Stephanie McMahon to Ruin Rumble – Stephanie McMahon wants to be everywhere women are. It’s good for optics, it’s good for their false narrative of female empowerment, it’s good for the brand. It’s bad for the fans though. Stephanie’s new narrative is that she’s a leading feminist; and not that she’s complicit in the burying and dismissal of sexual assault, harassment and abuse allegations. She’s not a good person but that’s not what this is about. No, this is about her ego. The Women’s Royal Rumble match should absolutely be handled by a women’s commentary team, I think that should be the standard. Hell if IMPACT can keep finding women to commentate on their shoe-string budget, it shouldn’t be hard for the WWE. Yet, we won’t have that on Sunday, no. Instead, we’ll have Stephanie McMahon providing commentary, despite the fact she’s not an analysis, play by play commentator or even a decent wrestler. She announced her intention to muck up the commentary on Twitter today, and essentially ruined any potential hype for the match. Good job.
Former WWE Writer Slams Handling of Female Legends – The WWE is all about female empowerment, except when it comes to actual empowerment. They’ll tell you all about their revolutions and evolutions, but they don’t change. On RAW25 we saw the WWE parade all these famous, inspirational female talents and personalities, and with the exception of The Bella’s and Kelly Kelly, there was no one up there who didn’t deserve the accolades. And the fans took notice of this; but so did former employees. Former WWE writer Tom Casiello was critical of how the legends were used, and I use that word loosely. He tweeted out that it was a shame they were relegated to waving, despite their iconic status.
It was incredible seeing all the women who paved the way for the Women’s Revolution on stage tonight. I especially loved how they were just on the stage for a pop. #TheresStillSoMuchWorkToBeDone 😥
— Tom Casiello (@tommiecas) January 23, 2018
It was a shame they were relegated to standing and waving. They're icons, and deserved better. Not looking for the Main Event, or taking over the whole show. But "they looked great" and "it was good to see them" shouldn't be the only thing one can say about it.
— Tom Casiello (@tommiecas) January 23, 2018
Casiello has taken public shots at the company in the past.
Enzo Update – As we speculated on WrestleCorp last night (listen here), the WWE have apparently released Enzo Amore not just for hiding the allegations from the company, but because of the built up tension backstage with Enzo and the company. Enzo’s issues with the WWE are long documented on the interwebs, and with Enzo refusing to tell the WWE what’s going on, this was seen as the last straw. When you consider the amount of negative attention he’s drawn on himself since joining the company, I’m not at all surprised that they cut him loose.
Quick Hits – Mark Henry thinks it’s up to Finn Balor to take a more prominent role in the WWE. The Miz wants to take the Intercontinental Championship into the Main Event of WrestleMania. The 2019 Royal Rumble will take place at Chase Field in Phoenix Arizona, which is the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The NWA have filed a trademark for the Dupont Network, a take off of the Dumont Network; the first network to ever air pro wrestling according to Mike Johnosn via Steven Fernandes.