Working Stiff: Wrestling's History With Playboy Magazine

Between 2004 and 2008, no fewer than half a dozen meretricious, silicone-enhanced women defoliated their silken verdure for Playboy, having stumbled through the doors of the wrestling business thanks to the lamentable Diva Search. Carmella DeCesare, Christy Hemme, Candice Michelle, Maria Kanellis, Ashley Massaro, and Maryse Ouellet all bared the goods between the sticky pages of Hefner's cheesecake cookbook, the sum total of their collective wrestling ability just a little below that of a backyarder.

Hefner himself was happy to play along, frequently turning up during repeatedly rehashed jealousy angles whenever one of the Divas turned Playmate, with the magazine even endorsing an execrable WrestleMania XXIV Playboy BunnyMania Lumberjill match.

Thankfully, that was just about the last time WWE offered such prurient victuals. Instigated by the huge dent to public image caused by the Chris Benoit murder-suicide tragedy, a number of factors saw the company reset their moral compass - not least the same audience which had been fuelled by hormonal urges having proceeded into true adulthood. The promotion reverted to a sponsor-friendly PG rating, and the stream of salacious smut ran dry.

With the rating adjustment, the fruitful alliance with Playboy was at an end. It was the right time for it. Aside from the gross objectification of women being a smear on a company trying to style itself as a global brand in the 21st century, the cultural relevance of the magazine was in decline. The prevalence of the internet had made pornography easily accessible to the vast majority of those looking for it; they no longer needed to tune in on a Monday Night for the slightest hint of tame titillation. With the bases covered elsewhere, what they wanted was a wrestling show, not a peepshow - one they weren't embarrassed to watch.

[CON'T. P8/9]