One of the highlights of the wrestling year came recently when Pro Wrestling Illustrated dropped their annual PWI 500 and gave us the first list comprised of both men, woman and non-binary wrestlers. In the weeks leading up to the release of this year’s 500, the topic of intergender wrestling had again hit the internet as if this dead horse hasn’t been beat to death enough. With the traditionalists continuing to battle the rest of the world in determining just what makes fake fighting feel real, one must consider what the fans think and if this war of ideas is ultimately good or bad for the business, much less the sporting aspect, of pro wrestling.
The concept of intergender wrestling was a novelty for years in some areas and a complete in others, as for decades the inclusion of “girl wrestlers” on a card was an attraction and not taken very seriously. In the high years of the Territory Days, legends like Penny Banner and the ubiquitous Fabulous Moolah dominated and later we’d come to learn that the business practices of a handful of people in the wrestling world contributed to such a dim outlook for the female side of things. As the territories began to give up the ghost, women’s wrestling became all but dead on the vine, with the 90’s giving way to women almost exclusively being eye candy during the Monday Night Wars. While we were gifted with seeing a few great talents like Lita and Trish Stratus rise during that time, the women of wrestling were not given a chance to elevate the industry in any meaningful way.
Only in the last ten years or so has wrestling seen a true resurgence of women moving the needle in the sport, with TNA pushing their Knockout’s Division and given a national platform to former WWE talents Christy Hemme, Gail Kim and the incomparable Awesome Kong, among others. From that point on the number of women in the business seems to have really boomed with more and more indie promotions not only including, but featuring female talent and many including them in bouts with and againt men-and not in gimmicky mixed tag team matches or handicapped matches, but legitimate contests where gender was not a limiting factor.
Wrestling's Awesome Kong is also known as Kia Stevens,
star of Netflix's "Glow." (Photo by Mike Kalasnik)
In 2020, we now have women routinely having main events on WWE and on cards all across the nation, and the talent level has never been higher. With future hall-of-famers like Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Bailey leading the way on WWE (shout out to Becky Lynch, out having her baby) and other notable talent like Kylie Rae, Tessa Blanchard and Faye Jackson having entertaining and competitive matches with men and women all across the country, it begs the question of why gender still has to be a “thing” in pro wrestling.
The question is not just a matter of gender, as most people who beat the drum of tradition don’t position it as a matter of women being less than their male competitors, but that its not realistic for men and women to fight, as the average man would overpower the average woman, and the visual of most women beating most men would seem laughable to the average person. Questions of ethics and gender bias aside for the briefest of moments, we must ask ourselves if the “average person” is even watching wrestling, and if they are, they clearly know it’s entertainment so do they care? The answer is a resounding “no” to both questions, as evidenced by the fact that neither AEW nor WWE are breaking any Neilsen records this year, so we know that the same people who watch wrestling, are still watching wrestling and they know good and well what they are tuning in to see, so the idea that Awesome Kong couldn’t stand toe-to-toe with Adam Page becomes absurd-bordering on insulting.
The world has evolved since 1985 but sadly, a lot of the most vocal people who comment on the wrestling business have not updated their outlook on society since then. It sounds harsh, but what we constantly run into whenever there is a question of what is “right” or “wrong” with pro wrestling, is the chorus of people who compare everything to the height of Jim Crockett Promotions in the 1980’s. Frankly, comparing anything to that is a losing proposition as the level of competition and the depth of the roster they had then was probably the best ever in the history of the business-but that was a also a time when televisions had four channels and there was no internet to compete with, much less cater to. Now wrestling promotions have 24/7/365 access to their audiences with multiple revenue streams and there is no core demographic anymore, as wrestling fans come from all backgrounds and age groups. While Neilsen ratings (and the “Demogod” Chris Jericho) might prioritize that male 18-34 group, the reality is that non-males of all ages are not only watching wrestling, they are buying the merch, which is a major indicator of success for most promotions. As society has diversified, so has the business of pro wrestling, and viewing through and out-dated lens is a recipe for disaster, if one wants to grow their brand.
"Smiley" Kylie Rae is a star for Impact Wrestling and
independent promotions all over the world.
(Photo by Tabercil)
The traditionalists of pro wrestling still hold on to the idea that pro wrestling is a sport where people face each in a wrestling match, and the fact that it isn’t a sport and the outcomes are predetermined get left at the door. I absolutely define myself as a traditionalist and I love to leave the “real world” behind when I watch wrestling too, but I can’t pretend that women aren’t athletes and that many women couldn’t take out quite a bit of male competitors. In the 1908s you may have seen a lot of people who thought that some aspects of pro wrestling were a legitimate shoot fight and as a result the booking of those shows reflected that, but I think that the curtain was pulled back on wrestling long before then and the wrestling business tried to make itself think that it wasn’t. Now, that instinct to act as though pro wrestling is or at least should be presented as a real fight, comes from the chokehold that the gate-keepers of wrestling had on younger talent and the media during a time when fact-checking and social media didn’t exist.
For many, allowing intergender wrestling to exist on a level plane with gendered wrestling would be the final pillar of tradition crashing down and for that reason alone you will never win over many of the older wrestling fans out there. No different than how some people still love scandal-ridden heroes of the squared-circle like Hulk Hogan or the Ultimate Warrior, we can’t just turn off our feelings of nostalgia and when we think about happier times, we don’t include newspaper headlines or trending topics-we think about how things made us feel. No amount of comparison or exposition will convince many that intergender wrestling can and should be more widely accepted, but we are seeing day in and day out, that the market will dictate that it should. With pro wrestling become more and more eclectic and the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic forcing wrestling impresarios to become more creative, we will inevitably find that inclusion-on all levels-is not only the key to success, it will be a requisite.
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