Cena's Smackdown Promo Was Not Okay

I enjoy pro wrestling for the same reason I enjoy most other forms of entertainment: suspending my disbelief and allowing myself to be told a story.  I enjoy speculating, whether we're talking about who will wind up sitting on the Iron Throne, or whether or not Luke Skywalker will survive the next Star Wars movie.

The problem with wrestling is that the lines between reality and storytelling are often blurred beyond distinction.  This often provides a thrill to fans who feel like they are getting a behind-the-scenes look at their favorite athletic opera, but it also provides several uncomfortable moments where perhaps ignorance would be preferred.  It's a double-edged sword: reality can either add some much-needed edge to a feud, or it can detract from it to the point where the viewer becomes jarred out of the experience.

John Cena's promo against the Miz and Maryse on Smackdown Live this past Tuesday was an instance of being uncomfortably jarred.  It wasn't just the idea of losing engagement with the story.  The promo actually left me confused and angry about WWE, wrestling, and the media in general; and I wonder if I'm alone.

I've said this before: I was a casual wrestling fan who would often watch over my brother's shoulder as he took in the antics of Steve Austin every week.  Then along came a gorgeous, fiery redhead who floored me when she started doing moonsaults off the top rope.  I'd never seen a woman do anything like that before, and I was compelled to watch every week to see what WWE Hall of Famer Lita would do next.

Fast forward almost 20 years, and the landscape of women's wrestling is vastly different.  The women's rosters on both Raw and Smackdown showcase talent who not only portray the physical beauty that has become a staple of WWE's female division, but also possess a power absent from the vast majority of performers who have come before.  Trish and Lita were fantastic because they not only had natural charisma and chemistry, but both worked hard to become the best wrestlers they could be.  Yes, they were followed by the likes of Mickie James and AJ Lee, but those women are often overlooked not for lack of skill, but because they were the outliers in a Divas locker room filled with models that were being forced into a world they didn't understand.

Today's women Superstars have a clear desire to be here.  Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Paige, Emma, Bayley, and Natalya are some examples of the absolute best wrestlers--regardless of gender--in the world.  They exude a raw athleticism and a passion for their craft.  Gone are the days of "Bra and Panties" matches.  Farewell to the woman who was simply a valet for a male star.  Women are now required to be multifaceted assets to a roster where everyone is a superstar.

So it's upsetting when someone the caliber of John Cena appears to be stuck in 2005.

John Cena's promo was good.  He hit all the right points and provided a solid rebuttal for Miz's Total Bellas spoof.  But there were two specific aspects of his appearance last night that left me questioning WWE's stance on the "women's revolution," and whether or not we as a society have really turned a corner when it comes to gender equality on a stage like WWE.

The first thing I noticed was Cena smacking Nikki's backside before they got into the ring to stare down Miz and Maryse.

This is something relatively minor, especially considering the two are an item in real life, but it felt out of place.  In the early 2000's, Cena was sometimes paired with ladies like Maria Kanellis or Mickie James in awkward romantic storylines, and he'd often attempt to add some levity with a playful, flirty slap on the behind.  It sounds like a flimsy excuse, but that was a different time; and if that bothers you, go back and watch 75% of WWE's much-lauded "Attitude Era" and tell me you don't cringe at what your younger self was willing to accept as entertaining.

I'm not here to judge what Cena and Nikki do in their private lives.  The problem is, slapping a woman's behind on a national stage can be seen at the very least as unprofessional and at worst disrespectful.  I don't see James Ellsworth slapping Carmella's backside before her matches, or Rusev fondling Lana before his bouts.  Regardless of what you think of these performers individually, the idea is to present everyone as formidable.  When you do things like this in front of an entire arena, it allows fans to think that Nikki Bella--an accomplished athlete who has worked incredibly hard to shake the stigma of being simply "eye candy"--is nothing more than "John Cena's girlfriend".

That's a problem for anyone straining to look at the women's division as equal to the men.  Women, in this light, are mere trophies for their spouses.  I could talk about how that lends a boat-load of credibility to Miz's argument, but this goes beyond storylines or vignettes.  Miz himself presents Maryse as his true other half.  She is equal parts beauty, brains, and power.  He is not throwing her in a bikini and parading her around simply to get a crowd reaction.

The bigger question is, would someone treat Sasha Banks the same way if she were in an inter-gender tag match?  How about Charlotte or Becky Lynch?  And if it's not okay for them, why is it okay for Nikki?  These may not be questions that are screaming to be answered, but whether we as the audience realize it or not, this is what's being communicated to us when we watch.

It gets worse as Cena's tirade goes on.  At one point he calls Miz a "pussy."

To say that this is not okay is a huge understatement.  It has nothing to do with the show being PG or the fact that Cena gets away with things the rest of the roster would be fired for.  When the face of your company gets into a verbal contest and decides to resort to this kind of schoolyard bullying, it makes the entire company look bad.

Cena had just gotten done talking about Nikki's accomplishments, hailing the women's revolution as a showcase for women to prove they could be just as powerful and athletic as the men.  Then he resorts to using a derogatory feminine term to describe another man.  I'm sorry, Mr. Cena, but that completely undermines everything that you and  your employer claim to stand for.

The worst part is that Nikki and Maryse are standing right there, and nobody so much as glances at Cena to maybe explain that what he just said is not okay.  Cena doesn't seem to register it himself, but follows up with "You two are cowards."  So now we have a derogatory feminine term associated with the word "coward" which, by proxy, might imply to some that women have less fortitude than men.

I'm not saying this is what John Cena intended, but you see how it all starts to add up?  In fact, the most shocking part of it all for me is that Cena is usually so articulate.  He does a fantastic job representing the new-era wholesome ideals of WWE.  So when he resorts to this kind of language, it's jarring and disappointing.

Then there are the fans.  There's an initial pop that may be more from shock than assent, then a bit of a lull as I'm sure parents attempted to shield their children from it and began to question why their child's hero was suddenly so vulgar.  Some fans even tried to get a "pussy" chant going, but thankfully seemed to think better of it.

It makes me wonder if the women's revolution in our society has really come as far as we think it has.  At an NXT event last year, I watched Bayley and Alexa Bliss square off in a great match, but the entire time I listened to two fans behind me talk about how "hot" both women were.  It wasn't a passing comment: it permeated the entire match.

I'm not here to tell you these women aren't beautiful or that I haven't made those comments myself.  But there's an underlying understanding that while these women are some of the most attractive in the world, they are also strong enough to break most men in half.  The two concepts are not mutually exclusive, but it seems many people struggle to reconcile one with the other.  You can either be a trophy, or an athlete; arm candy, or a champion.

It makes me wonder if WWE considers women as valuable to the company as we are led to believe.  After all, we're not getting a one-on-one match for either Women's Championship at Wrestlemania.  Instead, we're getting a Fatal-Four-Way and a veritable free-for-all.  I thought we'd moved past the days when WWE would just shove every woman into a bloated match for the sake of not leaving anyone out.  This is the time of year to take your two top stars and have them square off in an epic match that can be properly built and given the time that's needed to tell the right story.

Instead, the outcomes of these matches won't mean as much because we are not given a reason to care.  Smackdown should have Becky vs. Alexa because those two have been fighting for the Championship all year long.  Throwing Naomi in there simply because Wrestlemania is in her hometown--while a nice gesture--debases the importance of earning a shot at Wrestlemania.  There's no women's Royal Rumble to determine who gets that coveted slot.  WWE's answer is that everyone is a winner.  That's simply unrealistic if you're trying to build prestige in that division.

So are women truly on the same level as men?  Are they simply props to appease the internet fans who have been clamoring for a change?  If we are to believe that change is happening, we need to change the way we talk about, view, and interact with women.  These are powerful, athletic, multi-dimensional people with so much to offer an audience that constantly craves more.  One day, I hope, they will be presented as stars and not simply a means to an end.