Backlash surrounding the Fabulous Moolah Battle Royal

[Psykohurricane55]

On raw last night, they announce the first ever fabulous moolah memorial battle royal and within a day, they're as been some backlash around the fact that she's getting honored while she wasn't necessarily a great role model for women'S. I'm not going into specific of everything that's been reported about her past but some of it is really bad if you look at it through 2018 eyes.

The thing is, if you go back to her era of wrestling, she pretty much the most well known women wrestler of her era. And if where going to condemn her for the choice she made back then, why not condemn Mae Young, who got her own tournament last year, for some of the stuff she did back in the day, and for what i've read, it's as bad as what Moolah did.

How about being upset about Andre The giant getting his own Battle royal while it was well known that he was a bully backstage.

The fact is, it's easy to condemn somebody when they're dead without trying to understand the reasons why they did it in the first place. You can't compare what happened in present day to what happened in the 60's, 70's or even 80's. They we're different era with different mentality.

I'm not saying that what she did was correct or anything but going on a witch hunt over something that happened over 30 years ago is dumb in my opinion.

Anyway, Moolah wasn't a perfect person, nobody is and we all have skeleton in our closets but instead of looking at all the bad things she did, let's just celebrate all the doors she opened for today's women's wrestlers and what she meant to the world of wrestling.

 

[The Life Of Pablo Ren]

Don't compare being a backstage bully to the type of stuff Moolah did. It's not even fair to compare to her Mae Young. Mae wasn't a saint, but a large portion of the bad things that she did to were directly related to her association with Moolah.

Moolah has done some absolutely heinous things that thankfully over the past few years have only become more and more widely known thanks to the internet, she doesn't deserve to be celebrated in any way shape or form. The fact that you're trying to make excuses for her by saying we don't why she did it or you can't compare this era to the past is quite frankly, very alarming. There's no justifiable reason for pimping out women that you're training and then stealing their money, I don't know why you'd even attempt to find one.

I'm amazed at WWE's ignorance sometimes. They try so desperately hard to protect their squeaky clean image, going as far as to edit out a #MeToo hashtag on someone's shirt yet they continue to celebrate all of these awful excuses for human beings. I hope this doesn't go away, I hope there continues to be a pushback to the point where WWE is forced to either get rid of the Battle Royal completely or change the name. There are far better and more deserving names they can use to celebrate their female talent.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

You shouldn't have to try to understand why someone was basically a pimp to up and coming women wrestlers. There is no way to rationalize that as being right. Moolah is one of the greatest black marks on pro wrestling, yet because most common fans don't know her awful past, WWE runs her name around like she was Jesus Christ.

To compare what she did to anyone else you listed, is so off base I can't even begin to find words to talk about it.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

You tried to paint Moolah in a better light by telling us to shrug her history off.

Then you turned around and tried comparing what she did to what Andre and Mae did, in essence telling us not to ignore said history.

This line of reasoning is too confusing to even begin but I assure you it's the most ridiculous thing I've read here in several, several months.

Also, comparing the three is a huge false equivalence fallacy.

 

[HeenanGorilla]

Disgraceful portrayal of Andre’s influence on the locker room. Shame on you.

Another check on Stephanie’s Who Gives a Shit women are great checklist. How about instead of a Fabulous Moolah memorial battle royal, they start the Trish Stratus “not lazily throw 6 women in a match” tradition?

 

[FromGlasgow]

Why are we just hearing all this about Moolah now? Arguably the greatest female wrestler of all time so I'm shocked to hear all this and surprised I hadn't even heard rumours before, If true I don't think she should be celebrated by WWE dedicating matches to her, At this stage the reports sound genuine but can't tell for sure.
Also Andre being a bully? Do you have any evidence of this? As I have mainly only heard positive things about Andre the Giant.
I know she was better known as a manager but how about renaming it the Sherri Martel battle royal.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Why are we just hearing all this about Moolah now? Arguably the greatest female wrestler of all time so I'm shocked to hear all this and surprised I hadn't even heard rumours before, If true I don't think she should be celebrated by WWE dedicating matches to her, At this stage the reports sound genuine but can't tell for sure.
Also Andre being a bully? Do you have any evidence of this? As I have mainly only heard positive things about Andre the Giant.
I know she was better known as a manager but how about renaming it the Sherri Martel battle royal.

Everything about what happened with moolah are based on women's that came out and did "shoot" interviews if I get this right. I'm not sure if that anybody has concrete proof of these allegations or not because we know that shoot interviews are as reel as what is reported in the dirt sheets, by that I mean, if somebody hates somebody strong enough they can say anything to hurt that person. Personally, I heard those stories for the first time today, so I can't tell you if anything was proven to be true or not.

As far as Andre is concern, again these are based on stories that we're told by his peers throughout the years and was using this as an example to prove a point. Sometimes It's easier to spread rumours on somebody when he or she's dead.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

Pretty sure you can do that on everyone. Hogan is branded racist, StoneCold is branded "wife beater". Pretty sure in future there is bound to be "StoneCold, stick it out to your Boss" award. Ultimate Warrior was pretty crazy and problematic especially with his statements and every year there is an award with his name.

What I am trying to say, SJWs could always find to complain about anything if they dig hard enough. And in the spirit of them being like that I say, lets hope FMMBA lasts as much as possible.

 

[BigBombB]

Yeah, a lot of people are jerks or not nice people, but Moolah is a whole other level that is damn near galaxies away from that sort of stuff. Sure, there is a remote chance there is this giant conspiracy to discredit her, but I'm not seeing many people from that time period denying it and it seems pretty much everyone who associated with her isn't shocked by it. Again, a lot of this info is based on "shoot" interviews and mini-documentary style things but considering the massive amount of power she had over these women it does seem to paint a dreary picture. The encouragement of drug abuse and the prostitution claims are well beyond anything the WWE should willingly associate themselves with at this point.

I realize she is a major part of wrestling history but these are sadistic things more on level with what Chris Benoit did, perhaps even worse when you consider he just snapped one night while she was knowingly introducing and grooming people into this weird cult family for many, many years. I understand the whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing and that there really should be a deeper investigation into this, but if even a fraction of these stories are true then history is better off forgetting she ever existed.

 

[FromGlasgow]

Everything about what happened with moolah are based on women's that came out and did "shoot" interviews if I get this right. I'm not sure if that anybody has concrete proof of these allegations or not because we know that shoot interviews are as reel as what is reported in the dirt sheets, by that I mean, if somebody hates somebody strong enough they can say anything to hurt that person. Personally, I heard those stories for the first time today, so I can't tell you if anything was proven to be true or not.

As far as Andre is concern, again these are based on stories that we're told by his peers throughout the years and was using this as an example to prove a point. Sometimes It's easier to spread rumours on somebody when he or she's dead.

Wrestlers typically aren't well known for ther angelic behaviour but the accusations against The Fabulous Moolah are evil and I'm surprised its not a bigger story as she was arguably the greatest womens wrestler of all time, The WWE has nothing to gain by naming this match after her so I can't understand why they are, Is it worth the bad publicity?

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Wrestlers typically aren't well known for ther angelic behaviour but the accusations against The Fabulous Moolah are evil and I'm surprised its not a bigger story as she was arguably the greatest womens wrestler of all time, The WWE has nothing to gain by naming this match after her so I can't understand why they are, Is it worth the bad publicity?

But the thing is that if it's stay within the wrestling community like it seem to be, then it doesn't change a thing and since their still a lot of women's wrestlers that respect her for what she did inside the ring and couldn't care less about everything else then why not name a match after her.

WWE knew that this would pretty much be like the whole warrior controversy they had last year when they use warrior as the focal point of their breast cancer campaign. They know that it's just the wrestling community getting upset about something and it won't cross over to the mainstream media. So they don't risk to get bad publicity for that because they don't care what the wrestling media as to say about them.

Like the motto says, if a tree falls and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound. So you can apply this motto for this. If the wrestling community is outrage about this but the mainstream media doesn't pick up the story, will it hurt wwe?

Simply put, no.

 

[Sexcellence of Sexecution]

Yeah what a shocker, WWE has no actual principles and has a bunch of ridiculous double standards. The Ultimate Warrior was a piece of shit, and so was the Fabulous Moolah. For them to be celebrated by the WWE and honored so much, and then for Hulk Hogan to be completely cast out and stripped of Hall of Fame status is so mind-numbingly stupid.

The Fabulous Moolah is directly responsible for the sexual abuse and exploitation of students. She stole money from them, pimped them out, and took advantage of her position of power. The Ultimate Warrior paraded around the country making idiotic speeches about the dangers of homosexuality. Linda McMahon is in the cabinet of President Donald Trump. This is a company that wants to pretend like it's empowering women and taking a stand against bullying/harassment. That's what you call hypocrisy, and it's a fucking joke.

I stopped giving money to these people a long time ago. Stream every PPV, fuck live events, fuck merchanidise. By giving them money you're not only subsidizing their terrible booking decisions you're subsidizing their repeated patterns of disgusting and disingenuous behaviour. If you are actually bothered by this, do something about it. Don't just talk about it. Stop paying for WWE products.

I'm not holding my breath on this one.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

This is a bold move from Vince, but I think ultimately it is a very bad Vince move...

I can imagine Steph pushing for this battle royale and perhaps having another person in mind for it to be named after, for example the Trish Stratus Invitational... but Vince being Vince insisted on Moolah. The obvious thing was to induct Cyndi Lauper this year and have the first one as HER invitational or use someone like Alundra or Beth or christ even Sable to front it as their invitational.

I mean could it not have been the Miss Elizabeth Memorial? or the Sherri Martel memorial? If they want Trish in it of course they can't really name it after her but there are several candidates FAR better placed than Moolah, with less baggage attatched and innuendo. They could even have made it the Steph Invitational and it would have gone over better!

You have to remember Moolah was a big part of the company when Vince Sr. was there as well as Vince coming up in the company and Vince is always fiercely loyal to people who were around in his dad's era.

In this case it's a real problem as it could backfire spectacularly and undo much of the good work done, and Steph be the one carrying the can for it. It's not hard to forsee the accusations going public on Moolah, let's face it, Jimmy Saville was dead when all his came out so her being gone doesn't preclude her from it. If they come out, then so do all the other accusations over the years from OTHER talent... suddenly a Steph interview could be like...

Interviewer: "What would you say to people who claim that Moolah, the woman your company is celebrating was involved in these activities and there are several women over the yearswho have made accusations against not only Moolah, but the company and even it's chairman... is this the right message to send selecting this person or isn't this hypocritical?..."

Steph: "We are fiercely protective of womens rights, end of interview.."

Immediately Steph is hung out to dry as she's the one who is fronting the womens movement in the corporate world and she is being put in the position where the company is exposed as hypocritical. Either that or the question gets put to Ronda, which is even more embarrassing and damaging to what WWE has tried to do.

Not sure what Vince was thinking in naming it after Moolah, even naming it after Chyna would have had less flak attached than Moolah. Ultimately the one who probably suffers most is whoever wins it, talk about an albatross round their neck, they'll give it to Bayley... you watch.

 

[LibSuperstar]

The issue w/ comparing Moolah to other wrestlers w/ skeletons in their closets is that her alleged transgressions involved the business. Not to mention people who condemn Moolah have talked about others (e.g. Austin, Snuka and Warrior). And as THTRobtaylor outlined, it doesn't match the Women's Revolution line WWE is pushing.

 

[scottbarton]

wow i must have been living in a closet as i had no idea all of this happened with Moolah. I mean the intention is for a big name like Andre and to have a women counterpart to the men's battle royal. Maybe the WWE will go back on their decision or be stubborn and stick with it?

 

[MrMojoRisin]

On raw last night, they announce the first ever fabulous moolah memorial battle royal and within a day, they're as been some backlash around the fact that she's getting honored while she wasn't necessarily a great role model for women'S. I'm not going into specific of everything that's been reported about her past but some of it is really bad if you look at it through 2018 eyes.

The thing is, if you go back to her era of wrestling, she pretty much the most well known women wrestler of her era. And if where going to condemn her for the choice she made back then, why not condemn Mae Young, who got her own tournament last year, for some of the stuff she did back in the day, and for what i've read, it's as bad as what Moolah did.

How about being upset about Andre The giant getting his own Battle royal while it was well known that he was a bully backstage.

The fact is, it's easy to condemn somebody when they're dead without trying to understand the reasons why they did it in the first place. You can't compare what happened in present day to what happened in the 60's, 70's or even 80's. They we're different era with different mentality.

I'm not saying that what she did was correct or anything but going on a witch hunt over something that happened over 30 years ago is dumb in my opinion.

Anyway, Moolah wasn't a perfect person, nobody is and we all have skeleton in our closets but instead of looking at all the bad things she did, let's just celebrate all the doors she opened for today's women's wrestlers and what she meant to the world of wrestling.

She was a pimp.

She took advantage of the women who worked for her financially; professionally; emotionally and personally.

She is the reason that women's wrestling in North America has been light years behind what it is in Japan for decades, and is only now beginning to catch up.

But most importantly, she was a pimp. She made arrangements with promoters to send out her wrestlers to them specifically to have sex with the promoters and any of the boys who wished. She didn't tell her trainee's about this, and most were raped as a result. And she monopolized women's wrestling in North America, so if you wanted to be a wrestler, then you had no choice but to go along with this.

That isn't looking at anything through 2018 eyes. That's just looking at them through moral ones.

She was awful.

 

[The Life Of Pablo Ren]

They dropped the name.

They just sent out the 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.”

It was definitely coming, especially after Snickers said it was unacceptable. They obviously made the right decision but the real right decision would've been to you know... not name it after Moolah in the first place so I'm not gonna give them too much credit here.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

It was definitely coming, especially after Snickers said it was unacceptable.

The sick irony in all of this is that every time I taste the processed chocolate, chemically induced caramel, and stale nuts of a Snickers bar I feel like an abused unwilling ****e.

My apologies to all the abused unwilling ****e readers of this forum and those that care for them. Clearly I don't know their pain but we all have to admit that Snickers are pretty gross.

This seems like the right decision. Maybe the jury is still out on the crime but it isn't worth the time, effort, or risk to carry on the name. I'm happy that the women, like the men are getting the opportunity to compete on the Mania card and happier that the main female superstars don't have to be in multi women matches any more just to be on the card.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

The funny thing is that now, fans will think that they had a thing in all of this when they truly didn't. While I didn't mind that moolah was being honored with this battle royal because I understood that they we're honoring her in ring career and not the person she was outside the ring, I get why they did. If wwe had a choice between sticking to their gun or pleasing their main sponsors, it's not worth the risk to stick to their gun.

Now, I'm sad that they aren't on speaking term with Sherri martel's family because she would have been the only name that is as much of a well known figure in women's wrestling and wouldn't get them backlash with their sponsors

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The funny thing is that now, fans will think that they had a thing in all of this when they truly didn't. While I didn't mind that moolah was being honored with this battle royal because I understood that they we're honoring her in ring career and not the person she was outside the ring, I get why they did. If wwe had a choice between sticking to their gun or pleasing their main sponsors, it's not worth the risk to stick to their gun.

Now, I'm sad that they aren't on speaking term with Sherri martel's family because she would have been the only name that is as much of a well known figure in women's wrestling and wouldn't get them backlash with their sponsors

The idea is dead in the water now... everyone will now see it for what it truly was, a way for WWE to try to build their image by "promoting women" in a cynical way and they are more worried about what a sponsor thinks than making it a genuine empowerment opportunity from the get go by associating it with someone like Trish or Cyndi Lauper who could have been positive influences in the lead up to it... The Women Want To Have Fun hashtags could have done a lot for this for example... showing that WWE is both serious, yet not lost touch with the roots of the womens wrestling division in the WWE.

Pretty much everything I said earlier still happens... whoever wins it is tainted by it, it now probably gets relegated to the kick off show and it's now clear that WWE got bitch slapped by a sponsor that drove the change rather than any fan pressure... Like I said, pretty much a Vince call that's backfired and Steph has to be the one to take the heat.

As for honoring just the ring career... then Benoit headlines next year yeah?

 

[Psykohurricane55]

The idea is dead in the water now... everyone will now see it for what it truly was, a way for WWE to try to build their image by "promoting women" in a cynical way and they are more worried about what a sponsor thinks than making it a genuine empowerment opportunity from the get go by associating it with someone like Trish or Cyndi Lauper who could have been positive influences in the lead up to it... The Women Want To Have Fun hashtags could have done a lot for this for example... showing that WWE is both serious, yet not lost touch with the roots of the womens wrestling division in the WWE.

Pretty much everything I said earlier still happens... whoever wins it is tainted by it, it now probably gets relegated to the kick off show and it's now clear that WWE got bitch slapped by a sponsor that drove the change rather than any fan pressure... Like I said, pretty much a Vince call that's backfired and Steph has to be the one to take the heat.

As for honoring just the ring career... then Benoit headlines next year yeah?

Again i get we're you'Ve coming from with the Cyndi Lauper thing, the biggest problem WWE faces with that is Cyndi Lauper herself. The thing is, she's been angry at WWE for some reason or another and wants nothing to do with them. I've heard that they tried to get her to accept being inducted a few years ago and she turn them down. That's how bad thing as gotten between them so will the idea is great, it won'T happens anytime soon.

As far as Trish Goes, first of all, she's not dead yet, so it can'T be a memorial battle royal in her honor which that was the idea in the first place, plus she way to recent to get this type of honor right now.

The fact is, WWE did what was best for business, if they weren't a big corporation, they wouldn't have change the name for anything in the world, especially since that match was Kickoff bound anyway. But they have shareholders now and more then ever they have sponsors that they couldn'T get in the past so if that meant getting bitch slap by the sponsors as you put it so be it, that's what they will do because in the end, the sponsors are paying most of the bill for wrestlemania not the fans so it's more important to keep them happy then to keep the handful of fans happy.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Why too recent? Why does it HAVE to be a Memorial? It could just as easily have been an Invitational with a living person... Cyndi was one idea, there's Trish, Sable, even Alundra or Beth or Ivory who could have been given the name/angle. First time whoever it was enters, perhaps wins or doesn't but they'd have had a heater for the thing. The only people it REALLY couldn't be were Sunny or Santina...

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Why too recent? Why does it HAVE to be a Memorial? It could just as easily have been an Invitational with a living person... Cyndi was one idea, there's Trish, Sable, even Alundra or Beth or Ivory who could have been given the name/angle. First time whoever it was enters, perhaps wins or doesn't but they'd have had a heater for the thing. The only people it REALLY couldn't be were Sunny or Santina...

i think the reason it has to be a memorial is that they wanted to have the women's equivalent of the Andre The Giant battle royal. The problem was, they didn't have anybody that was as big of a name as andre was. So they went with Moolah mostly because outside of Mae Young, she's probably the biggest name in pro wrestling.

As for you're other question, why too recent?. That simple. Trish is pretty much the face of current WWE women'S wrestling. They always invite her everytime they have a big event to celebrate, so it would have been overkill to name the battle royal in her honor as well.

As for the rest of the name you've talk about. I've already said why i think Trish shouldn't have gotten it. Alundra would have been a option as she a big enough name for the wrestling community, so if they weren't dead set on doing a memorial then it would have been a idea. Sable, past on that especially considering the rocky relationship they had with her in the past. As for Beth or Ivory, Not disrespect to them because i'm a big fan of their work, but their not big enough name to get this honor.

The best option for them would have been to just go and use Mae Young's name again for this like they did for the tournament last year because she's the less controversial decease performers as far as the women's goes. The only other option they had would have been Sensational Sherri but i think there's heat beat WWE and sherri's family, so that's not an option either.

In the end, it really doesn't matter anyway because they change it to be a generic battle royal, so while it's fun discussing with you about how they could have done things different, i feel it's all for nothing now anyway.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Why too recent? Why does it HAVE to be a Memorial? It could just as easily have been an Invitational with a living person... Cyndi was one idea, there's Trish, Sable, even Alundra or Beth or Ivory who could have been given the name/angle. First time whoever it was enters, perhaps wins or doesn't but they'd have had a heater for the thing. The only people it REALLY couldn't be were Sunny or Santina...

I would really not mind The Trish Stratus Memorial Battle Royal.

There hasn't been a bigger global name than her (apart from Chyna) when it comes to Women's Wrestling.

 

[enviousdominous]

why not condemn Mae Young, who got her own tournament last year, for some of the stuff she did back in the day, and for what i've read, it's as bad as what Moolah did.

I'll probably regret asking you this; what in the Hell did you read of Mae Young's past that makes her comparable to Moolah? I spent the last ten minutes, more time than I ever thought I would invest in a notion that you brought up, and haven't found anything negative regarding Mae Young's conduct toward her students or fellow wrestlers.

Just saying; you should probably leave it up to someone more socially responsible than you when it comes to opening a thread on a hot topic of the week.

I'm glad that Moolah will not be honored, I personally don't think that she deserves that or any honor considering her behavior while in power. People talk about "building bridges", which is one of the most fucking stupid arguments I've ever heard to defend anyone's barbaric behavior.

Moolah built bridges? That's fucking amazing, considering that women's wrestling in the US remained pretty fucking stagnant until promoters unrelated in any way to Moolah began showcasing female athletes in ways that weren't overshadowed by a male dominated card. Dare I say, Moolah and Mildred did NOTHING to advance women's wrestling and were just a couple of sociopathic control freaks living vicariously through a pretend world where they could beat anybody up, and -- if anything -- they made life as a prowrestler worse for female athletes who wanted to be taken seriously as human beings.

Moolah was loyal to the New York scene, and that's all there is to her supposed "prestige". We fanatics love to drop history lectures and blah blah fucking blah about what makes every era special, but I'll go on the record as saying that I believe that it wasn't at all unusual for abuse of every kind unto members of both sexes to be what comes with the territory of wanting to be a professional wrestler during the "Golden Years". Moolah was all up in that bullshit, and it's a damn shame that her behavior is being excused by some people today because they're stuck on this bullshit notion of "prestige".

I want to mention that Twitter is full of people ready to jump on anything that involves talking shit, especially if it means attracting more precious followers. For every thread of tweets that I've seen in regard this subject, they all devolved into contests of who could exclaim the most insensitive comment. Just saying; Moolah's lack of morals had nothing on the lack of morals of your average Twitter user.

While Twitter users might rejoice that their obnoxious tweets had somehow forced the WWE to change the name of their all female battle royal, I'm pretty sure that the decision was made after Snickers expressed their displeasure.

If the WWE really wants to generate positive buzz for this match, and thus honor a true legend in the eyes of the fans and performers, maybe they should consider naming it the "Sensational Sherri" battle royal.