Inter-gender Wrestling in the WWE

If you watched this year’s Royal Rumble you would have seen a surprising development during the Men’s Royal Rumble. The number 30 spot was set aside for the winners of the Mixed Match Challenge. There are only 30 superstars in each Royal Rumble. The winners were Carmella and R-Truth. Carmella came out as number 30 durring the Women’s Rumble, and so during the Men’s Rumble the number 30 spot hits and we hear R-Truth’s music. As he was doing his usual crowd hype, Nia Jax punches R-Truth and takes his spot in the Men’s Royal Rumble.

For those of you who are not WWE fans, Nia Jax is a female WWE superstar. She is now the fourth female wrestler to compete in the Men’s Royal Rumble, and the first one to compete in both the Men’s and Women’s Royal Rumble.

What makes this interesting is that since the “PG” era of wrestling has begun there has been a strict, “no male on female violence” within WWE. During the “Attitude Era” that was not the case and if you look on YouTube or the WWE network you can find a lot of examples of male on female violence in the 90s and early 2000s. This mandate has come from both the higher ups in WWE and from advertisers who wanted to make WWE more family friendly. During this years mixed match challenge you could see a few female wrestlers take cheap shots at the male wrestlers, but not vice versa.

When Nia Jax entered this year’s Men’s Rumble she threw Mustafa Ali over the top rope. She also took two finishers from popular wrestlers, (an RKO and a 619) and was then thrown over the top rope.

Why? Why has WWE all of a sudden decided that intergender wrestling is OK? I am not sure that they have. I think they are testing the waters with this idea, and so they picked the biggest girl who could match the size of the male wrestlers in the ring and wanted to see what the reaction is with their sponcers and their fans.

Other wrestling promotions already have intergender wrestiing, my favorite being Lucha Underground, and it isn’t treated like a special event; it is treated like equality. How would WWE treat intergender wrestling? Would it be a special event or would it become something that is normal, especially in the mid-lightweight classes? I’m curious to see how the WWE would actually treat intergendered wrestling. I just wouldn’t want it to go back to the era where small women are dropped through tables for no reason.