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Ronda Rousey at the WWE Evolution show. (WWE)
UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Three days before Halloween, little girls dressed as Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss and Ronda Rousey traveled to Long Island for the first all-women's pay-per-view event.
Rousey, the former UFC megastar, is the face of the new, improved women's division of the WWE, which is no longer known for its bikini competitions and two-minute games. She closed Sunday's "Evolution" show with a victory over Nikki Bella, the former model who turned her WWE career into a hit reality show. In this sense, Bella provided the perfect film for Rousey: a more traditional "diva" of wrestling colliding with the "most evil woman on the planet".
Rousey retained her WWE Raw Championship title, and the small adult and adult hockey players rushed into the parking lot with stories to tell and t-shirts to wear from what the WWE presented as a historic night . For some insiders of the fight, however, the timing of the event was suspicious.
[[[[Pro Wrestling is plunged into controversy in Arabia while the call to cancel an event in Riyadh]
"I think that there is a large part of [Evolution] it's their attempt to publicly give justice to women who can not go to Saudi Arabia, "said Bryan Alvarez, who runs WrestlingObserver.com.
Five days after Evolution, the women's roster will not be present for the WWE Crown Jewel, Saudi Arabia's second major event in 2018, to be held in a country that did not allow women to drive until June.
WWE has been widely criticized for the biggest royal rumor on April 27 at King Abdullah International Stadium in Jiddah, both for broadcasting the Saudi Vision program of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and excluding female competitors. (A similar event in the United States would almost certainly include at least one or two female matches.) This was the first show in the WWE's strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia, of a duration ten years, which will bring about $ 450 million to the company, according to Dave Meltzer, colleague of Alvarez, WrestlingObserver.
The relationship between WWE and Saudi Arabia has overshadowed Evolution's last two weeks of development after the disappearance of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. This has drawn the attention of the general public to the often insular world of WWE, including critics of politicians and public figures such as John Oliver of HBO. At one point in the Evolution show, WWE aired a live video of its ad team with the Crown Jewel logo on the big screen. Long Island fans booed and the screen went black.
WWE has refrained from breaking ties with the kingdom or moving Crown Jewel to a different location. In the meantime, Evolution's promotion continued on Raw and Smackdown Live! The weekly WWE primetime shows are airing on USA Network.
Ticket sales suggested a moderate interest; Two days before the event, StubHub was offering tickets for as little as $ 6.75.
The WWE announced a sale, despite pictures of social media from the arena that suggested the opposite. The company has not published official figures on participation. (The Coliseum's maximum capacity for basketball, MMA and boxing is 14,500).
Attendees were treated to more than three hours of action, including a classic Last Women's Standing match between Lynch and Charlotte Flair. The event attracted dedicated fans like Suzy Rodriguez, 30, who flew to Miami. Ashley Rogers, a 30-year-old transsexual woman, said she has put aside her dismay about WWE's past to help women perform at the event.
"You always have to have some ability to overcome problematic issues in wrestling, especially with WWE," said Rogers. "And so for a while, for me, I could not handle a lot anymore, so I thought to myself:" I'm going to stay a little bit out of it. "Especially because of their treatment of women and of their priorities on models against wrestlers. "
There were also children, like Serenity Adorno, 6, who could not sleep Saturday night. She got up from bed on Sunday morning in front of her parents, eager for what was coming. Finally, at 5:30 pm, she was standing in front of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, with her parents by her side and her replica of the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship belt slung over her right shoulder.
"I've been waiting all my life for that!" She says.
The event was actually years in the making. In February 2015, AJ Lee, a WWE artist at the time, responded to a tweet from Stephanie McMahon, who had published a quote from Patricia Arquette defending women's rights. Lee wanted McMahon, brand manager at WWE, to practice what she preached.
"Your wrestlers have record sales products and have been playing in the top rated segment of the series many times," wrote Lee. "And yet, they receive a fraction of the salary and screen time of the majority of men."
Women's days in bikini and "bra and panties" competition ended when WWE shifted to PG programming, but for years, women have always been treated the same way, after the fact, in cinema than for promotion.
Then, Lee's message became viral. WWE quickly stopped referring to his women as "divas" and began writing them in more nuanced scenarios. Interpreters known for their ring appeal skills outnumber their paces from NXT, the WWE's development territory, to the main line.
Then came the first female match of Money in the Bank Ladder; the first match of the women's elimination chamber; and the first female match of the Royal Rumble. The Royal Rumble was won by Asuka, a world-renowned wrestler who has already won titles and adorers in Japan, where women's wrestling has long been featured in the recent WWE mold. Rousey made his debut after Asuka's victory, giving the women's division credibility hitherto untapped.
Rousey stole the show at WrestleMania 34 in April, teaming up with Kurt Angle to defeat McMahon and Paul Levesque (Triple H), McMahon's true husband and executive vice president of talent, live events and the creation of WWE.. Rousey's performance has allowed WWE to make even more headlines, and his star power is probably an important reason for the WWE to pull the trigger, said Dave Schilling, a great Bleacher Report writer and wrestling podcaster. .
"Professional wrestling has always been about the draw, the person at the top of the card and a women's wrestling event – although it's a novelty and a great thing. a passion for the whole world – maybe the WWE did not have a personality that everyone wants to live in, "said Schilling." She is a mainstream star, it makes sense that she the catalyst for that to happen. "
"I do not know if they would have had the courage to do it without her," said Meltzer.
After resisting Brie's main intervention, Brie, Rousey celebrated Sunday night in the ring, highlighting her title and hailing fans, while Joan Jett's resounding anthem, "Bad Reputation," resounded at Colosseum.
She walked up the entry ramp, patting five people with fans to the top, where past and present wrestlers waited with smiles and cuddles. They posed and soaked with cheers as the camera recoiled to include the huge "Evolution" graphic on the adjacent screen. It was a shameless photographic opportunity, destined to be part of WWE programming for years.
Fans come out of the arena and linger near two merchandise stands. Jesse Rutzler, a long time fight fan, stayed with his family. He took his five-year-old daughter Chiana, who huddled her head against her father's chest. Rutzler said he appreciated the progress made by WWE in introducing women as serious wrestlers, and Chiana appreciated Evolution, her first live wrestling show.
She even said that she would watch WWE RAW Monday night. Normally, she leaves the room when her father puts it.
"It's something she will not recognize yet," said Jesse. "But in the future, I'll be able to say," Look, you were there for the first time. You were here for the first time.
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