WWE has become more open than it ever was. For an instance, a lot of fans knew about the WrestleMania match between Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt when the latter was still in The Wyatt Family. We now know how the SummerSlam card looks despite the company’s not talking up one yet. Rumor has it that Vince McMahon and co. haven’t told anyone about the SummerSlam main event that sees four of the biggest wrestlers in the company fight for Universal Championship.
However, there are certain aspects of the wrestling business that WWE Universe will always come to know about. For an instance, many dirt sheets were already reporting on the relationship between Alberto El Patron and Paige days before the couple uploaded a rather romantic picture to Instagram. A wrestling journalist tweets about Jason Jordan’s being announced as Kurt Angle’s illegitimate son and The Great Khali’s run-in during the Punjabi Prison match at Battleground is another case in point.
The following article will look at 15 things about WWE’s women’s roster that, despite Vinnie Mac’s best efforts, have been made public. He’d want you to forget about these but, we, wrestling journalists and writers, will always ensure the fans never forget the embarrassing bits. If you think I’ve failed to discuss a shadier or more embarrassing thing about the WWE women, you can mention those in the comments section. Without further ado, allow me to break your heart by telling you how your dream girl is out of your reach having already been exchanged vows with someone.
15 15. Marital status
The advent of the social media and message boards has made numerous changes to the way the wrestling business functions. WWE has managed to keep up with the times, yet there are things they’ve managed to hide from their fan base. Female talents’ marital status is one such thing, as they’ve hardly brought up the marriages of Sasha Banks and Mickie James.
Their decision is palpable as they might not have been able to produce segments such as the one in which Enzo Amore flirts with The Boss had they made her marriage to WWE costume designer Sarath Ton public. Additionally, Bayley, Paige and Alexa Bliss are engaged to less prominent wrestlers, so one can expect the company to never bring up their engagement, ever.
Only the well-informed wrestling fans seem aware of their marital status and history; thus, Vince McMahon and co.’s efforts have been working, as of now.
14 14. Real ages
WWE’s always been keen to never reveal the real age of their wrestlers as doing so may affect how they book the characters the wrestlers portray. They recently made Carmella the Money in the Bank winner, an accolade they hand their prospects, while they’ve made Sasha Banks their history-making wrestling veteran. Carmella’s appearance and commitment to her character ensures their attempts to make her look an up-and-coming wrestler work like a charm but, outside kayfabe, it’s a whole different story. The Princess of Staten Island will be turning 30 come October while The Boss turned 25 earlier this year.
Additionally, with 14 women on the active roster aged 30 or above, such as Nia Jax, Becky Lynch and Asuka, WWE won’t ever mention their real ages on their weekly programs as doing so can bring down their sex appeal.
13 13. Marital history
No entertainment company ever publicizes their employees’ marital history unless there’s money to be made out of it, and WWE are no exceptions. The McMahons try their best to keep their fans oblivious of their talents’ divorce history, but the gossip mongers on the internet ensure their hard-acquired knowledge of the wrestlers’ marital history becomes available to the public. Accordingly, we’re now aware of what Charlotte Flair and Nikki Bella had gone through before making their mind up to pursue wrestling as a career.
The former has been married twice while the latter tied the knot with her high school sweetheart at 20. With The Queen now working on becoming as prominent a wrestler as her father in her division and the latter set to marry John Cena, we’re never going to see their marital history even incorporated in storylines.
12 12. Past Non-PG Photoshoots
WWE’s decision to turn TV-PG has drawn the ire of the fans; however, with their monopoly over the business looking set to prevail, they don’t need to TV-14 ratings ever again. Additionally, with TV-PG being their only way to cultivate new fans, they’re never doing the Attitude Era stuff in the near future. Accordingly, WWE will never want their fans to know that a few of their female talents had adult-entertained their fans before or simultaneously sports entertaining them. Lana, Maryse and Maria Kanellis have all posed in their birthday suit for numerous adult magazines such as Playboy, while veteran Mickie James did raunchier photo shoots before receiving wrestling training from the notorious Funking Conservatory.
Despite WWE recently publicizing bikini photo shoots of Emma and Naomi, odds are high that they let their fan base become aware of the existence of their talents’ naked pictorials.
11 11. Backstage friendships
WWE tries their best to ensure wrestlers’ being close friends backstage never reaches the the fans’ ears. However, the social media activity of the talents offers the fans a good view of their personal views. For an instance, WWE wasn’t successful in ensuring a picture that shows Roman Reigns and his biggest rival Braun Strowman socializing during WWE’s tour of Europe. The women’s division also offers WWE such headaches, with the friendships between Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss and Charlotte and Becky Lynch limiting the writers’ chances of creating a rivalry between them. However, with the former duo playing heels, WWE writers shouldn't be fretting over their social media activity. Having said that, WWE will want you to never know about backstage friendships as that could dilute the storylines big-time.
10 10. Inexperience
WWE has lately become the dream destination for every indie wrestler. With AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Cesaro, Kassius Ohno, Finn Balor and Karl Anderson all achieving considerable success, WWE now has more successful technical wrestlers than ever. The trend, however, only partly translates to the women’s roster, as only Becky Lynch, Bayley and Emma boasted a respectable amount of experience before signing for WWE. Nia Jax, Tamina, Naomi and Dana Brooke have all managed to secure a WWE contract straightaway, with the former three allegedly cashing in on WWE’s nepotism to deny other deserving indie talents the opportunity to become a huge star.
The men’s division, indeed, has a few WWE originals such as Baron Corbin, Braun Strowman, Enzo Amore, Kofi Kingston and Big E; however, they outdo their female counterparts as far as performance is concerned, as the WWE-bred female talents prove only a shadow of the well-traveled women.
9 9. Substance Abuse issues
With substance use (or, abuse) in pro-wrestling being an ever-hot topic of discussion, WWE will never want you to know about their employees’ usage. Many pro-wrestling enthusiasts and journalists have questioned the legitimacy of their Wellness Policy as they claim that wrestlers high up the food chain often get away with testing positive during drug tests. Paige became the latest wrestler to raise their voice when the company suspended her following a violation. Recently released wrestler Eva Marie also received a suspension because of her use recently. Although the company made the violation public, they’ll never want their fans to remember the incident if they intend to never bring them back. The pair aren’t the only women with a history of drug abuse of Wellness Policy violation, though as Becky Lynch had her issues with drugs during her youth.
8 8. Promiscuity
Wrestling is a strange world, where cheating on a spouse is not uncommon. With men outnumbering women, we see certain women talents hooking up with numerous men. The IWC hates on Lita, Kelly Kelly and Sunny for being promiscuous, but a few get a pass despite being as promiscuous as them. One such lady is Raw’s Mickie James. A five-time Women’s Championship winner, she’s hooked up with CM Punk, Joey Mercury, Kenny Dykstra and John Cena before meeting the one, Magnus.
With WWE now trying to make their female talents look role models to young fans (see: Bayley, Sasha Banks, Naomi, and Becky Lynch), Vince McMahon will want you to never know about his female talents’ promiscuity. However, with private media featuring Paige, Brad Maddox and Xavier Woods doing the rounds recently, one wonders if WWE will ever be able to succeed in making saints out of their female workers.
7 7. Women's Wrestling Still Doesn't Seem Like A Priority
WWE women are capable of wrestling the best match of any night; unfortunately, we find them in kick-off and bathroom-break bouts. Even their recent PPV Battleground saw capable wrestlers such as Natalya, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch and hacks in Lana and Tamina wrestle an 11-minute match, with only the Sami Zayn victory over Mike Kanellis running shorter. Given the public outrage on the back of their questionable decision to help James Ellsworth steal the limelight in the first-ever Women’s Money in the Bank match, one would have expected them to make amends by making SmackDown Live’s women’s division at least as legitimate as the 205 Live roster. They’re quite keen on making their women feel like legitimate wrestlers; however, how they book them leaves a lot to be desired.
6 6. Stephanie McMahon’s awkward moments
When you’re in front of cameras for as long as Stephanie McMahon is, some of your embarrassing moments are always going to be captured. One of her earliest awkward moments saw her twins pop out of her attire as her husband, Triple H, was setting up a Pedigree on her. She has since been in numerous awkward moments, with her answering nature’s call at Payback in 2014 being the most prominent embarrassing moment in recent memory. She found herself in a position she and WWE will want you to forget after being slapped by Brie Bella.
However, that isn’t her latest incident in a series of such incidents, as she could be seen finding her face soaked in the water Triple H had spat out during his entrance at WrestleMania this year. She’s maintained her composure through all such events, though, highlighting why Vince McMahon entrusts her with big responsibilities.
5 5. WWE’s pay structure
AJ Lee raised her voice against the wage gap in the company a few years ago during her record-breaking title reign. Stephanie McMahon and Vince McMahon both stated on Twitter that they’d work on that, with the Women’s Revolution then still in its infancy. Many years, later, however, the wage gap continues to be as drastic as it’s always been. No active female wrestler is amongst the top ten best paid wrestlers in the company right now, as even the main eventers such as Alexa Bliss, Naomi and Four Hoursewomen making only pennies. With more number of fans turning up to watch women’s wrestling than ever and even grown up male adult fans donning Bayley’s merchandise proudly, WWE ought to be paying them at least as the mid-card male wrestlers.
4 4. Potential existence of More Paige-esque tapes
As discussed above, wrestling is a strange industry. No one would have expected Paige to have her sex tapes with multiple WWE men leaked online a few months ago. Following those clips were naked pictorials of Charlotte, Victoria, Summer Rae, as well as Seth Rollins falling victim to it back in 2015. Despite online leaks being rather common these days, WWE will never want their fans to view images that leave nothing to imagination. Given how clicking naked pictorials and uploading those to iCloud is common these days, one wonders how worried WWE is about the prospect of having private media of kids’ favorites such as Bayley and Sasha Banks released. Rumor has it that they were warned about future leaks on the back of the Paige debacle; they duly conducted a lecture in which an accomplished ethical hacker gave them tips to avoid being in such situations.
3 3. Obvious nepotism
Wrestling is a business in which nepotism is more common than in any other industry. We’ve seen terrible wrestlers who have been on the limelight solely based off their family name. However, one family that hasn’t been using their family name as much as the DiBiases, the Von Erichs, the Flairs and the Anoa’is. With Roman Reigns, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso, Tamina, Naomi and Nia Jax all coming from a family, one wonders how pivotal the Anoa’is are to today’s product. It’s easy to conclude that The Rock paved the way for these men to be successful in WWE; however, not every person from that list seems to deserve their place in the company. The Usos and Roman Reigns are talented enough to make millions without ever having to mention their family names anywhere.
However, with some other former wrestlers in the family denying able indie talents their place in the company, one laments the existence of nepotism in the company.
2 2. Paige Still Being Employed
Paige is still on the WWE roster. Given what she’s done – slam the company’s already controversial Wellness Policy on Twitter in the wake of her suspension, censuring WWE alongside her significant other Alberto El Patron on Periscope, appearing on Slammiversary with a luchador mask on and general disregard for Wellness Policy – one may expect her to blacklist her for life as they did Randy Savage. However, with The Rock producing a documentary film based off her life titled Fighting With My Family, they’re awaiting a decision until the release of the film as they could then capitalize on the movie’s popularity. If the movie doesn’t fare well, though, Vince McMahon will ensure nobody ever remembers her as she’s been a big nuisance since entering a relationship with her Mexican boyfriend.
1 1. Job history
Before entering wrestling, many wrestlers have done jobs WWE may not be very proud of. For an instance, Raw’s first draft pick Seth Rollins himself wrestled for promotions that cater to a gay audience. Similarly, female wrestlers themselves have had gigs that the company would never want you to know about. As discussed above, Mickie James, a six-time champion, worked for numerous adult companies, as she posed naked and in compromising positions with men to put the food on the table.
Similarly, Lana, a 32-year-old novice, before signing an NXT contract, did numerous photoshoots besides being dance extras for many notable rappers and hip-hop artists. With WWE now catering to kids and TV-PG audience, they will never want you to ever know about their job history as it somewhat hurts the brand Vince McMahon and co. are trying to build.