repel the audience away from him.
Besides which, this is full-on Scott Steiner patter theft. Maybe Reigns can do a math-based promo next, working out how much of a difference he makes to WWE's financial bottom line. Even if, as Dave Meltzer reports, the answer is 0, 0 will change.
No matter how progressively WWE posits itself, there's always McMahon, a vile character at his worst, undermining everything with his bullsh*t.