A Penny For Your Thoughts Wrestlemania Countdown Day 6; The Misogynist Double Standard Of The WWE Hall Of Fame (Chyna, Godfather)

Columns, Top Story

Welcome back to my personal Mania countdown series. Today I want to discuss something that’s been bugging me for the past few weeks.

We all know the whole hot mess that is the relationship between current WWE COO Paul “Triple H” LeVesque and his ex girlfriend and former WWE Womens Champion Joanie “Chyna” Laurer. The details are all too public. Tripsy dumped Chyna when he and Stephanie McMahon hooked up. Steph fired Chyna. Chyna didn’t react well to the loss of both her job and her longtime boyfriend. Chyna’s life spiralled out of control, especially after her friend Anna Nicole died. Chyna struggled with drugs and alcohol for years, and after getting clean signed with porn studio Vivid Entertainment to do hardcore XXX porn films.

Despite all her ups and downs, Chyna still has a huge and loyal fan base that never gave up on her. She got huge pops in her brief TNA stint, and a lot of fans keep demanding she go into the Hall of Fame.

Now, on his appearance on the Stone Cold podcast last year, Tripsy addressed this fan demand and, without acknowledging the personal gulf between them because of Steph, subtly hinted that Chyna’s porn would forever keep her out because of WWE being PG.

Now, full disclosure for anyone not in the loop around here; I am a retired sex worker. I’ve done escorting, topless modelling, and queer porn. I am not in any way ashamed of this nor should I be. From that perspective, I can say unequivocally that, personally I think that excuse is utter bullshit fueled by the insane sexual repression of the United States, but professionally I do understand the reasoning. WWE IS a PG rated, publicly traded company, and angry parents protesting can and has hurt a lot of companies in the US over the years.

So as much as I hate the basis of the reasoning, (OH DEAR LORD WE MUST PROTECT OUR CHILDREN FROM EVER KNOWING SEX EVEN EXISTS!!!), I understand and begrudgingly accept that as a publicly traded business that IS a legitimate consideration for them.

Speaking of PWOTECTS DA CHILDWENS!!!, you may want to shield any underaged eyes from my next sentence.

That said; WHY IN THE BLOODY BLUE FUCK IS A PIMP GOING IN THE HALL OF FAME THIS YEAR?

Okay, that’s out of my system. The rest of this column will once again be reasonably profanity free.

Seriously though; Chyna officially can’t be inducted into the Hall of Fame because she did/does porn, but a man who plays a pimp on tv and in real life legit owns strip clubs in Vegas can?

Okay, let me break down all the reasons this is happening and why it’s misogynist double standard garbage.

First of all, I can’t imagine angry parents wouldn’t protest a man who makes his living hiring buxom young women to take their clothes off on stage. He’s basically a pimp in real life. So if Chyna’s porn disqualifies HER, why doesn’t the Godfather’s real life stripper pimping disqualify HIM? Well, at the most basic level, it’s sexism. Society still shames women for their sexuality while encouraging it in men. But in this case the issue runs even deeper.

You see, Charles “Godfather” Wright is a member of the Bone Street Krew, the Undertaker’s backstage club. He’s still on good terms with several folks still with the company. This little bit of boys club mentality means HIS connection the the adult industry can be overlooked. But Chyna is not only a woman, she’s “the Ex”. Stephanie McMahon is ridiculously jealous of her, and Tripsy has done his best to keep Chyna as far away from him as possible. So while they can make peace with men like the Ultimate Warrior and Bruno Sammartino, Chyna is forever persona non-gratas.

But if you ignore all these backstage faactors, and focus solely on the WWE’s OFFICIAL excuse for excluding Chyna but inducting Godfather, it still boils down to a classic slut-shaming misogynist double standard; It’s okay when men do adult, sex-oriented work, but not when women do. And that is NOT okay, and it frankly makes the WWE hypocrites.

See you all tomorrow for Day 5; The New Talent Influx

Penny is a now divorced intersexed disabled lesbian in BC Canada. She's been watching wrestling and reading comics since she was a kid, and knows her stuff. She lives with her pets and passes her free time writing, drawing, doing paid photoshop work (including logos done for Pulse's Own Mike Gojira), and is a part-time Queer model.