So not sure who follows IMPACT regularly and this will contain SPOILERS…
(fwiw I do not watch their programming and only follow along with the POST talk about it or major news)
They did an angle at their recent tapings where Sami Callihan smashed a bottle over Melissa Santos head during a wedding ceremony. Is Impact taking their men on women violence too far? I understand and support pushing Tessa as a star competing vs Men, but to go this violent against Santos is just…bless them trying to get a TV deal in the States running angles like this.
As much as I like Tessa I don’t really support pushing her against the men. It is bad for the promotion on the whole long term. She had a match against Callahan and earned his respect. Good story done move on. The continued push has only one real possible final outcome. She beats Callahan, (maybe for the title). Then what? She beats all the other men? Making them look weak. She drops the title quickly? Making the whole thing look like a cheap stunt. What about the other women? This devalues the Knockouts title because if Tessa is a top performer against the men then isn’t she really the top woman in the company and not the women’s champ? In some ways that already feels true.
What ain’t it? Having a woman as your champion doesn’t make your men’s roster appear weak? She can be as good as you want her to be but given the perception of women in all sports if your entire roster of men is portrayed as losing to a woman they don’t come across as being the best of the best when you look at male wrestlers. Let’s just look at Brian Cage their current champ he is billed at 6’ ~270lbs. Tessa is 5’5” and 126 lbs. so she is giving up more than an entire person to Cage, and we are to believe she beats him in the first place? Or that if she does he is a skilled competitor? Is it believable that Ronda Rousey would have beaten Lesner in the UFC? That is what we are looking at. Having her win over hurts the believability of the production as anything other than a performance. Or it suggests that these men just aren’t top level competitors. I’m sure Ronda would kick the crap out of plenty of men who are larger than her, but those men are not trained fighters. What we are looking at here is her being better than what are being put up as highly trained professional wrestlers.
I read that he was going to hit Cage and Cage moved or something, making the hit on Santos an accident. Its not like he viciously attacked her with a bottle. I dont see it as any different, than Chris Jericho punching Shawn Michaels wife in the face.
I watch IMPACT albeit a few weeks late; both the G1 and vacation has put my rasslin’ viewing WWWAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY behind schedule. IMPACT has been aiming for a mature audience for a while. It’s a TV show. I’ll wait to see the angle and its fallout to pass judgement. Remember a couple of years ago they ran an angle where a kid was run over during a gang-fight. Wrestling is wrestling.
Wrestling will be wrestling but a company that needs a TV deal and sponsorships isn’t getting it hitting women over the head with a bottle in this current climate. To quote @PodFatherSOH
Thats what I meant, it was an angle that was an accident. Not him purposely attacking Santos. I think if the angle had him purposely doing that, its crossing the line. That is totally different than hitting a wrestling move on the person. But because it was portrayed as an accident, I think the angle is alright.
Equality = the same = man vs. man is the same as man vs. woman… not difficult to understand.
It was also a tongue in cheek comment… It would be a case of equality but women aren’t perceived in the same way as men when it comes to being physical which results in a psychological hump for people to get over when it’s men vs. women.
If they actually want to make it work without people being shocked then they’ll first have to change people’s perception of women’s wrestling by somehow convincing people it’s near the level of men’s wrestling.