I think the issue is, it shouldn't be wrapped up in gender. The issue is, Becky Lynch cannot be relied on to anchor a main event-level matchThems the facts.
Sasha/Bayley in Brooklyn... that was a Main Event. Admittedly; the Women's War Games at last TakeOver should have been the main event of that show. It was the superior match. I feel like, left to their own devices, there's about 5-6 women in WWE currently that I could see being main event talent, in the Finn/AJ-match sense of 'can be a marquee match with little to no build, given the time to run it' sense. Becky ain't one of them.
The rest of this got long, so I'm finna spoiler it. Sativa got me analyzing and shyt.
As it stands, most of the women on that short list are on NXT. And it makes sense. WWE is so intent on being a variety show, that prestige-level wrestling isn't something they do enough for most of these people to be able to have the experience to pull it off when it matters. The pacing of those matches has to be different; there's room for subtlety in them that the 5 minute matches can't have, and in fact, it calls for a level of subtlety directly counter to said 5 minute matches. NXT does more 'prestige-level' wrestling; so even women like Bianca who haven't been wrestling as long as a Natalya... would probably still do better in that kind of match, and I say that believing Bianca is the weakest of the NXT women in this very thing - I'm of the opinion that they need to start giving Bianca that Goldberg booking, not necessarily in the sense of win-streak so much as match length, because it'll highlight what she does best, and also will convey that her opponents have to operate with urgency with her or she might catch them with a big shot and it's over... but that's a conversation for another day - and that's really sad since it seems like Natty's been wrestling most of Bianca's life on this earth.
It's that situation where, when you give people a well-done, compelling match, it doesn't matter if it's males, females, tag teams, trios, or goddamned thumb wrestling. It's the execution and the presentation. There's bias, yes, but... those same people that have that bias aren't watching the women's match when it's in the middle of the card or the end. At least if it's the end they leave and aren't sat there shytting on the match for personal enjoyment, so there's honestly less obstacles if you put on a salient match.
The problem is, they don't execute.
It's ironic, honestly, that she's the one in this position, because she's the only one of the 4 that a) never won the NXT women's title, so therefore b) never actually had the responsibility in NXT to have these kinds of matches. She's the least prepared for them. It doesn't shock me she's having those problems. Baszler was the strongest part of the SS threeway... because she's been doing 15+minute TakeOver matches. She's believable. And she knows how to get the crowd to react to things, instead of just expecting them to because they've been trained and it's rote.
People should be more open to women's wrestling being main event level - there are people who like it, clearly, if whole promotions of only women can exist and not go bankrupt; the market exists - but... the onus is on the performers to give them something worth being cared about, before you expect motherfukkers to invest.
Note it's almost never the minority women in these situations complaining about this kinda shyt. I mean, part of that is the company not giving them the chances to be in those situations off-top, which is it's own problem. But also... fukk it, I'mma say it: non-white women know what it is to have to work against a stigma or a bias and have to put in twice the work for the same result; white women don't always rationalize that because they get to the 'it shouldn't be that way' moment and sit there instead of needing to K.I.M. because they don't have the option of decrying foul play and demanding things change. Bills gotta get paid and sometimes shyt be like that.. It's a work ethic thing. Some people go out there, and have their match get shat on and they get upset at the crowd or call it unfair - the wonderful Sheamus/Orton match - and some people take it as a challenge and do something that pulls the crowd back. Favorite example of that: Cesaro killing the beach ball. It got him heat, it got him over, it got the crowd focused back on the match and it changed WWE policy on beach balls, all because instead of pouting, the nikka went out there and 'ruined the fun' like a skrong-ass Hall Monitor.
Sexism is real, yes. But if you do a good thing, people will pay attention to it, no matter what. Act like racist white people don't love them some black music in spite of their opinions on the people making it. Because doing something well will cover for almost anything leveled against it.
Hold this rep.
