Female Refs

[NSL]

I was thinking of a really good thread to start, wondering what would draw some good discussion, and came up with nothing...So, you get this.

Usually in wrestling, we only get to see a female referee if it's as a special referee, and then it's only for that one match. For instance, the Velvet v Lacey mud wrestling match had Madison as the special guest referee. Granted, it's not a real match, but it's an example. The Knockouts division for a while had Traci as their exclusive ref, and that stopped after only a few short weeks.

I want to know why there aren't more regular referees that happen to be female? Are they not seen as powerful enough to control a match? Are they simply not interested?

I'd like to think there's a few capable women out there of taking on the job...

 

[Dagger Dias]

I want to know why there aren't more regular referees that happen to be female? Are they not seen as powerful enough to control a match? Are they simply not interested?

I'd like to think there's a few capable women out there of taking on the job...

That's actually a good question. I've never really noticed that or thought about it much. I suppose that there just aren't many women who want to be a referee. They probably would rather be wrestlers rather than be referees. I agree that there must be women out there capable of taking the job, but if there is no one taking interest in it then the only time we are likely to see female referees is when a female wrestler is a special guest ref. I wouldn't mind seeing women (who aren't female wrestlers) be referees because that would be different than what we are used to, but there just might not be enough who are interested.

 

[NSL]

It's got to be more appealing for (some) women to become refs before becoming what most companies think are wrestlers. They can either have some power, or they can be eye candy that will be forced into Chocolate Syrup On A Pole matches.

I know there are some other sports that have started using female referees in the high up leagues, so why not in TNA or WWE? I've always noticed that it's been a void, but I figured it would one day be filled. That there would be a woman that would step in with no big to-do about it, and then more would just follow suit. But, it hasn't happened.

 

[Mustang Sally]

By nature of the position, referees are supposed to be unobtrusive. If, after a contest is over, you realize that you can't even remember who the official was, it means he did his job properly.

When the black man who now officiates on Smackdown came along, it occurred to me that he was the first African-American official I ever saw (except for Teddy Long's brief time as a ref). But the new guy is good in that he does his job well and doesn't take our focus from the wrestlers in the match.

On the other hand, placing a woman in the role of ref would make us take our eyes off the participants and watch her.

Is that a bad thing? I'm not really sure, but we'll probably find out eventually.

 

[King Douche]

Yeah I agree with Mustang Sally, that if a women became a ref then all the attention would be on her and not the wrestlers. Especially if its a boring match, you know then the fans gonna put their attention on the ref who is a sexy female. And no their is no problem in looking at the ref who is a sexy women, nothing wrong at that at all. But I think their should be more women refs doing simple matches then eye candy matches.

As for the black smackdown referee, I like him alot I think he is cool and that its cool to see other races besides white guys offciate matches. Maybe we get chinease, puerto rican refs in the future to offciate wrestling matches and not just white guys. As things these days need to be diverse. Its the 21st century people.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

TNA might be able to pull this off. I have a feeling they would make women refs look strong, and respectable because that's how they treat their female wrestlers. The WWE on the other hand would fuck this up. They probably would have their women in shorts, and something showing a lot of clevage. They've done this in the past with Trish, and some what now in the PG era.

So if this were to happen in TNA, then hell yeah, I'm all for it. But WWE would turn this great idea into shit.

 

[Theo Mays]

I think the reason woman refs aren't used is because of the pumps that sometimes are involved with refs when male superstars battle. Now I think this would work if a female ref only did divas/knockout matches. I think that would work splendid. If they used a woman ref in a male match it could detach our attention and make us focus on the woman ref (especially if she was stunning, which I'd assume would be the case). But if you put her in the match with other females it just gives us more eye candy at once, and that is never a complaint of mine.

 

[NSL]

I think the reason woman refs aren't used is because of the pumps that sometimes are involved with refs when male superstars battle.

I'm sure you meant "bumps", and I think you even helped my case here. We see refs get bumped into, and they're out for no less than 5 minutes. Wouldn't it be a little more believable if an "oh so sweet and innocent" female ref took that same bump and laid there for a little bit?

And to what Sally said, I don't think the attention would last long for the ref, especially if the matches are good. If the company is having issues keeping the fans interested in the match over the ref, they have bigger issues.

 

[Viola Moonlight]

Female referees are an intriguing idea, but they have much less effectiveness than the male referee's. As been mentioned, you pit a male referee in a male bout, you are not going to pay attention to the referee unless he is making the count at the 45 minute mark of the match or seeing what the decision of the match went to and what for. Otherwise, they just fade and blend into the background. Sure, females could do that... but you'd have the problem of the audience looking at the referee instead of the match.

It might be best to regulate them to women's matches. The only problem I can see with this is you take away the comedic spots of the females enticing the referee to call the match in their favour. Adding female refs to the women's division would be great as you can have the referee's attack the women if they decide to boss them around, knowing people in the audience won't look down upon them. It would further emphasis the fact that you have female referee's in the female division... kind of goes hand in hand.

I'd be all for female ref's if they were relegated to the women's division. Tracy in her short stint as ref did a good job, and I thought that this was her best role thus far apart from her other KnockOut Law role.

 

[Sean Valjean]

A very interesting idea that has never crossed my mind before. Good job.

I could see this happening in TNA since they're a bit more open to new ideas, but no way in the WWE. This is mainly because of Vince's new idea that all the attention has the be on the wrestlers.

You can deny it all you want, but you know a lot of the focus will be on the ref and not the match. One, because she'd be hot (no way in hell Vince would hire anyone less than that) and two, because she's a FEMALE ref, which is mind-blowing in itself. Vince doesn't even want the ring announcers shown anymore, so there's no way a female ref would fly. Not to mention that Vince seems pretty old fashioned when it comes to women's roles in wrestling, so I doubt the idea of having female refs would ever occur to him. The only way it'd happen in the E would be if female refs were only used for diva matches, since they won't as big a distraction, but I still doubt it'd happen.

Though you bring up an excellent point about women making ref bumbs more believable, NSL. So much so, they're almost worth hiring just for that. Ref bumbs are probably the most ridiculous thing in wrestling; a grown man get's shoved and it out for 5-10 minutes? Huh? Replace him with a woman, and I'd definitely believe it more (no offense, ladies)

 

[Da Prophet]

Hay why not female refs all the way.All refs do is count everyone can do that.
Long live the female refs

Thats just me!

 

[Mr. TM]

No problem with it. But I bet there would be a lot of fans who see a women enter the rings in the referee outfit and wonder what is up.

I think that if the WWE were to do it, they would have to start with a no bull angle, having her with her hair up and away, and maybe on ECW so that it has a smaller audience. After a few weeks, make sure she does the opening match each week, and make sure the matches are nothing major. Then throw here around the ECW card for a few months and she should do fine.

 

[The Doctor]

I think women refs could be good for women's matches. In men's matches, there would be focus on the woman (if she was an attractive woman) and that takes away from the match. I know you can say that YOU wouldn't get distracted, but if you are a straight male you probably will. It's human nature.

During a women's match, she'd just be another woman.

[size=-3]...Wow, that sounded really sexist.[/size]