By Jason Powell, Prowrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE has dropped the Fabulous Moolah name from the women’s battle royal that will be held at WrestleMania. WWE issued the following statement on the matter: “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.”
Powell’s POV: I am pleasantly surprised that WWE changed the name. I honestly didn’t think they’d budge, especially considering they have taken similar heat over the Warrior Award being named after Ultimate Warrior, who said and wrote some horrible things about homosexuals, Hurricane Katrina victims, Bobby Heenan’s battle with cancer, actor Heath Ledger’s death, and more. In Moolah’s case, the fan backlash was severe due to allegations that she essentially pimped out some of her trainees and gouged them for money. I give the company credit for calling an audible and hopefully they will do the same when it comes to the Warrior Award.
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I love wrestling and probably always will, but these people are glorified carnival workers, not saints. Honoring a person’s career is not the same as honoring their character. Like her or not, Moolah was arguably the best women’s wrestler of all time. Of course she had character flaws, but I am still disappointed in WWE for dropping her name. It seems like erasing history and I don’t like that in any regard.
So if she is partially responsible for rape and exploitation, that’s secondary to scripted entertainment in your mind? I always wonder about people like you.
I think it’s more of a recognize what she did for the business. It’s a tricky thing. Like I said below, without her, women’s wrestling likely isn’t what it is today. But at the same time, it doesn’t look like she was a very good human being. So what do you do? I mean, the easy thing was to not name the Battle Royal after her. But it’s hard not to mention her when discussing how far women’s wrestling has come. I’m not justifying her actions at all. It’s horrible. But wrestling history is littered with people who absolute assholes. So what do you do?
But how much of her success was because she was a shit person and holding people down?
Jake,
I’m sure you don’t know jack shit about the Fabulous Moolah. what are you even doing here?
He seems to understand the basics of the knocks against her based on what he wrote.
How about providing actual proof that Moolah did anything wrong?
Accusations have been made. An accusation is not proof of guilt. Hard evidence must be presented or else the accusations are nothing but hearsay.
It is wrong to trash someones reputation and censor them from history based only on unproven accusations made by disgruntled co-workers/employees.
Innocent until proven guilty!
Shit, you’re right. How about we right this horrible wrong by renaming the men’s battle royal after Harvey Weinstein since he hasn’t been convicted of anything either? Ugh.
Moolah was not the best wrestler of her time. That’s a myth. Most powerful, yes. And pimping out young women is a bit heavier than a character flaw in my book.
To each their own. I’m not trying to change your beliefs. I am just showing it wasn’t the whole story. It was a different time with different values. We shouldn’t retroactively punish people in the past based on modern values.
She is still arguably the biggest name in women’s wrestling history which is what I meant by best. Hulk Hogan is obviously not the best wrestler of the past 50 years, but he is probably the biggest name. Which to a lot of people equals the best. I’m not saying we should ignore what she did wrong, or that it wasn’t despicable even, but we shouldn’t just erase what she did right either.
How about providing some actual evidence that proves Moolah did anything wrong?
Accusations have been made. An accusation is not proof of guilt. There must be hard evidence presented or else it’s nothing but hearsay.
It’s wrong to trash someones reputation and censor them from history over unproven accusations largely made by disgruntled co-workers/employees.
Innocent until proven guilty!
What’s disappointing about this is really just that WWE officials pushed ahead with something despite being aware of the potential for backlash. THEN, after the negative feedback started pouring in, they caved and changed the name. The sad part is that Moolah was truly a pioneer of women’s wrestling. And her out of ring actions have tarnished her in ring accomplishments. Regardless of what she did, women’s wrestling would likely be no where near where it is today without her. Remember, everyone has skeletons hiding in their closets. If you rename everything based on a persons past mistakes, then you might as well name everything as plainly and generically as possible so as to not offend.
The good part is that WWE is listening to people. And by that I mean they actually do hear us. Except concerning Roman Reigns. Obviously they don’t care what people think about him (I like him by the way).
This was apparently due to Snickers complaining
Now they should call it the Harvey Whippleman WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal. Love it.
What’s next? The Chris Benoit Family Values Award?
I laughed at this. Why did I laugh at this? I’m going to hell aren’t I?
#TimesUp or #MeToo or some shit.
The right decision of course, but let’s not pat WWE on the back too much here. They are only changing it because a sponsor complained, not because of the fans or the female wrestlers.