The WWE women’s division is very different today compared to how it used to be. At one point the women were mostly treated as eye candy, and they competed in contests such as bra & panties matches.
During a recent episode of Sitting Ringside with Dave Penzer, former WWE star and producer Fit Finlay talked about his time working with the women’s division, and he noted that he had bigger goals for the performers.
According to Finlay he made an effort to teach the women how to wrestle, but that’s not what the company wanted from them at the time.
“I was assigned to the girls and I was there when they had to do bra & panties matches and lingerie matches and pillow fights and Thanksgiving dinner matches. The whole thing. This really was not in my wheelhouse and was not who I am. I did it and tried my best at it. The girls were doing good, but I was getting embarrassed telling the girls how to strip each other off on a sunset flip. Eventually, I got the girls and sat most of them down and I was like, ‘Hey, I don’t know how you feel about this, but I’ll tell you how I feel.’ I told them I was embarrassed about, not the job, but about how to talk to a girl and tell them how to take their clothes off in a wrestling match. It was degrading to them. We all agreed, hugged, and had a plan to teach them how to wrestle. That’s what we did. I got my wrist slapped and was told, ‘This is not what we want, we don’t want girls wrestling like guys. We want them pulling hair and having catfights and wardrobe malfunctions.’ I would back off for a day or two and then we’d go back to wrestling. Stubbornly, I kept plugging on. Then, of course, they decided that did want a women’s wrestling division, and it’s their idea, right? I sparked the flame, I guess.”
H/T WrestleTalk.com
