5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (Oct 19)
3. Your Progressive First-Ever Women's Pay-Per-View, Everybody
On this week's RAW. Ronda Rousey delivered her best promo performance since arriving in WWE. Some of the actual material, however, was regressive as sh*t. After a heated exchange with the Bella twins, Ronda aimed the kill-shot: "The only door you ever knocked down was the door to John Cena's bedroom."
The fans erupted in chants of "Yes! Yes! Yes!". "Yes!", they chanted. "She is worthless, in and of herself!"
On SmackDown 1000, Batista, to build a now-rumoured WrestleMania 35 match with Triple H, didn't say "You only became this business because you knew precisely who to bang, you cerebral shagger." He made a cutting remark about his in-ring dominance over him, because wrestling is, or should be, a simulated competition.
Ronda's barb drew a massive reaction, but it would have been nice if WWE's first-ever women's pay-per-view wasn't sold by reinforcing among male fans that a woman's choice to sleep with whomever she likes is wrong. It felt like either involuntary misogyny, or a concession to Saudi Arabia:
"Look, we can't mention your country this week, what with all the dismemberment stuff, but we can call our women infidel whores. Can we still have our money, please?"
What's perhaps sadder is the rumour that Rousey wrote the entire promo herself, which is an equally crackers development in this scripted promo era. Much of it was engaging, even (especially) the overblown stuff, like the references to evisceration via smallpox, but the slut-shaming?
For shame.