RAW Is....What, Exactly?

I could write this as a Ringbelles piece. But honestly, I don't have the patience to iron out a reasonable piece. Not when it's something like this.

We all know WWE isn't a great place to work if you are a woman or a minority. We can point to the hundreds upon hundreds of mistakes, outrageous storylines, and shocking depravity in the company's long history. We can tick off the names of people that Vince and Co. have done wrong by.

I get that. I truly do.

However, when WWE decided to go PG and present John Cena as it's superhero-type good guy who triumphs over all evil and align itself with an anti-bullying campaign ("Be a STAR"), the rules (supposedly) changed. Gone were the mud matches, the cursing, the other things that ruled WWE during the Attitude Era. In other words, a company that Linda McMahon could point to in her quest to become the senator from Connecticut and say, "Look how we've cleaned everything up! Nothing to be ashamed of here." Interestingly enough, it's rumoured that she will be running for office again in the near future.

Which is part of the reason why I'm so confused, disgusted and in disbelief at what happened on RAW 2/20. You've seen it by now, with Eve and John Cena in the ring and the 10 minutes he spent running her down. The storyline went like this:

Ryder likes Eve. Ryder tries to court Eve. Ryder & then Eve are targeted by Kane. Cena comes to Ryder and Eve's defense. Kane hurts Ryder (repeatedly). Eve cries, blames Cena for Ryder's pain due to his feud with Kane. Kane tries to kidnap Eve. Eve jumps out of ambulance into Cena's arms. Eve kisses him, Cena kisses her back. Ryder sees this, is hurt. Eve says it was a "heat of the moment" thing, wants to be friends with Ryder. Kane hurts Ryder again even more seriously this time. Eve cries, Cena gets angry. Cena defeats Kane in ambulance match. Eve tells the Bellas that her plan was to use Zack to further her career, now she's jumping to Cena. Tells this infront of a tv camera, and is caught by Cena. Cena spends 10 minutes in the ring degrading Eve infront of her, the crowd and a live television audience, encouraging them to yell "Hoski" at her while she cries.

So, essentially, to help Cena get cheered in his upcoming feud with the Rock, Eve is sacrificed because we are supposed to forget that just 7 days ago Cena kissed Eve back, even wrapping his arm around her. We are supposed to forget that he wasn't innocent in this thing.

Others have put it far better than me, such as Lee in this week's Ringbelles Roundup (http://ringbellesonline.com/2012/02/21/ringbelles-roundup-21-february-2012/), Cageside Seats (http://www.cagesideseats.com/2012/2/21/2815080/on-eve-john-cena-bullying-and-the-problem-with-misogyny-in-the-wwe), Rae with Wrestlegasm (http://thegasm.tumblr.com/post/18036148183/goodnight).

(And I've tried to get those links to work, but apparently Blogger doesn't like me. Copy and paste, they're worth the read.)

The point isn't that WWE have done far worse things (because we know, they have). The point isn't that women are supposed to be up in arms about this just because we're women (because every woman will see this differently, and that's fair enough - I'm not judging them).

The point is that in this PG era, WWE has set itself on a higher level. They are touting the fact they are partners in an anti-bullying campaign, they are a family friendly company, and we should bring our kids to the events. If I had a daughter, I sure wouldn't let her watch this, nor would I bring her to a show. I would feel uncomfortable exposing her to a man who is supposed to be a role model for young kids degrading a woman in front of the world.

And to be fair, I wouldn't be comfortable exposing her to the Rock due to his repeated use of anti-gay slurs.

Besides, if you think about it long enough, this could have gone another way to turn Eve heel. Why not the traditional way (if you have to, as overplayed as it is), where Eve is attracted to Cena, tries to court Cena, Cena rejects her politely, Eve wants revenge and partners with someone to help take him out. You keep Cena face and a hero for the kids, you give Eve a badly needed heel turn and get a couple of mixed tag matches out of it since Cena would need someone to tag with (Kelly? Alicia?). Sure, Eve would still come out of it looking bad, but we most likely wouldn't have gotten the slut-shaming promo that we got last night.

The crux of it is having your role model, wearing a "Rise Against Hate" t-shirt no less, shaming a woman. It's misogynistic and it's an example of hypocrisy. Or I should say, ANOTHER example of hypocrisy.

If you are a female and you don't see anything wrong with this, then that's your right. I'm not judging you, nor am I saying that every female should be against this just because you're a woman.

I'm saying that this is another example of WWE's hypocrisy and is another reason why it's been two years since I've spent any money on anything WWE-related. The last PPV I bought was the one where HBK was retired by UT. Otherwise I've attended no shows, bought no merchandise, don't want to watch it on tv (and give them ratings) and don't buy their PPVs. If I want to see something, I YouTube it or I stream it - and yeah, I stream their PPVs. I save my money for promotions that need it and have earned it.

Plus, John Cena is in a position where he could refuse to do or say something and creative would back down. You can't tell me he isn't. He is their go-to man, has been for a few years now, and you don't get to that spot and not accumulate some influence. You don't. Cena has a rep for being a truly nice, decent man who does a ton of charity work with my favourite charity, the Make a Wish Foundation, and has busted his ass over the years. He's gotten a lot of respect and a lot of leeway with the company.

Plus he is intelligent. You can't tell me he didn't see the problem with this scenario. If he had a problem with it, that's something we may never know. But he's not stupid. It's disappointing to think that he had no qualms about going through with this, knowing that his young fans would be watching and taking it in.

It continues the image of women in wrestling being objects to taunt, degrade and bully. By their top star, no less.

And as I'm writing this, the whole CM Punk/Chris Brown thing may or may not be being talked about on WWE television. I thought that perhaps it was something Punk was doing on his own initiative and was willing to give props to Punk. But if this turns out to be a publicity thing for Wrestlemania or another time and they are planning to have Brown on one of their shows...

Well. I honestly don't know what I would say to that.

No, I do know what I would say. To all of us who are disgusted with WWE, put your money back in your wallet. Stop supporting them. If you don't want to support other promotions (because if you love wrestling, then I promise you, there is a promotion out there in the world that you will love IF you look for it - there is THAT much diversity out there), then put the money towards a charity. How about a charity that works with women who are domestic violence survivors? Or a charity that works with abused children?

Change the channel and refuse to come back until WWE makes real changes and sticks with them. Call them out - tweet, facebook, write, email, whatever. If you feel that strongly, then speak out. Don't remain silent. Silence is acceptance.

If you don't like it, if it makes you uncomfortable, don't accept it. Period.