How To Avoid Disrespecting A Woman In The Wrestling Industry

How To Avoid Disrespecting A Woman In The Wrestling Industry

 Following the feedback regarding my previous article, “Ways To Avoid Being A Creeper When Talking To Women In The Wrestling Industry”, I decided to create a second article on more ways to avoid being disrespectful to women in the professional wrestling industry. I was inspired to write this article after seeing other ladies in the business continue to be disrespected by creepers. Some of these guidelines listed may not necessarily apply to creepers, hence why I titled this post what I did. However, all of the guidelines listed do apply to examples of inappropriate behavior that I and other ladies in the professional wrestling industry have either seen or experienced from fans. With that being said, I present to you another guideline on how to avoid being disrespectful to female professional wrestlers, managers, ring announcers, referees etc. 

First, please do not ask a female in the professional wrestling industry to send any selfies or personal pictures to you via online messengers or via social media profiles. If you want a photo of your favorite wrestler, manager, referee, ring announcer etc., simply and respectfully ask her if she sells any promotional photos as merchandise such as 8x10’s, for example. Chances are if she does, they are pretty affordable plus by asking her that instead, you are not disrespecting her and her right to privacy as she may not share or post personal photos and selfies on her social media profiles as it is a part of her private life. 

Secondly, please don’t keep pestering a woman in the wrestling industry by continuing to send her messages or begging her to stay online after she has already explained to you that she is unavailable to chat at the time. If she was chatting with you for a while and she suddenly has to get offline, please respect that instead of getting upset about her not being available to chat anymore. We try very hard to communicate with our fans when we have the time and we can’t always be online due to many factors such as work, training sessions, church, time with family, personal errands etc. Like you, we also have private and personal lives and get busy with things going on in them. 

Thirdly, please respect the personal beliefs, opinions, views etc. of a female in the professional wrestling industry. It’s perfectly ok for her to have different views, beliefs and opinions than you whether those views, beliefs and opinions involve something wrestling-related, religious, political etc. She has the right to express those opinions, views and beliefs openly so long as she is not harming anyone in the process.

  You may not have to agree with her beliefs, views and opinions on something but please don’t disrespect or insult her for having different views, opinions and beliefs than you. To sum it up, if you don’t agree with what she has to say about a particular matter, you don’t have to respond or reply to it in any way. You can choose to just ignore it and move on from it. 

Next, please don’t continue to send a woman in the professional wrestling industry messages asking her what she is doing every few minutes. She probably doesn’t have the time to constantly keep telling you what she is doing and honestly, that’s her own personal business what she is doing. Furthermore, if you just asked her what she was doing three minutes ago, chances are three minutes later she is still doing the same thing as before.  

Also, please do not invite yourself over to a female in the wrestling profession’s home or ask them to come and pick you up to drive you somewhere especially when it is completely out of their way, due to you being in a different country or state. Chances are if you ask to come over to her home, ask to stay at her house while visiting from another state or country or ask her to come pick you up and drive you somewhere, she is probably going to think you are a stalker, creeper or criminal, particularly if she has never even met you personally before. Plus, by asking to come over to or stay at her house, you are giving her the impression that you are trying to invade her private and personal life, something that many in the professional wrestling industry are very protective of.  

Next, please do not ask a woman in the wrestling industry for money or ask them to buy something for you. I have seen fans get upset so many times with wrestlers when they ask for money or ask a wrestler to buy something for them all because the wrestler told them they don’t have money to give but not every person in the wrestling industry has lots of money or can afford to buy something you honestly should be paying for yourself. Many wrestlers, managers, referees, ring announcers etc., particularly in the independent scene do not get paid much to do shows if they get paid at all, hence why many in the independent scene have to work other jobs in order to provide for themselves and their families. If they do make money from a wrestling show, chances are they have already lost the profits they made from that show on travel expenses alone when heading back home after the event. 

Also, please do not ask a woman in the wrestling industry if you can buy used items of hers. I’m not referring to old ring gear that she no longer wears and may be selling, as some fans do buy those items to add to their wrestling memorabilia collections. When I mean don’t ask if you can buy used items of hers, I am referring to things that have nothing to do with her wrestling career, such as used tissues, dirty socks, worn undergarments and used feminine hygiene products. Chances are if you ask her to sell you personal items like that, she will get completely disgusted and not want to talk to you anymore.

Additionally, please don’t assume or call a woman a ring rat, slut, tramp, whore, hood rat, skank or any other derogatory term just because she is a woman in the professional wrestling industry. Yes, the professional wrestling industry is populated with more men than women but just because she is a female in the wrestling industry or managing/ tag teaming with/ wrestling against a male wrestler, it doesn’t mean she is sleeping around with and doing sexual favors for him or anybody else in the locker room or backstage areas at a show or event. Women in wrestling take their craft very seriously and if you accuse them of sleeping around to get bookings or title opportunities, she will take offense as you are disrespecting her, her passion for the business and all the hard work and training she has put into her career. 

On that note, don’t even presume to know anything about her personal life or love life. If she wants to tell you, that’s her business but chances are, she’s keeping her personal life private which means she probably isn’t going to give you any details about her life outside of the ring, especially if she feels that it isn’t any of your concern or business to know anything about her private life. On another note, don’t presume to know things about her or her life unless she tells you directly. Just because you heard something about her doesn’t mean it’s necessarily true so don’t potentially insult her or disrespect her all because of trash talk, gossip, speculations or rumors you heard from other people that are most likely not true. Not to mention, spreading slander and libel are against the law to which she has the right to file a lawsuit over.

Additionally, do not pose as a promoter or a wrestler to try and coax a wrestler into coming to a specific location and leading the female wrestler, manager, referee, ring announcer etc. under the impression that they are being booked for a show there. It is not always easy for us to get bookings and to put us under false pretense of obtaining a potential booking is completely disrespectful not only to us but to our craft, in general. Do not impersonate a booker just so you can get a female in the business at a certain place at a certain time because you have dishonorable intentions and don’t pose as a wrestler just to try and get a match with her. Chances are she will find out that you are a fraud and it will put her even more on guard when discussing potential bookings for herself in the future, something she shouldn’t have to be stressing out about as much all because someone pretended to be a wrestler or promoter in the business when they weren’t just to try to lure her into a dangerous situation.

Also, if you see a female in the wrestling industry at a public place or even leaving a show, do not follow her. I have heard of this happening to female wrestlers and they should never have to feel like they are being threatened or stalked while at a public place or while driving somewhere after leaving an event. Stalking is a criminal offense and if she feels endangered in any way, she may choose to inform the proper authorities, which can ultimately result in you facing criminal charges.

Finally, do not touch a female in the wrestling industry inappropriately at autograph signings, wrestling shows, charity events or other public events she may be attending. I have heard of some wrestlers enforcing “no touching” rules when doing autograph signings all because some fans got a little too personal by grabbing or touching a female in the business in private areas of their body such as the buttocks or chest. I have also seen fans walk up to women wrestlers as they were coming out to compete and put their arms around them. On that note, stay seated in your chair or stay behind the guardrails if promotions have them because you not only are putting yourself in danger by not doing so but you are disrespecting that female’s personal space and potentially messing up her entrance she has worked so hard on because you are getting in the way and being somewhere you aren’t even supposed to be at a show.