Professional wrestling is not the kindest realm of entertainment to women. (Although, you could argue that they’re just more upfront about presenting their gender politics.) But the May 16 episode of WWE Raw delivered a delicious bit of comeuppance for one of wrestling’s notorious douch-nozzles, Ric Flair.
The current storyline has Flair acting as his (real-life) daughter’s wrestling manager in her quest to dominate the women’s division of the WWE. In this role, he manages to be sexist in a whole cornucopia of different ways.
He interferes in his daughter Charlotte’s matches, ensuring that, even though she wins, she never gets to prove she can win a match without the help of a man. He even prevents one of her rivals from attacking by laying a really, really gross kiss on her. Added to his career-long reputation for being a playboy, and it all adds up to pile of sexist bullshit.
The episode of Raw ended with a staged contract signing in the ring between Charlotte and the challenger to the WWE Women’s Championship, Natalya. Naturally, Ric Flair was at his daughter’s side. But when he read the contract, he found out that he would not be allowed to stay at ringside, and that if he came out at any time during the match, Charlotte would automatically lose the title. Flair lost it about this, haranguing that McMahon siblings, Stephanie and Shane, who are the current corporate heads of the WWE in storyline.
Shane kept his cool (probably both because of Flair’s legendary status in pro wrestling and because he didn’t want to be the big, younger guy beating up an old man). Stephanie, though? Stephanie straight slapped him in the face. So hard he fell down.
Now, obviously we know this is fake. This whole thing has been scripted, as have all of the women’s division matches and Flair interference in them. But the thin veneer of reality covering professional wrestling allows the moment to have incredible catharsis: this enormous jackass got what was coming to him. Because it’s staged, we don’t have to worry about the ethical ramifications of the violence. Because we’re willing to pretend that it’s real, we get to have the satisfaction of a woman putting a man who feels entitled back in his place. And it was awesome.
