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THE intrigue surrounding Brock Lesnar and Wrestlemania continued to build this week.
The best talker in the business got his chance to raise the stakes, too.
Brock’s on-screen manager and pal Paul Heyman took centre stage in the main event of RAW and delivered a stinging address. But there was one aspect which struck FT as at odds with a key company message. When Ronda Rousey and Stephane McMahon get in the ring and are positioned as the epicentre of the company, the positive changes in the industry for women are personified from top to bottom.
Passion, dedication, strength on and off the screen and an entirely new direction for women in what has traditionally been a misogynistic business.
We get it, we’ve heard it loud and clear and to a man, woman and child in the audience, the advances in women’s wrestling have been a joy to behold.
The world has changed, rightly so, to make us aware of the language we use about women and to confront the behaviour of men in our society as we stand here in 2018.
Last week Roman Reigns called Lesnar a “bitch”, in what was a passionate promo segment to really position himself as the faithful, dedicated WWE guy and put Lesnar in the role of a pampered part-timer.
You could understand it as a symptom of a fit of anger, adding to the drama, something we’ve heard before on a WWE microphone, an American derogatory term between two big blokes.
But then this week Heyman bizarrely perpetuated the theme.
He called the title belt itself Brock Lesnar’s “bitch”.
Superb
“She belongs to Brock Lesnar, you are eyeballing Brock Lesnar’s bitch and you can’t have her,” said the great New Yorker.
It was weird and didn’t add up. Women as possessions? Women as the property of men? Women as bitches? Not having that.
Perhaps you can understand the use of the term if referencing Roman Reigns’ “Big Dog” moniker.
The rest of Heyman’s segment was superb and you can’t help but think that some of the more cerebral aspects might have sailed over the heads of the crowd in the arena in Milwaukee.
Some of it was close to the wire in a different way. But Heyman spelt it out well. In the current scenario, Reigns will likely win the title from UFC-bound Lesnar.
But WWE need to be a bit more careful exactly how they piece that scenario together.