. For years these characters got great fan interaction and thus were allowed to continue working within these racist constraints.For women—on the rare occasions they were allowed to wrestle and not simply perform as arm candy—the pops came with wardrobe malfunctions and mud fights. Sex sold in the ‘90s, but when it became less popular to use women as sexual props the lens shifted, and women were given more space to create characters.
The general rise in popularity of women athletes has paved the way for wrestling, which has always been a few decades behind the times, to take women wrestlers more seriously. In promotions that are widely televised like AEW and WWE, it seems as if women are really getting the shot they’ve been working towards for years.
Wrestlers are for the most part considered independent contractors, despite the fact that their characters are the intellectual property of the promotion. For instance, if the Undertaker decided to leave WWE for a different promotion, the Undertaker character could not go with him. The McMahon family owns all of the merchandising and trademarking of that character. According to the Bella Twins’ memoir, there’s also no HR structure in WWE specifically.
Anyone who thinks that the SpeakOut movement and any result it garners is a result of wrestling getting better hasn’t been paying attention. If the internal mechanisms of professional wrestling had improved over the years in the slightest, then women wouldn’t be performing with their alleged abusers. But wrestling, despite the work of wrestlers to bring about change, is trapped within a vicious cycle made profitable primarily by the McMahon family.
So when women wrestlers go public and reach out to the fans to say this is what’s happening, they’re not doing it just to start a movement or create a story, as some naysayers have accused—they’re using the wrestling model to effect change. If the fans don’t press strongly to condemn the actions of male performers and announcers who have gone unchecked for years, then there will be no change.
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