Paige Blames Fans Instead of WWE for Holding Back Women's Wrestling

[Emperor Smeat]

Paige had a recent interview with newspaper Gulf News and besides talking a bunch about her new film, she also mentioned that fans are to blame for why women's wrestling in WWE was in a dire situation for a long time.

“It was never WWE holding the women back. It was the fans not taking them seriously. They wanted to see more of the male characters many years ago. It was a male dominated sport.

When I first started, there were only five women there. It was a struggle but WWE just believed in us. When I got into the ring, I wanted to prove to the fans that girls were capable of having good matches and sometimes, even better. That was kind of my mission from the get go. Now there’s obviously a revolution.”

https://gulfnews.com/entertainment/hollywood/wwe-star-paige-on-beating-depression-with-help-from-dwayne-johnson-1.62146979

Predictably, Paige has been getting a lot of online backlash from those comments and people pulling up countless instances where WWE held back women's wrestling and treated it as nothing more than "piss break" or "eye candy only" stuff.

[Fignuts]

Ever since I first saw AJW and saw what women's wrestling could be, I've wanted WWE's women's division to be just as good. It's never been even remotely close. Not even now. In part due to WWE''s forced, tryhard marketing, and in part because there are only a handful of genuinely talented in ring performers in their "revolution".

[Black Widow]

Ever since I first saw AJW and saw what women's wrestling could be, I've wanted WWE's women's division to be just as good. It's never been even remotely close. Not even now. In part due to WWE''s forced, tryhard marketing, and in part because there are only a handful of genuinely talented in ring performers in their "revolution".On Monday your a NERD, on Tuesday your a NERD, on Wensday though Saturday your a NERD, then on Sunday just to be different your a super NERD

[Black Widow]

She's right i can remember seeing some good matches during that time and fan's not caring.

[Vastardikai]

I blame Moolah.

[rez]

On Monday your a NERD, on Tuesday your a NERD, on Wensday though Saturday your a NERD, then on Sunday just to be different your a super NERD

The meth is hurting your ability to spell.

[XL]

When she says there were 5 women there when she started, does she mean NXT? Cos surely there was something more than 5 on the main roster.

[xrodmuc316]

She sounds like every bitter retired wrestler ever.

[DAMN iNATOR]

Yeah, sure, it had nothing whatsoever to do with Vince only hiring women he could ogle from backstage for the longest time. Come the fuck on.

[Stickman]

It’s Jerry Lawlers fault with his relentless “puppies” comments....plus the women have been awful for a long time and still are 50% terrible.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Fuck you fans but see my movie.

Is the girl fucking retarded?

[Mr. Nerfect]

Fuck you fans but see my movie.

Is the girl fucking retarded?

If you examine so much of her career, the answer becomes evident to you.

[Black Widow]

Yeah, sure, it had nothing whatsoever to do with Vince only hiring women he could ogle from backstage for the longest time. Come the fuck on.I was at a ppv where Melina faced Mickie good match and the crowd was disinterested so yeah she has a point.

Y'all nerds don't like when shots get taken at y'all from the wrestlers and it gets y'all in your feelings.

[#1-norm-fan]

You were at a wrestling show live where you were the only person in the crowd enjoying a Mickie vs Melina match and now you post on a wrestling forum daily to call out others for being nerds as if you’re above them.

Just let that sink in.

[#1-norm-fan]

Also, Paige clearly hasn’t figured out yet how to toe the line of being a company kissass without going full retard.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Why is Black Widow not dead yet?

Anyways, Paige probably very thankful she has gotten about a bajillion chances with WWE despite her consistent idiocy. As a result, is now drinking company kool-aid.

[Seanny One Ball]

She's right i can remember seeing some good matches during that time and fan's not caring.


Conclusive proof at last

[Rammsteinmad]

Just throwing this in here that I've always said I thought Paige was overrated.

[Bad News Gertner]

Her and AJ Lee.

[Bad News Gertner]

I was at a ppv where Melina faced Mickie good match and the crowd was disinterested so yeah she has a point.

Y'all nerds don't like when shots get taken at y'all from the wrestlers and it gets y'all in your feelings.

You're not wrong. There were plenty of very good matches during that era. Mickie vs Melina Candice Michelle vs Melina, Candice vs Beth Pheonix. The crowds just didn't care.

[Anybody Thrilla]

Did fans book the pudding matches? Also, weird time for her to flex on fans with that movie due out.

[Gerard]

Shouldn't she be off getting another retarded looking chest tattoo instead of flapping her gums?

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

You're not wrong. There were plenty of very good matches during that era. Mickie vs Melina Candice Michelle vs Melina, Candice vs Beth Pheonix. The crowds just didn't care.

eh. They were presented as afterthoughts and the fans treated it as such.

When presented as a big deal (like Trish and Lita), the fans liked it. And lita sucked but somehow the fans thought she was a badass cuz they said she was.

[poopfromweiner dude]

Fuck you fans but see my movie.

Is the girl fucking retarded?

Wow easy on the mansplaining and definitely take it easy on the big R word pretty boy

It's 2019 on tpww what decade are you posting in

[Black Widow]

You were at a wrestling show live where you were the only person in the crowd enjoying a Mickie vs Melina match and now you post on a wrestling forum daily to call out others for being nerds as if you’re above them.

Just let that sink in.Yep not everyone on the internet has to have the same opinion.

Someone has to do it.

Why is Black Widow not dead yet?
I'm not dead yet cause i'm still alive pretty easy to figure out.


Shouldn't she be off getting another retarded looking chest tattoo instead of flapping her gums?Shouldn't you be buying some DDPYoga instead of crying on here.

[#1-norm-fan]

Speaking of respecting women’s wrestling, was it also the fans who put the NXT women’s title in her hands so Brad Maddox could jizz all over it?

[Emperor Smeat]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Since Paige claims WWE never held women back, here are some of the struggles the Divas went through back in the day:</p>&mdash; boris (@bvmbshelled) <a href="https://twitter.com/bvmbshelled/status/1097548493978243072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Twitter thread with a lot of instances of Paige being wrong in her claims.

[Gerard]

Shouldn't you be buying some DDPYoga instead of crying on here.


I will do when you're finished blowing me.

[Fignuts]

You're not wrong. There were plenty of very good matches during that era. Mickie vs Melina Candice Michelle vs Melina, Candice vs Beth Pheonix. The crowds just didn't care.

The occasional good match isn’t going to maintain the audiences attention when it’s surrounded by so much pissbreak nonsense. There’s always been at any given time, a few women who truly care, and want to excel as performers, but that doesn’t really matter if the company isn’t willing to get behind the division as a whole.

It is what it is. Things aren’t perfect now, but I feel the division is in a better place than it was during the beginning of the women’s revolution. They’re still trying too hard at times but I also feel they’re allowing some things to happen more naturally, which is how women got over in nxt to begin with.

[Emperor Smeat]

Found it interesting that one of the basis for Paige's claims involved "puppies" being used in derogatory terms which was something that didn't really originate with fans but instead with WWE and Jerry "The King" Lawler.

Like no shit the fans are going to chant the phrase after being conditioned for years by WWE about it being an acceptable term to use for women wrestlers.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Found it interesting that one of the basis for Paige's claims involved "puppies" being used in derogatory terms which was something that didn't really originate with fans but instead with WWE and Jerry "The King" Lawler.

Like no shit the fans are going to chant the phrase after being conditioned for years by WWE about it being an acceptable term to use for women wrestlers.

Going to have to go full SlickyTrickyDamon on you here and make a completely irrelevant correction -- but it was actually Road Dogg who originated "Puppies". Mr. Lawler simply took the ball and ran with it.

Sorry, I don't know why I felt so obligated to clarify that fact.

[DAMN iNATOR]

I was at a ppv where Melina faced Mickie good match and the crowd was disinterested so yeah she has a point.

Y'all nerds don't like when shots get taken at y'all from the wrestlers and it gets y'all in your feelings.

I never even brought up that match, and I'm sure if I re-watched it, I might be inclined to agree.

What you ignore or fail to realize is that just as much as a wrestler (oh, I'm sorry, "superstar" :roll: ) has a right to express their opinions to the fans, the fans have a right to respond back with their own opinions. That's literally the whole reason professional wrestling exists. The term "male soap opera" gets thrown around a lot, but that's essentially what it is.

[KIRA]

Yes it is our fault that Vince hired the likes of Kelly Kelly, Jackie Gayda, Jerry Lawler's 19th underage ex-girlfriend and a whole host of talentless models and also ran blondes through a diva search

Cuz we totally didn't bitch when they did absolutely nothing with Gail Kim and tried their damnedest to push the likes of The Bella Twins to the forefront of the company.

[Bad News Gertner]

The occasional good match isn’t going to maintain the audiences attention when it’s surrounded by so much pissbreak nonsense. There’s always been at any given time, a few women who truly care, and want to excel as performers, but that doesn’t really matter if the company isn’t willing to get behind the division as a whole.

It is what it is. Things aren’t perfect now, but I feel the division is in a better place than it was during the beginning of the women’s revolution. They’re still trying too hard at times but I also feel they’re allowing some things to happen more naturally, which is how women got over in nxt to begin with.

The match quality would have more the likely been better if they were given more than three minutes, but like you said if the company doesnt care then why should the fans.

[Fignuts]

You’re definitely right that some of those girls deserved more time. But 3 minutes in the ring is about all I can handle of someone like Christy Hemme. And there were a lot of them for a while.

[Bad News Gertner]

Very true. They also might have improved a bit if they were given more time. Lol yeah Christy wasn't good.

[Fignuts]

Looking at the landscape today, it really shows the value of the performance center. Even the below average female performers are a lot better than some of the women the had in years past.

[Bad News Gertner]

Oh yes definitely. Finlay did a yeomans job teaching the females in the ring back in the day, but this system is much better.

[Emperor Smeat]

Yes it is our fault that Vince hired the likes of Kelly Kelly, Jackie Gayda, Jerry Lawler's 19th underage ex-girlfriend and a whole host of talentless models and also ran blondes through a diva search

Cuz we totally didn't bitch when they did absolutely nothing with Gail Kim and tried their damnedest to push the likes of The Bella Twins to the forefront of the company.

Pretty much can blame Moolah, Vince, Kevin Dunn, and John Laurinaitis for why women's wrestling was in such a bad shape for decades in WWE outside of brief moments.

Vince and Laurinaitis are the biggest offenders of that group. Vince never really wanted women's wrestling in WWE and Laurinaitis' basis for signings involved if he saw them in a magazine or considered them bar date worthy.

[Bad News Gertner]

I just heard an interview Vince gave in 85 pumping up the Womens division. Lol not even a year later it was dead on its ass and they had an awesome roster of female wrestlers in the mid 80s. Half of it was Moolah, half Vince.

[Emperor Smeat]

I just heard an interview Vince gave in 85 pumping up the Womens division. Lol not even a year later it was read on its ass and they had an awesome roster of female wrestlers in the mid 80s

Also didn't help that a couple years later, Moolah played a key role in the demise of the original women's tag division and screwed the division out of a big moment at Mania that year.

[Bad News Gertner]

Pretty much can blame Moolah, Vince, Kevin Dunn, and John Laurinaitis for why women's wrestling was in such a bad shape for decades in WWE outside of brief moments.

Vince and Laurinaitis are the biggest offenders of that group. Vince never really wanted women's wrestling in WWE and Laurinaitis' basis for signings involved if he saw them in a magazine or considered them bar date worthy.

Good call on Moolah. She doesnt get enough blame for holding Women's wrestling down. She put the kibosh on the Jumping Bomb Angels vs Glamour Girls at Wrestlemania 2. Her matches were usually these half terrible comedy, half terrible wrestling 15 minute long bore fests. She was involved in screwing over Richter in November 1985 and pretty much killed the Women's Title for almost a decade depending on how you value Alundra's run. I'm not even counting the alleged abuse of the female talent. She was just the shits. Vince took her out of the ring in 84 to manage Leilani Kai and she should have stayed in that role because she was very effective. Just ugh.

[Fignuts]

Yeah, didn't Moolah pretty much put the brakes on the Jumping Bomb Angels when they started to get over in WWF?

[Fignuts]

Beat me to it.

[Fignuts]

lol wtf was literally going to use the word kibosh, but then was like "nah"

freaking out right now

[Bad News Gertner]

Like if you go back and watch women's matches not involving Moolah from like 83-85, they are having very fun matches. Not even counting the JBA/Crush Gals vs Glamour Girls in 86-87.

[Fignuts]

Yeah, I'm not as familiar with the stateside workers from that era, but what little I have seen, they knew how to work.

[Bad News Gertner]

If Moolah kept to managing, you could have had her as the mega heel manager bringing in heels to challenge Richter like Judy Martin, Leilani Kai , Dump Matsumoto, Despina Montages. There was stuff to work with there and she killed it.

[Bad News Gertner]

Yeah, I'm not as familiar with the stateside workers from that era, but what little I have seen, they knew how to work.

Check out Princess Victoria and Velvet McIntyre who were the first Womens Tag champs. They were a great team.
You also had Judy Martin, Peggy Lee, Leilani Kai, Despina Montages, Penny Mitchell, Deisree Peterson, Donna Christenello(she was kinda old by then), Wendi Richter of course, Susan Starr, Sherri Martel later on (always thought she was overrated). But yeah, the talent was right there and they were all wrestling throughout 83-86 WWF. Mix in the Japanesse talent too.

[Emperor Smeat]

Good call on Moolah. She doesnt get enough blame for holding Women's wrestling down. She put the kibosh on the Jumping Bomb Angels vs Glamour Girls at Wrestlemania 2. Her matches were usually these half terrible comedy, half terrible wrestling 15 minute long bore fests. She was involved in screwing over Richter in November 1985 and pretty much killed the Women's Title for almost a decade depending on how you value Alundra's run. I'm not even counting the alleged abuse of the female talent. She was just the shits. Vince took her out of the ring in 84 to manage Leilani Kai and she should have stayed in that role because she was very effective. Just ugh.

Forgot where I read it before but women's wrestling in the US could have turned out a lot more differently had it kept following the trend of Mildred Burke instead of being overtaken by Moolah. Mae Young pretty much comes from Burke's side of wrestling and not Moolah's but she lacked the same level of influence to change things which is why Moolah remained dominate for decades.

Pretty much can pinpoint where it starts to diverge when Burke got divorced. It then moves more into Moolah's side after Moolah realizes she was never going to be a big star in women's wrestling unless she took it over and watered it down to match her lower skill level.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Well, Paige's movie was good. I mean all of her movies were great but Fighting with My Family was good.

[Bad News Gertner]

You're absolutely right. Her ex husband Billy Wolfe royally fucked over Mildred Burke and basically had her blackballed from the NWA and completely broke.

[owenbrown]

Wow. Moolah was a piece of shit.

[Seanny One Ball]

And that's aside from the abuse allegations.
Marvellous!

[Mr. Nerfect]

Is Moolah the most selfish person in wrestling history? I’m genuinely not trying to be hyperbolic, but she’s got to be pretty high up there.

Re: the fans/women’s wrestling: WWE didn’t care. If they don’t the fans aren’t. Gerty said something similar, and it’s spot on. Part of the work is leading your audiences. WWE led them very conclusively to the point of “this isn’t serious.”

[LibSuperstar]

Moolah also blocked the women responsible for getting women's wrestling legalized in NY from working WWWF shows in the early '70s.

[Seanny One Ball]

Psychopaths usually are quite selfish.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I’m trying to empathise with Moolah as an exercise. Being a woman in the industry must have been tough. But she made it so much tougher. She truly was a monster.

[owenbrown]

I hope she's enjoying Hell right now