The Greatest Royal Rumble is a regression on the Women’s Revolution
We are a week away from the WWE Greatest Royal Rumble Event. The card is stacked, with matches such as John Cena vs Triple H, and Undertaker vs Rusev in a casket match. The biggest ever Royal Rumble, with a staggering 50 men competing. And every championship will be defended. However, the women’s titles won’t be defended.
In fact, no women will be wrestling.
Due to the laws and beliefs of the nation, no women will be featured on the show. As much as I’m excited to watch what essentially is a continuation of Wrestlemania 34, this show really rubs me the wrong way for that reason.
Last week I wrote about how Ronda Rousey was heralded as the star of Wrestlemania 34. Now she won’t be featured in any way at what they’re calling “A Historic Event.” WWE doesn’t have to do business in a country where it’s illegal for women to compete freely in sports. They were simply offered a boatload of cash and excluded their women from the show.
WWE is the juggernaut of the industry. They made over 800 million dollars last year. They clearly aren’t hurting for dollars. They saw the highest growth the company has ever seen this last year. They just want “more.” It’s time they work on retaining some prestige, rather than furthering their already stable financial growth.
With years and years of this push for a “Women’s Revolution,” it’s a huge step back.
They’ve made such great strides the past few years with having the women main eventing a PPV for the first time, the first women’s Money in the Bank ladder match, and the first ever Women’s Royal Rumble back in January. But what does this say about Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Asuka, Ronda Rousey, all who have won our hearts and earned our respect these past few years? It says they’re not worth turning down the amount of money they’re being paid for this.
Luckily, women can still attend the show, but they can’t even buy their own tickets. They need to have men buy it for them. Members of the LGBT community can also attend the show, but if they engage in any activity deemed as inappropriate, they can be executed for it.
This is not the right message to send to people that will be tuning in from all over the world. Kids will be watching from their couch and will be asking their parents why their favorite wrestlers aren’t on their TV. If WWE were to hold their women athletes to the same level as their men, they wouldn’t agree to leave them out. And because of that, it’s a lot harder for the Women’s Revolution to sustain that legitimacy.
Braden Jackson