Fair to Flair

By day, Jason Mann is a mild-mannered Central Ohio copy editor getting by in the crazy world of newspapers. By night (and often very early in the morning), he’s a blogger and podcaster who shares the love and knowledge for pro wrestling that he’s gained as a fan since 1986. In March 2010, he began a podcast and blog with friends Seth Roy and Josh Hachat called Wrestlespective, which specializes in analyzing past matches and stories. He can also be found in constant conversation about pro wrestling on Twitter. In addition to wrestling, he also loves NBA basketball, classic movies, and learning about new things.

K Sawyer Paul is a novelist and graphic designer living in Toronto. His wrestling-based writing has included The Moss-Covered, Three-Handled Family Gredunza, Fake Vince McMahon, Footnotes of Wrestling, and International Object. His goal is to spread the idea that professional wrestling is a complicated and misunderstood art form.

TH is a graduate of Drexel University with a bachelor of science in materials science and engineering. However, despite that predilection towards development of the right side of his brain by trade, he’s always had a soft spot for writing. At Drexel, he wrote for the Triangle, the school newspaper, for three years, as well as handling copy editing and online publication. He got into the blogging game writing an e-wrestling blog known as Random Ramblings of an E-Fed Lifer.

However, along with writing, his passion is professional wrestling. A fan since his youth, TH cut his teeth mostly on the WWF in the late ’80s and early ’90s before adding ECW to his fandom in the later part of the decade. Now, he consumes any pro wrestling he can, and writes about it wherever they’ll let him. When not watching, writing or pretending to be involved in wrestling, TH spends his time raising his family, dabbling in being an amateur chef and yelling at his television whenever one of his beloved sports teams, the Flyers, Phillies, Eagles and Sixers.

Razor is a lifelong wrestling fan, from the days of watching in his grandfather’s living room to his career path, wrestling has run parallel with his life.  In 2003, he entered to world of broadcasting with hopes of becoming the next Jim Ross, and that path brought him to his second love, radio. Throughout his radio career, Razor’s worked in almost every format, from oldies to alt rock, and officially made it in the business when he was fired for the first time in late 2006.

Before his return to radio in the fall of 2009, Razor decided to use his broadcasting background with something related to wrestling, and after years of being fed up with the traditional wrestling media, Kick-Out!! Wrestling was born.  The site’s official podcast, Kick-Out!! Radio was launched in June of 2009, a one-man show discussing current events in the world of wrestling with the occasional slice of ridiculous.

Logan Stallings (also known as Garcian Smith) is a Psychology student at the University of Florida. He’s working on an English minor. In his spare time he likes writing prose and poetry, as well as fantasizing about wrestling Chris Jericho and stealing all of Raven’s gimmicks.

Mitch now has two fake jobs. In addition to playing in a band for a living, Mitch started Pizza Body Slam in the winter of 2009 in an attempt to create a wrestling blog that wasn’t completely hideous and “wienery.” Somehow, months of making fun of David Otunga has landed Mitch a spot as a contributor with Fair to Flair. Mitch spends his free time watching Michael Hayes music videos and getting teary-eyed (only the odd time, he swears) at Shawn Michaels’ video packages. Please don’t judge him.

Saturday, April 6, the East Coast Wrestling Association held its 16th annual Super 8 Tournament. The tourney, the notable participants including Gregory Iron and Tony Nese, has been a launching pad of sorts for independent wrestling talent in America. Previous participants have included Billy Kidman, Austin Aries, Christopher Daniels and Bryan "Daniel Bryan" Danielson. While the tournament itself produced some memorable moments and excellent wrestling matches, it wasn't the only thing that took place in Newark, DE that night.

The last match before intermission was a three-way match for the ECWA Unified Tag Team Championships. The champions, the Midnight Sensations, were a team that was billed from a future where humans have colonized one of the moons of Saturn. One team of challengers were a standard, indie-style tag team called Fusion DS. Then, there were the Flatliners.

How does one relay the teaming of Matt Burns and Asylum? They've been described as "Canadian as s**t" by one person in the business, which may or may not be a compliment. I'd pretty much call them hosses, because they're both objectively big guys. Sure, some people are "indie" big, but both these guys looked like they had bodies fit for a higher level than the ECWA. If their frames were more WWE than bingo hall though, their ring attire was more 1995 WWF than anything else. Sporting half-pink, half-green singlets with a stylized close-up drawing of a gorilla on the front, the Flatliners looked like they'd have been more at home across the ring from High Energy on Superstars in the early-to-mid '90s than anything else.

One cannot totally judge a book by its cover, obviously, but if the exposure had stopped there, I still would've been impressed with these guys. When they started wrestling though? Yeah, I was smitten. They were everything that was good about classic tag team wrestling with a lot of what is fun about the independent scene today thrown in. Asylum at one point had one of his opponents in a stalling suplex, while Burns was on the apron counting the seconds which his partner had the victim upside down. Mid-countdown, Burns tagged in and assumed the suplex hold, and thus the roles had become reversed when Asylum started his own count.

Later on in the match, all four of the other people in the match were perched on the top rope, trying to coax Burns off his seat on the top turnbuckle with a superplex. Asylum turned to the crowd for approval before adding the extra muscle to bring the four men - and his partner - crashing to the mat in a hextuple superplex that almost shook the entire building. Then, if that wasn't enough, the two played Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who'd complete the dive out of the ring on the other four guys. Basically, the Flatliners were two big galoots having as much fun as anyone could have in a wrestling ring for the amusement of me and everyone else in that building.

The best part about the whole thing was that I was discovering a new favorite wrestling act completely by my own surprise. No one told me before the event to look out for these guys. They're not overexposed in all the high-level indies along the East Coast. They were a true unknown to me, and there is a certain satisfaction one gets from being the guy who "discovers" something awesome before most of his friends. Sure, there's a level of hipster attitude mixed in with that feeling, but then again, who doesn't like being the first to hop onto a new thing? Who doesn't want to be the one who shares something awesome with their friends rather than being the who's always partaking in what others are sharing?

I had an epiphany during this match, and it was one of the best wrestling-related feelings I've had in my life. I hope everyone is able to have one of their own as well.

TH writes The Wrestling Blog and broadcasts The Wrestling Podcast. You can find him on Twitter, or at various other spots around the Internet. He also loves Chikara, and quite frankly, thinks you should too.

The fourth issue of Fair to Flair quarterly is all about women & wrestling. We want to explore this issue as thoroughly as possible. We feel that women’s wrestling is unfairly criticized, unfairly run, and unfairly represented, and the issue will tackle major issues pertaining to women’s wrestling today.

Pre-Order Issue 4 for $20.

Pre-order the print issue and immediately receive a link to download the epub version, which you can read on any iOS device, Sony Reader, Nook, Kindle, or desktop computer. And by immediate, I mean immediate. No more waiting for me to respond via email. It should begin downloading the second your Paypal purchase is finished.

We placed almost every part of this journal on the website over the course of March, as we celebrated our first women’s wrestling month. Please support these great writers you’ve enjoyed over the past month by pre-ordering the print journal. You’ll receive a beautifully designed softcover book containing every issue, plus a photo essay by Leslie L of Dirty Dirty Sheets (if you’ve seen that site, you know his photography is best in class). Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll find in the journal:

Thomas Holzerman contrasts Beth Phoenix and Tamina Snuka to Sara Del Ray and Aja Kong.

Stephen T Stone pins a bright future for Kharma.

Logan Stallings remembers Jazz, one of the toughest women wrestlers in history.

Trey Irby defends fart humour, Natalya, and broad storytelling.

Andrea Marshall proudly defends the female gaze on professional wrestling.

Lydia Cyrus remembers inspirational female wrestlers and how they help her in life.

Mike Lortz re-introduces us to Isis the Amazon.

Lacy Fidler tells three killer stories about recruiting women as wrestling fans.

William S Young writes about being a guilty male fan, who hasn’t given women’s wrestling it’s due.

Joe Drilling reviews the greatest all-women pro wrestling video game, Super Fire Pro Wrestling: Queen’s Special.

Yours truly interviewed rising star Mia Yim.

Ashley Durham champions Kharma as the future of WWE proper.

Cewsh gives an important and well-researched history lesson on women’s wrestling pioneer Mildred Burke.

Lex Roberston takes on gender cues, GLOW, and Elizabeth.

Finally, Leslie L showcases over a dozen beautiful, world-class photographs of women wrestlers all over the world.

Pre-Order Issue 4 for $20.

Epub is a standard format compatible with all PCs, Macs, iOS devices, etc., If you do not have an epub reading app on your PC, Mac, or Android device, we suggest the Sony Reading app. For iOS devices, iBooks works wonderfully.

$20 pre-order includes worldwide shipping.

In her book, Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference (W.W. Norton & Co., 2010), Cordelia Fine challenges notions of innate, hard-wired gender distinctions. Her argument is compelling, especially when she turns to research that demonstrates the power of social priming and cues to influence outcomes. For example, many groups of people were given standardized tests, and some of the groups were primed by verbal cues indicating that men typically perform better than women. Groups performed just as they were primed, with men outperforming women when given the cue. When the groups weren’t given these kinds of gender-based priming, there were no gender distinctions in test results. Fine does an excellent job of arguing that our minds are not hard-wired computers, but subject to change, adaptable, susceptible to even the subtlest of influences. Perhaps, she suggests, they are even more susceptible to subtle cues than explicit messages.

While reading Delusions of Gender, I began to wonder how pro wrestling had influenced my thinking about gender and my attitudes, as a man, towards women. As a pro wrestling fan, mine is a familiar story. I was enchanted as a child (in the ‘80s), disenchanted as a teenager (in the ‘90s), and, through independent promotions, I have recently rediscovered that old enchantment as an adult (in the ‘10s). I choose that word 'enchantment' carefully. The scripted realism of pro wrestling combines the passion and intensity of sport with the imaginative fantasy of fiction. There’s a reason non-fans get a thrill crowing about how pro wrestling is 'fake,' and a reason fans get a thrill. Pro wrestling, when done well, doesn’t require willful suspension of disbelief; it can win us over, anyway.

Part of that enchanting nature is the combination of the explicit with the subtle. Pro wrestling shouts and it whispers all at once. The action draws the audience’s attention, but attention is held by the greater context. We keep watching to see the battle between right and wrong, heroes versus villains, revenge and justice. A suplex is never just a suplex. Pro wrestling is never just 'entertainment.' It has too much power over the hearts and minds of its audience.

When I was a child in the 1980s, pro wrestling sent out different messages about women and gender. My hometown promotion, World Class Championship Wrestling, featured valets like Sunshine and Precious. They weren’t exactly meek and delicate, but neither were they wrestlers. They’d feud and start fights between their men. They had some matches that were mostly cat fights, with screaming, clawing, and hair pulling, sometimes in mud pits.

There was also a short-lived, campy television show called Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, which, even in prepubescent innocence, I understood to be more about the Gorgeous Ladies than the Wrestling. Even as a kid obsessed with pro wrestling, I couldn’t take G.L.O.W. seriously.

What I took most seriously, and most prominent to most children at the time (and ever since), was the World Wrestling Federation. No woman stood out more at the time than Miss Elizabeth, the quiet, doting valet and wife of Macho Man Randy Savage. She was a symbol of hegemonic patriarchy, steeped in chauvinistic chivalry. She dressed elegantly, knew her place, and stood by her man. She was regarded as a possession by Savage, whose jealousy over her would propel some of his most memorable feuds. Her portrayal was hardly progressive, but, on the other hand, she was never made to get on all fours and bark like a dog, she never gave birth to a hand, didn’t have a recurring striptease segment, and there were no storylines built around her flatulence.

Besides Elizabeth, WWF had some women wrestlers on its roster. Women like Wendi Richter, Leilani Kai, Sherri Mantel, and Rockin’ Robin were actual wrestlers I could take seriously. They competed for the WWF Women’s Championship. They weren’t called 'Gorgeous Ladies' or 'Knockouts' or 'Divas.' They were called 'women' and 'wrestlers.' This got through to me, and I’m confident that it contributed, in some small way, to the values I’ve embraced as an adult. WWF wasn’t exactly beating anyone over the head with a feminist message. They were just giving a little bit of TV time to women who could wrestle. This is a subtle cue to the audience: judge these women by their in-ring performance and on-the-mic behavior, not by their bodies or sexuality.

Today, there are many talented women wrestling in independent promotions in North America and in Japan. The first to grab my attention, in my reintroduction to pro wrestling, was Sara Del Rey. Del Rey’s performances speak for themselves, as her skill and psychology can produce a great match with anyone in the world. That includes men. It’s easy to forget, watching Del Rey take on Claudio Castagnoli or Mike Quackenbush, that we’re not supposed to expect a woman to compete with a man, much less beat him. In its portrayal of Del Rey as a Grand Championship contender, Chikara, no matter how silly it might appear at first glance, proves to be very serious. Chikara understands the enchantment of pro wrestling and the message it sends when Sara Del Rey, and other women, compete with men. This is a message I’d like for the kids in my life to receive.

Shimmer Women Athletes is another independent promotion that sends a powerful message. Shimmer’s stated goal “is to provide the most skilled women pro wrestlers with a forum to truly shine as athletes and perform at the most competitive level.” There is nothing profound or revolutionary about this concept, but it stands out as something positive and uplifting. Any company could do what Shimmer is doing by treating women like women, like people. Women should be called women, and, as wrestlers, they should be portrayed according to their skills and characters. It seems pretty simple, but the effect could be world changing.

As Cordelia Fine argues, our perceptions and attitudes are easily swayed by subtle cues. Pro wrestling often sends out very distinct cues that perpetuate misogynistic stereotypes. Dismaying as that reality is, pro wrestling fans can find hope in the power pro wrestling demonstrates with its subtler cues. We can ask for the very least, that women be taken seriously as wrestlers and not objectified for the cheapest possible reactions. We can demand more, that wrestling promotions recognize the responsibility that comes with their power and use their unique format to promote equality. Enchanted children, little boys and little girls, the kids in our lives, are watching. Pro wrestling is giving them cues that could have a lasting effect on their attitudes toward women.

Lex Robertson lives in Spokane, Wash., where he works as a board-certified hospital chaplain. He has a Master of Divinity degree and runs a wrestling gifs blog on tumblr, Hair Match. He watched wrestling from the early '80s until "The Fingerpoke of Doom" and has recently rekindled his fandom through independent promotions. He is a fan of ROH, Chikara, Shimmer, and DGUSA.

The topic today is one close to my heart as, in honor of Women's History Month, we honor Mildred Burke, the greatest female draw in wrestling history and the mother of women's wrestling worldwide.

The funny thing is that you may not have heard of her, and you may never see any of her work, yet she is one of the most influential wrestlers to ever live and is almost solely responsible for women's wrestling becoming a reality. So who is this lady who grabbed the wrestling world by the balls and held on? As with so many stories like hers, it’s not about who she was. It's about what.

When Mildred Burke was 18 years old, she was a waitress on an Indian Reservation in New Mexico. To hear her tell it, she met a dashing man, looked around at the place, and said "Nuts to this" and headed for the big city with him. Lucky for us she did, because that man introduced her to the world of professional wrestling. Later on, despite being married with a child, Burke began dreaming of becoming a professional wrestler, being the sort of woman who vicious face beatings came naturally. On a lark one day she went and introduced herself to a trainer by the name of Billy Wolfe and asked to train. Now remember, this was 1935. It wasn't exactly a golden age of equality for women, so when Wolfe saw this woman barging into his place thinking she was as good as a man, he decided to screw her over to teach her a lesson. He sent one of his boys to body slam her to show her what was what and make her run away crying. Instead, Burke promptly picked him up and planted him down with a picture perfect body slam—reportedly one handed—and asked to be trained again.

Thus began a partnership between the two that would lead to Wolfe and Burke traveling the country together and eventually getting married. She shoot-wrestled over 200 men during this time and lost only once, becoming the very first NWA Women's champion. She held the Women's World Championship for a whopping 17 years. Thanks to her, an entire movement for women's wrestling began to grow with her at its head, and for years it seemed like things couldn't be better for her. Her marriage to Wolfe took its toll and she eventually sought a divorce. Unfortunately, this was 1952, and getting a divorce from him meant that not only was she shunned from many places, but Wolfe kicked her out of the National Wrestling Alliance. After the NWA tried to convince her to get back together with her husband (at which point she allegedly sent them a picture of her middle finger) it was agreed that Wolfe would sell Burke their territory, and would not run his own promotion in competition to her for at least 5 years. He waited about 5 seconds.

Wolfe then began offering Burke's wrestlers 75% of the house to come and work for him, which was a totally ridiculous amount devised clearly only to bankrupt Burke. It worked. When she tried to convince the NWA to choose her and her money-drawing over the guy twiddling his mustache like Snidley Whiplash in the corner, she was promptly told that no woman was allowed to be present at an NWA conference and forced her to wait in the lobby. They ruled that no woman could own a wrestling promotion and gave everything to Wolfe, and then theoretically went home to kick puppies and steal candy from babies and other acts of cartoonish evil.

Then, in a scene so ridiculously pro wrestling that it’s hard to believe it really happened, Burke wrestled Wolfe's daughter in law Julie Byers for the title in a shoot fight that Wolfe rigged with a corrupt referee.

Burke lost the first fall, and then chaos ensued during the second so that no actual end to the match ever happened. Wolfe told the NWA that Byers won, though, so they crowned her their new NWA Women's champion. Burke, though, believed that she was still the champion and took her actual title belt to her newly founded World Women's Wrestling Association. She defended the title there until she retired in 1956. Through her tireless efforts to promote women's wrestling worldwide, it became the official championship of All-Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling, the promotion where women like Jaguar Yokota, Akira Hokuto, Manami Toyota and Aja Kong plied their trade. Their incredible achievements would never have been possible had not Burke brought the concept to their country and personally endorsed it every step of the way.

In the twilight years of her career, Burke trained wrestlers, and had a hand in the development of everyone from the Fabulous Moolah (who was her protégé) to Bertha Faye. To this day, her name remains virtually blacklisted from the history books thanks to a lifelong smear campaign by her husband and the National Wrestling Alliance never acknowledged her accomplishments. But Burke couldn't be bothered to care. No matter what obstacles people put in her way, she still managed to be the mother of a women's wrestling worldwide. And her influence lives on today.

Oh, and Billy Wolfe died horribly of pneumonia over in 1963. Burke would go on to outlive him by 26 years. So you know, happy endings and that.

Cewsh is part of the reviewing team for the wrestling blog Cewsh Reviews, along with fellow team members Vice and Mrs. Cewsh. He has been watching wrestling since the Ultimate Warrior was fun crazy instead of sad crazy and he has a distinct passion for wrestling anywhere it is to be found. Rumors that he was the inspiration for Michaelangelo’s David remain unconfirmed.

Edited by K Sawyer Paul

Article Sources:

Greenberg, Alan. "Mildred Burke... She Never Met her Match." Los Angeles Times [Los Angeles] 17 April 1981.

Ellison, Lillian. The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle. 1st ed. New York: Harper Collins, 2003.

WWE hasn't had a great couple of years. Whether it be because of the controversy surrounding the death of Chris Benoit, the retirement of many of the stars from the Attitude Era, or Linda McMahon’s ill-fated Senate runs, the WWE has hit setback after setback. There have been thousands of articles in the past few years focusing on what the WWE can do to recapture the glory days of the late 90’s, and how the WWE can bring in the fans that have abandoned the sport in the name of UFC. And while some of these are well-written, well-thought out articles, it’s time to face the truth; the Attitude Era is gone, and it is not coming back.

But just because the Attitude Era is gone, doesn’t mean that the WWE still can’t do what it used to do best; provide exciting entertainment that we couldn’t wait to discuss with our friends Tuesday morning. While there has been some entertainment with the return of Chris Jericho, and there has been fresh, exciting angles (that were ruined, true…thanks a lot, Oz), we are still salivating at the prospect of the WWE taking one of these fresh, exciting angles and committing to it. The problem, though, is that the audience—and WWE as well—are looking either to the stars of the past to reignite our passion for the sport, or to 'indie' stars such as CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and the Kings of Wrestling to take the reign from their predecessors. We, and the WWE, do not realize that what we need is right in front of us, ready to rise and turn the wrestling industry on its head.

Her name is Kharma.

Kharma is not some unknown entity. Our jaws dropped when we learned that the awesome, awe-inspiring Awesome Kong had signed with WWE, and we clamored for her to come in and revitalize the Divas division. If anyone could do it, it would be her. But I’ll let you in on a truth that some of us, especially female fans, don’t want to admit; the Divas division is a lost cause. This was especially difficult to admit to myself, as I’ve been watching wrestling for 20+ years, and in that time and I’ve seen firsthand what Vince McMahon and his staff really thinks of women. As much as I hoped that Kharma would breathe life into a division that often showcases the worst of what our society thinks of women, it can’t be denied that there is no saving this division.

So when Kharma made her return at this year’s Royal Rumble following one of the most lamented leaves of absence in the history of the sport, I nearly pissed myself, I was so excited. And while there are some of us who would sell our kidneys, our mother’s kidneys, and our bank teller’s kidneys for Kharma vs. Beth Phoenix at Wrestlemania, it dawned on me that Kharma isn’t the one who could save the Divas division…Kharma is the one who could save the entire WWE.

Picture this… it’s the 2013 Royal Rumble. The thousands in attendance and the millions watching at home are counting down the clock. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…cue the maniacal laughter. Out comes Kharma, dressed to go to war. She steps in the ring, hits the Implant Buster on the unfortunate man who dares to approach her first, and out they go. And out goes another. And out go another, and another, and another. Out they all go, until there are four left standing. Three of the WWE’s brightest talents, maybe Dolph Ziggler, maybe Cody Rhodes, maybe Randy Orton…and Kharma.

And sure, maybe Kharma doesn’t win the Rumble. She doesn’t have to. At this point, her strong showing, the strongest of any woman that’s ever entered the Rumble, creates not only a buzz amongst the WWE universe, but does what WWE needs the most; brings in a new audience: the casual female fan.

Wrestling is not a lady-friendly zone, especially not for those of us who call ourselves feminists. We not only see our gender portrayed in horrific ways, but we’re forced to listen to wrestlers insult each other by calling their opponents a 'woman', which is apparently the worst thing in the world to be. We are constantly demeaned by male fans for our choice of favorites. We are endlessly accused of knowing nothing about the rich legacy surrounding the sport, and are cruelly mocked for expressing any sort of desire towards male wrestlers, even though the first words out of everyone’s mouths are in reference to how 'hot' a particular diva is. When you combine this with the fact that we endure blatant attacks on our reproductive rights from our government, we make less than men even when we have more education and job experience, we live with the threat of sexual assault and even death every time we leave our house, no one is more aware that this is a man’s world than women. Every day, we are reminded over and over again that the fight is too much, and we are powerless against a system that is designed to keep us from reaching our full potential.

Where wrestling comes in is that the WWE used to have their finger on the pulse of the social climate in our world. How else does this explain the popularity of Hulk Hogan, or the meteoric rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin? WWE used to be the best at tapping into markets with the promise of a hero that represents them, allowing the disenchanted and the frustrated to live out their dreams through these heroes that could do what they could never do. The female audience may be the most frustrated of all, and by allowing Kharma to brush aside the Divas division and not only step into the world of men but dominate and prove she belongs there, she becomes what women struggle to be. She becomes the hero through which we could live our fantasies.

Of course, there is always the possibility that the traditionally male audience may buck at this, and there could be a backlash. As the wrestling fan becomes smarter, they may become more socially conscious. But even if the male audience holds misogynistic beliefs, not even they can deny the talent and the strength of Kharma. When you appeal to the most base, ugly parts of an audience, they'll fulfill these expectations. But when you give them the opportunity to face these prejudices and tell them to conquer them, you’d be surprised at how many do exactly that.

In the end, Kharma is only one woman, and it shouldn’t be her responsibility to shoulder a stale product. But there are always trailblazers, those lone warriors that kick open the door for other warriors to step through. We need Kharma to reach that glass ceiling to show others that it can be done. I don’t think anyone would ever expect performers like the Bella Twins to hold their own against male wrestlers, but once Kharma shatters that ceiling, it leads the way of others like Sara del Ray, Kana, and Rachel Summerlyn to make their way to the WWE to help Kharma to save wrestling. It leads to intergender matches and storylines that once again mirror the realities of those who watch the show. It once again becomes exciting, interesting, and most importantly of all, relatable.

Do I think that WWE realizes what a goldmine they have? Not at all. It’s clear that WWE, and Vince McMahon, thinks that they have everything under control, that they know what they’re doing. But if they just dreamed a little bigger, not only would they be better for it, but we, the fans, would be better for it. And maybe, just maybe, us lady fans wouldn’t feel so damn embarrassed or disgusted every time we tell someone we’re a wrestling fan.

Ashley is one of the elusive female fans that, like Bigfoot, has been rumored to roam the Earth, but whose existence has yet to be proven. She has watched wrestling for 20+ years, and routinely hears Tazz's theme music in her head every time she steps into a room to feel more like a badass. When she is not slaving away at corporate America, she writes, hangs out with her cat, and routinely blames TV shows like Boardwalk Empire for ruining her life.

What made you interested in being a professional wrestler? Tell us a little about your background, how you got into the business, the kind of character you enjoy playing.

I first started watching WWE when I was 8 years old. I use to watch with my sister and father. I grew up a tomboy so I was always interested in Football, Wrestling, Hockey, etc. I wanted to play all those sports but they were considered "Boy" sports. I saw Chyna and Lita on WWE and found out that I can do that too. I was 18 when I enrolled myself into a training school. I been involved with sports all my life. I am a second degree black belt, and also a volleyball player for 8 years (Got a scholarship for it for college). I started training under John Kermon and Bobby Shields. They taught me the basics and gave me a great foundation. They been my mentors since day 1. I trained for about a year in a half before I had my first match. I soon started training at CZW, under DJ Hyde, Drew Gulak, and Blk Jeez and the ROH Academy with Daizee Haze and Delirious. I gained so much more knowledge and insight of the sport the more I got training, especially from two totally different types of companies.

My character is Joshi based. I have became a huge fan of Puroresu (Japanese Pro Wrestling) and looked up to Japanese wrestlers such as Aja Kong, Manami Toyota, Hayato Jr, and Koji Kanemoto. I started to develop my character bit by bit the more I watchs Puroresu. I then went overseas and trained at REINA and Zero1 and got more experience wrestling that style. I enjoy Japan and everything they have to offer. I would love to live there and pursue a wrestling career there.

Now that you've performed in wrestling for some time, what keeps you going? What keeps it challenging, and what kind is your dream wrestling role?

I always try to challenge myself whether it is with training or dieting. I always keep myself busy so I can look forward to the next weekend. I aim for certain goals, and once I achieve them, I make a new goal. This is my passion and I just past my second year wrestling, it is still fresh and extremely fun for me. i take this very seriously, and it pushes me everyday. Daizee Haze gave me lots of information about nutrition and diet so I try to apply that to, not just to my career, but to my general lifestyle. I have lots of goals I still like to accomplish such as making a name for myself in Japan (or just making a name for myself in the sport) and to wrestle some of my idols.

You mention the term sport in regards to wrestling. Do you feel that wrestlers still consider what they do a sport? To frame that properly, I mean to say, do you consider the "legitimacy" of wrestling to still be in play? Or is the structure, choreography, and fan reaction the sportive elements now?

I like to call it a sport because to me, it is considered a sport. I know that has some choreography to it, but athletics is still involved. You see cheerleaders do choreographed dances and participate in competitions. Just because there isnt a scoreboard doesnt mean it is not a sport.

So much stress in wrestling is placed on telling a story. What kind of stories do you enjoy telling? What kind of reaction are you hoping for?

I am not involved in alot of storylines currently as I am still new in the business. I have been involved in some, and it just just trying to get over who the good guy is and who the bad guy is. Depending on the role, if you are a bad guy and you get hate and boos from the crowd, that is what you are looking for. As a good guy, you are looking for support and/or sympathy from the crowd. I enjoy playing both, but to me, being the good guy is a lot more easier in my opinion.

What do you feel women's wrestling brings to the table, as something different from men's wrestling? Is there a distinction in styles, in what can and can't be done?

I dont think we bring anything different, if anything, I feel that women try to bring the same stuff to the table as males. I am huge on equality in the sport.Of course a guy may be bigger and stronger, but just because one is a female dont mean they should automatically be opted out of a match with a guy. Women wrestlers (Not the eye candy), in my opinion, just try to have the same type of matches and on the same level as the men.

To extend that idea, how important do you feel novelty is in wrestling? I think this is an interesting distinction: In sport, it's generally valuable to be able to properly execute a playbook. In performance art, it's generally valuable to hit marks and evoke emotion through repetitious movements. But in wrestling, there appears to be an expectation to see something new out of performers on a regular basis.

Bringing something new is expected, but why do something new if you perfected a certain attitude/move that wow the crowd everytime? There are plenty of people who change up way too much, and it will just confuse everyone and wont be memorable. If you stick to one particular thing you are good at, you will be known for it.

I've got this theory that eventually, there won't be a male or female division: we'll just have wrestlers, and wrestling skill—not strength, speed, etc—will be the thing that separates performers. I've noticed this happening on the indy scene with increasing consistency, and I think it's only a matter of time before a woman wins a major world title. What you make of this trend?

I HOPE this happens. I have wrestled plenty of indy companies such as CZW and Anarchy Championship Wrestling that looks at every wrestler as a wrestler, not a female or male. We all are treated the same, given the same opportunities. I only hope this continues to spread throughout the world. Who knows, maybe one day it will be a common thing.

Finally, I'd love to hear your thoughts on wrestling as a whole. Are you happy with where the industry is? If you were in charge of things, what would you change?

The industry can always be better, but then again I have only dealt with it for a little more than two years. I dont know how the indy circuit was ten years ago, so I cant really have a say. I love the industry in Japan because it is taken so seriously and it is filled with wrestlers who also have the same passion in putting on a good match. I have met people who do it to try to get on WWE or just for attention, but in Japan, everyone that I have met has the love for the sport, even if they dont go anywhere with it. I would of course change the outlook of female wrestling and make it more respected and level with the guys.

Thanks so much for being part of this.

No thank you for allowing me to do this, It was fun and I hope we can do more articles together ^.^

Mia Yim can be found on her personal website, Twitter, and Facebook. You can buy the first volume of her greatest matches here.

It's amazing to what lengths people will go to defend WWE from accusations of misogyny and sexism. Whether it's ignorance, stupidity or blind defending of a megalithic entity that needs no defense from commoners such as you and I, whenever someone wants to write a screed on how bad females have it in WWE, someone is there to say "They have it just fine," usually before accusing the person dispensing the offending opinion that they're a member of the PC police.

The most common argument against calling WWE out over its rampant misogyny is that for however bad their booking of women is, their booking of men is just as bad. Removing all context from the situation, yes, in a vacuum, questionable booking decisions are genderless in WWE. Hot starts are vanquished by the extinguisher of parity booking. Stories go nowhere. The people we think should get ahead don't get ahead. WWE is inept at creating a viable narrative for anyone they employ.

However, looking at things without context is like figuring out math problems in theoretical situations. It only does good for figuring out basic precepts to deliver basic understanding so that there's a base to stand upon. Calling WWE's bad booking similar for men and women is like trying to figure out whether a cow can beat a wildebeest in a footrace by assuming both are spherical. It just doesn't add up in the real world.

The main difference between bad booking between the genders in WWE lies in the portrayal of the heroes. Look at John Cena, Randy Orton and CM Punk. What do they all have in common, besides their dangling mode of genitalia? They all get to be portrayed as good at their jobs. They get to be cool for the things they do, not for how they look. They get to show that they're smart, handsome and powerful.

Now, look at the female heroes, if one can call them that. Look at Kelly Kelly, Alicia Fox and Aksana (and up until about a month ago, Eve Torres). Were they ever considered to be "good" at their jobs? No. There's no implicit or explicit endorsement of their worth outside of false-ringing platitudes that they're smart, sexy and powerful. Kelly Kelly could only beat Beth Phoenix by the flukiest ways possible. A flash roll-up isn't bad, but when you win the top title in your division via roll-up exclusively, then it becomes a problem.

Women only get to show guile or anything approaching brains if they're of the villainous alignment. Even then, they're knocked back down to size when they're invariably slut-shamed by a "heroic" male, whether she deserves it or not. Sure, men get humiliated too, but my point is that they get the spoils of being able to show that they're better. The women almost never do. They almost did when Kharma was running wild, but that was put on a sideburner for reasons beyond everyone's control. Even then, did anyone trust WWE to do the right thing there? Does anyone trust WWE, given their track record, to do the right thing now when she finally comes back?

I certainly don't. I mean, this is a company where, even if the writing was good, I'd feel like sexism might manifest itself. Tony Chimel and Justin Roberts certainly aren't the best announcers ever, and they've made their fair share of rounds on Botchamania, but Lilian Garcia flubs something, and she's automatically put on blast by Cena, no less, after the cameras stop rolling. In an aside, how am I supposed to take seriously WWE's affiliation with B.A. Star when there's bullying going on within the company?

Regardless though, stuff like all that I've written about above is why I, and several other people, feel justified in calling WWE out for its poor treatment of women. I bandy this stat about a lot, but it bears repeating that WWE is basically defecating on 35% of its audience when they make women seem like nothing but brainless automatons worthy only of conveying their curves. Sooner or later, that's going to come and bite them on their own curves if they don't get careful.

In women’s wrestling, a burgeoning problem of sorts is beginning to affect how fans regard some of the best up-and-coming wrestlers we have today (no qualification needed). In too many situations, the focus is not on the ability of the woman in the ring, but instead primarily on aesthetic appeal.

Unfortunately, and admittedly, the problem is one that I propagate myself, and I blame no one but myself. Allow me to use a personal example: I consider myself a fan of SHIMMER Women Athletes, the world’s foremost independent wrestling company focused exclusively on women’s wrestling; or, at least, I did consider myself a fan, when I didn’t really think about it. Women as athletes, bad-asses, wrestlers, serious forces to be reckoned with; why wouldn’t I be behind that? For every aspect of wrestling, there is a fan it caters to, and I don’t see why women can’t be as cool as their male counterparts.

Here’s the confession: I’ve never seen a SHIMMER match in my life. Not one. Certainly, part of that is the fact that the matches are available only on DVD, and I am a broke university student who cannot justify spending money on wrestling tapes. However, I still know who all the women are, based on character and (above all) appearance. This is the crux of the problem: Normally I, a male wrestling fan in his 20s, wouldn't feel the need to support a company like SHIMMER by, say, buying a DVD, sculpting an informed opinion, and deciding based on merit who I pay attention to. I’ve merely seen the photos of each wrestler, and decide in that manner.1 This does not just apply to women’s wrestling on an independent scale, either: I profess to like TNA Knockouts like Mickie James and Madison Rayne, but I’ll be damned if I can think of the last time I paid attention to one of their matches.

Despite the pervasiveness of this view in my own life, I do recognize it as at least somewhat insulting to these women. Do I judge male wrestlers the same way—aesthetically, before any other feature? Usually, no, because I let their in-ring work and personality speak to me more so than how they look. If I used the same judgment criteria for someone like Dolph Ziggler the way I would for a typical female wrestler, I’d never pay attention to him, and I'd miss out on one of the best all-around wrestlers in the world today.

Granted, the idea is different in that with women comes the added dimension of “sex appeal” to me as a heterosexual man, but I still feel that my opinion as a wrestling fan should not stop on just one level, especially since in the internet community that wrestling has built up, such a paradigm of objectivity is often strived for: We have our favourites and our hated, but we also strive to rank the “best” wrestlers in history through opinions, lists or tournaments based on their individual merit.

Is it fair for the evaluation of female wrestlers to stop at one level and not consider the other layers a single performer can have? Absolutely not. As a male wrestling fan, is this way of thinking difficult to get over? Very much so. Considering how wrestling is meant to appeal to a heterosexual male audience and how men are inundated with sexual titillation and idealism in every aspect of mainstream women’s wrestling (seen in the WWE “Divas” and TNA “Knockouts”), to try and place women at the same place of evaluation as men can be very difficult for a typical straight male wrestling fan.

However, this should not be at all used as an excuse to resist or not attempt change; to paraphrase a certain WWE Champion, if a man does not accept change, he will be “left behind”. One thing I can say about my own struggle with this issue is that there are some women’s wrestlers whom I have seen and do have my respect beyond their looks: For instance, Sara Del Rey, whom I know is a talented performer and excellent wrestler, capable of believably facing off against women and men alike2; retired women’s wrestlers such as Molly Holly and Trish Stratus are women who I find attractive, but who I also know for a fact were great wrestlers in their time; and the Joshi women athletes of Japan, a sub-culture of women’s wrestling that I am slowly beginning to understand and appreciate for their hard-nosed style. The process of educating myself and eliminating my ignorance on the subject of women’s wrestling is a slow one and one that is seemingly inherently difficult to overcome, but progress is being made because of my own willingness to do so.

So, what is the message I wish to communicate to everyone else? I am only one man in a sea of wrestling fans, and this article has been more personal than encompassing. What I have tried to express is the fact that, while the sexualized version of women’s wrestling we have been presented for years can be enjoyed, there is a much deeper role of women in professional wrestling that we as fans should aspire to appreciate.

We are a sub-culture awash with opinions, thoughts, and feelings, greatly desiring to have our voices heard and our thoughts understood. I say, let us allow the same respect to the women of the industry we love, who often go overlooked and underappreciated in the male-dominated profession of sports entertainment. Man does not live on bread alone, and a wrestling fan cannot be happy to subsist on what we are 'expected' to look for in women’s wrestling: Educate yourself, ask questions, and look beyond what is given to you. Seek and you will find; chances are, you’ll strike gold.

William S. Young is a Canadian wrestling fan with a Bachelor's Degree in English, and a strong passion for professional wrestling. He hopes to become a wrestling journalist (his dream job) and compares nearly every aspect of daily life to wrestling history (ladies). He has a Tumblr blog and a Twitter.

Edited by K Sawyer Paul

I apologize for the fact that this statement sounds as sexist as it does. I do this in order to illustrate my own ignorance on the subject matter and, by extension, the ignorance that can exist among the common male wrestling fan. ↩︎