WWE’s dedication to women’s wrestling has been something that has been up for debate recently. Both fans and talent have shared their thoughts on the company’s current treatment of female talent.
Even former SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella has vocalized a lack of opportunities for women into question. Both Mickie James and Chelsea Green have been very open in regards to this since her release last month and Natalya has fought to get women’s matches to take place.
Another star who has questioned this is former WWE Superstar, and current Ring of Honor talent Maria Kanellis-Bennett. In a recent appearance on the KAWADA DRIVER show, Maria Kanellis discussed Stephanie McMahon‘s supposed advocacy for women in wrestling.
On the subject, Kanellis-Bennett said:
“So you have all these pointless pay-per-views, you have the opportunity to do a women’s empowerment pay-per-view and you don’t do it? I don’t get it. I don’t know how Stephanie McMahon deals with that.”
She continued:
“As a woman, I’ve been very outspoken about women’s wrestling and women in wrestling. It should come as no surprise that as a woman I couldn’t deal with that. If I had all that power in the industry I couldn’t deal with that. I have minimum power in this industry and I am fighting my tail off to create more opportunities.”
Maria Kanellis also shared what ideas she would put forward if she was in Stephanie McMahon’s position:
“If I had that much power there would be a whole show plus a reality show that actually covers the girl’s lives. Plus on top of that, we would have a makeup line and be on the cover of Vogue saying: ‘Guess what? These women are badasses and they are beautiful in their own right.’”
Moments later she adds: “I see all these things that Stephanie is fighting for women’s rights, but it seems more promotional than it does actual. I’m curious. I’m curious about that.”
Currently, Maria is working in ROH as a lead to rebuilding the women’s division. As well as this, ROH has recently announced that women will be the focus of a new weekly show on YouTube leading up to a tournament in the summer to crown a new champion.
Stephanie has recently tweeted about women in sports and has gone on the record to say in the past that she wants the women in WWE to be equal to the men.
Do you agree with Maria’s sentiments here? Share your thoughts in the comments.
