The WWE announced on Thursday that amidst tons of backlash to Monday’s announcement, they will no longer be naming the women’s battle royal at WrestleMania after the Fabulous Moolah (Lillian Ellison).
The WWE issued the following statement:
After further consideration, we believe it’s best to proceed with the name ‘WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal.’ What remains most important is that this historic match is part of WWE’s unwavering commitment to the Women’s Division.
The name change came just shortly after Mars Wrigley Confectionary US (the parent company of Snickers, the title sponsor at WrestleMania) deemed the decision to honor Fabulous Moolah “unacceptable” with a statement released on Thursday:
We were recently made aware of the World Wrestling Entertainment Inc’s (WWE) decision to honor a former wrestler during the upcoming WrestleMania 34 event. As a principle-based business that has long championed creating inclusive environments that encourage and empower everyone to reach their full potential, this is unacceptable. We are engaging with the WWE to express our disappointment.
It will be interesting to see if the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal gets shortened to the Wrestlemania Men’s Battle Royal for simplicity and consistency’s sake. It would suck for them to take away Andre the Giant’s recognition because of the Fabulous Moolah.
It’s amazing the bubble wwe operates in. Just because YOU personally get along with someone or admire them don’t ignore the history or statements they represent. From Warrior to Snuka now Moolah they are tone deaf. Vince should be replaced now!
This is a wise move. Just get rid of the Moolah name and by next week everyone will have moved on.
As for the Warrior thing, they will never get rid of the award and stop lionizing him. If Warrior was still alive, then sponsors may have been iffy on it, but with his sudden passing, that really took the teeth out of the critics. We can all at least agree that despite the things Warrior said, it was no where near the level of bad things perpetrated by Snuka, Benoit, and Moolah.
Besides as much as Dana Warrior comes off as just another WWE spokesperson, her and her family can at least have a good living off the WWE and Warrior to an extent.
While i don’t necessarily agree with this move, i feel that it’s the right move to make for WWE especially now that they have to answer to sponsors and shareholders. They did this move to please the main sponsors of Wrestlemania and that was smart. It’s more important to keep the company that’s paying part of the bill for mania then sticking to your gun and keeping the name for a match that’s pretty much guaranteed to be on the kickoff anyway.
Don’t equate some statements made by Jim Hellwig to what the fuck Moolah was being accused of. Not the same thing.
But whatever…good job guys. …you made every woman who made public comments and tweets about this match and the person it was named after look like gullible morons…Bravo.
LOL equating someone not agreeing with some one else as being mad.
Zero context is picked up here.
Let’s call this match The Godfather battle royal, use Chyna as the trophy.
Also lol at Meltzer and his selective outrage when he gives Patt Patterson props to this day and tries acting like Chris Benoit was the victim for his actions.
A good move by WWE, even if they had to be somewhat strong-armed into it.
As for Benoit, I’m not a HOF petitioner or conspiracy theorist. He made his own unpardonable decisions, but he also fell prey to the wrestling lifestyle like so many of his peers. I still wouldn’t equate his sins to what Moolah’s been accused of, being the one preying on the female wrestlers this Battle Royal was supposedly honoring.
Nate mentioned elsewhere on the boards that you could have named it after someone else, like Sherri Martel. They have a world of choice out there that you could honour and they picked one which resulted in this backlash. To be honest I do think it losing a name does hurt the match a little. I know at the end of the day it’s just another battle royal but they put added importance on it when they put that name on, the Andre Battle royal is just a battle royal but you get a trophy out of it so it comes off as more important than a regular one. I personally didn’t think it was the best idea to have 2 battle royals on a show anyway.
You can make a argument that Benoit was IN PART a victim. As far as I know Moolah didn’t have the brain of a 70+ year old man when she did some of her reprehensible stuff (and there was alot of it according to the women who worked with her). So there is that. Not saying that in any way excuses or lessens the horror of what Benoit did, but there is a part of his story that he is also a victim as well as a perpetrator.
Get outta here with that…he murdered his family. …you could use that defense for any murderer…actions still happened no matter what.
Also I’m not defending Moolah at all…Id like to get that out of the way in case some moron tries to change my narrative here.
I’m calling out the hypocrisy of this fake outrage generated online by biased websites, “journalists” and idiots who just finally heard these accusations and act like it was common knowledge for a long time.
An addict or drunk driver should have the book thrown at them for the consequences of their decision to drink or shoot up. Benoit’s cumulative brain damage was more insidious and integral than that. His actions caught a lot of his peers by surprise.
Compare that to Moolah’s lack of character witnesses to offset these apparent actions done over time to multiple women without some buffer like brain damage.
What Benoit did was wrong, no arguing that, but I still find Moolah’s alleged deeds more deplorable.
Dave Meltzer suggested naming it after someone like Trish Stratus who inspired a lot of the women of this generation. Better than The sanitized name they chose. Choosing Moolah was such a dumb move. Totally in their bubble.
The Moolah choice was ridiculous but is there any reason they haven’t changed it to - or didn’t consider - Sensational Sheri. I’m not a huge women’s wrestling history buff but I’ve not heard a bad word to be said about her, she’s seen as influential for both the men and women of the business, she helped to shepherd young talent’s like Shawn Michaels and Booker T early in their careers and was one of the most respected women of all time. I don’t understand why she wasn’t the first choice anyway, so am I missing something that everyone else knows about?