Starr: NWA Empowerrr: Revolution or Vanity Project?

NWA Empowerrr raised some discourse about not only the NWA, but women’s wrestling on a whole. But are we any closer to bridging the gap between men’s and women’s wrestling?

If you were to poll wrestling fans on interest level for the National Wrestling Alliance’s first all-women’s pay-per-view event last evening, it is hard to imagine that poll would favor the NWA.  When you analyze the bulk of wrestling news at in the last week, the NWA EmPowerrr event had virtually no ongoing discussion going in.  No one was talking about it; no one was writing about it.

This brings up an interesting discussion as to how wrestling fans view women’s wrestling in 2021.  On the one hand, you can make a rational argument that there will always be a market for women’s wrestling, perhaps not on a mainstream level, but with a subset of fans that will watch either via streaming services or secondary markets.  However, it is important to remember that WWE tried this experiment three years ago with their first (and only) all women’s pay-per-view, Evolution.  While there may have been fan interest at the time, it is telling to see how quickly things subsided and reverted back to the usual WWE formula after that show.  We also should not forget that the Evolution event did the company’s lowest pay-per-view rating in history.

WWE went through a very strange period between 2018-2019 where it felt as if they were forcibly pushing women’s wrestling on their show, regardless of whether or not fans wanted to see it.  Granted, this was at the point where they signed Ronda Rousey, and Becky Lynch started to gain a lot of traction.  And yes, they ultimately used that momentum to build to the WrestleMania 35 main event of Charlotte v. Becky Lynch v. Ronda Rousey.  However, with two years of hindsight, the intrigue for women’s wrestling in WWE is virtually nonexistent.  Ronda is gone, and while Becky just made her return at SummerSlam this past weekend after being out on maternity leave, the company has now inexplicably turned her heel in order to thwart all the success she had developed as a babyface.  All the while, the spotlight and focus that they gave to Bianca Belair for the entire year has virtually been undercut.

To put it in perspective, Triple H. was asked at the NXT Takeover: In Your House conference call this past June whether or not WWE would consider a second all-female pay-per-view.  His response was that, while the company was not opposed to the idea, “It’s not a must-have.”  He also cited the double-standard of producing an all-women pay-per-view as signifying equality, while suggesting the probable backlash the company would receive for producing an all-male pay-per-view.  Mickie James had passionately spoke out about wanting WWE to conduct another all-female event, but was continually shutdown by executives.

That brings us to the NWA.  Last evening, Mickie was given the opportunity to host the NWA Empowerrr event.  In sum, the show brought back a lot of flashbacks with how WWE presented their Evolution event three years ago.  There was a lot of crying, which felt very forced and overdramatized.  Understandably, some of the talent may have felt genuine emotion being a part of this event, but as a women’s wrestling fan, the gushiness did not seem warranted.  It is not as if this was a groundbreaking event in the history of professional wrestling; all female pay-per-views have already been done on a global scale with better matches, better talent, and better production.  At the end of the show, every wrestler broke kayfabe by coming out to applaud one another.  The matches ranged on the spectrum from solid to awful, with the exception of Melina vs. Deonna Purrazzo, which was very good.  The surprise appearances of Madusa, Gail Kim, and Awesome Kong were enjoyable.  And, although there were some recognizable crossover talents from other promotions, the show also featured a lot of green independent talent that were not ready for television, much less, live pay-per-view.

So as we reflect on the show, I pose a series of controversial, but valid questions to the NWA as we progress forward.  Was this show a revolutionary event or a Mickie James vanity project?  What is the end game?  Are we expecting a fifty-fifty split of male and female segments or matches on future Powerrr shows?  Are you insinuating that the women on this show featured the best female talent on the market today?  Will this be an annual event, or will it quickly be swept under the rug and forgotten about like WWE Evolution?  Or put bluntly, was this a one-stop publicity stunt to preach about women’s empowerment and feminism?

For clarification purposes, this article is written by an individual who does not oppose women’s wrestling.  When done right, women add a lot of value and purpose to the wrestling market.  However, statistically speaking, women athletes do not draw like the male athletes (and this is not mutually exclusive to professional wrestling).  And while fans may try to give the perception that we care about women’s wrestling on a mainstream level, the fact is this does not reflect in television viewership, pay-per-view buy rates, or ticket sales.  In sum, women in wrestling continue to be “an” attraction, but they certainly are not “the” attraction.

Sources:

• Thompson, A. (2021, June 10). Pre-NXT takeover: In your house media call notes. POST Wrestling | WWE NXT AEW NJPW UFC Podcasts, News, Reviews. https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/06/10/pre-nxt-takeover-in-your-house-media-call-notes/.