It’s no secret (or surprise) that in the past year, the WWE has began to adopt more and more aspects of the indie wrestling boom in trying to expand their global brand. In the past few years, they’ve begun signing far more “indie darlings” – both male and female – than before to fill developmental over their previous norm of signing bodybuilders or fitness models. While they still have their share of “homegrown” stars, they’re more likely products of ROH, PWG, Chikara or NJPW these days than cheerleaders from the NFL or somebody’s work out buddy. With the rise in interest of tournaments such as PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles, Chikara’s King of Trios, or any of NJPW’s, from the G-1 Climax to the Super Juniors, WWE responded with the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, the Cruiserweight Classic, and the impending women’s tournament. As 2016 ended with the hot ascension of the UK indie scene, the WWE added their own UK tournament to showcase these indie stars, even creating their own UK Championship. But one area of the indie scene that the WWE has yet to implement is one that WWE was a pioneer of nearly 20 years previous, but who has failed to capitalize on since: intergender matches on their programming.
Intergender Wrestling Early Roots
Intergender wrestling was one of those old school “no-no”‘s for years. Despite early carnival stars like Mildred Burke routinely taking on male challengers on their road shows (Burke reportedly faced 200 men in the ring in her shoot career and lost only once), men and women were kept apart from each other in the ring. Promoters felt it was unfair to match up women against the male stars, most likely due to the sexism of the day that disallowed the audience in believing a woman could beat a man. It was just that kind of absurdity though, that resparked it’s interest. And it came from an unlikely source – stand-up comedian and actor Andy Kaufman, who in the late 70’s, declared himself the Intergender Champion and staged match-ups across the country against women of all kinds (from Playboy playmates to women’s wrestlers to Debbie Harry of Blondie), before it culminated in a show down against Memphis Wrestling’s Jerry “The King” Lawler.
But it never caught out in the bigger promotions, like the NWA, WWF, or AWA, and remained a novelty gimmick associated with the comedian. That is, until the 1990’s came about.
Intergender Attitude
By the mid-90’s, the new crop of women’s wrestlers were more influenced by stars like Dynamite Kid than Fabulous Moolah, bringing a risk and style that hadn’t been seen before, primarily in the Japanese promotions. And suddenly women were beginning to act like legitimate threats in the ring versus men, as opposed to being beneath them. It started to creep into the bigger North American promotions as well, such as Luna Vachon‘s foray into ECW in 1995, when she battled Stevie Richards. ECW had no problem pushing boundaries that WWE or WCW were still too timid to dance around, be it blood, hardcore, or intergender matches. This match-up is generally regarded as the first true intergender match-up in professional wrestling as we know it.
A couple years later, WCW would follow suit, when recent WWE Hall of Famer Jacqueline, then the manager for Harlem Heat, defeated Disco Inferno at Halloween Havoc ’97. Jacqueline would continue to make waves in intergender history, capturing the WWE Cruiserweight title from Chavo Guerrero in 2004. Throughout the Attitude Era, women became frequent combatants in the chaos for the WWE Hardcore Championship: Trish Stratus, Molly Holly, and Terri Runnels all held the title once. But it was the 9th Wonder of the World who revolutionized everything.
The 9th Wonder of the World: Chyna
Chyna entered the WWE in 1997 as the new bodyguard for Triple H and, along with Shawn Michaels and Rick Rude, made up the inaugural incarnation of the legendary faction, D-Generation X. For years, while not competing with the men, Chyna would routinely interact with them in the most physical way she could. But in 1999, Chyna made headlines around the world when she beat Jeff Jarrett to win the Intercontinental Championship, becoming the first woman to hold a major men’s title in a major promotion. She would continue to face men, such as Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Val Venis and Hardcore Holly, before leaving the WWE in 2001 as a 3-time Intercontinental Champion. She would land in NJPW in 2002 and continued her intergender career, facing Japanese legend Masahiro Chono. While she may not have had the in-ring skills many of today’s women’s wrestlers have, she kicked down doors that were previously closed and inspired generations of future women wrestlers that they could compete against their male counterparts in more than novelty matches.
The Rise of Intergender in the Indies
Following Jacqueline’s Cruiserweight win in 2004, intergender match-ups have been absent from WWE programming. Sure they have mixed tag matches, but they revert back to the decades old ruling where same gender had to face off upon the tagging of the partner of the opposite sex. Men and women could compete together as partners, but no opponents. But in the indies, this new breed of women’s wrestler was not only competing against men one on one, but succeeding, becoming internet Superstars for their tenacity and toughness in a sport dominated by big muscled men.
Many of the top talent in the world, from Candice LeRae, Princess Kimber Lee, Heidi Lovelace, Ivelise, Sexy Star and others have taken intergender matches of old to new heights, with a degree of athleticism, realism and entertainment that removes the stigma of it being a “man vs woman” and making it feel just as important or relevant as a “traditional” wrestling match. Kimber Lee made wrestling history on December 5, 2015, when she captured Chikara’s Grand Championship, becoming the first woman to win a major promotion’s highest title in pro wrestling history. Candice LeRae shocked the world in an outstanding tag team match in PWG where she teamed with Joey Ryan vs. the Young Bucks in what turned into a bloody hardcore affair that was ECW worthy. Lucha Underground has consistently proven that women could compete with men, as Sexy Star as won the LU Championship in the current Season 3 (she’s also a former LU Gift of the Gods Champion), and Ivelise is a 2-time LU Trios Champion. It appears that intergender wrestling has become an accepted norm everywhere except in WWE and TNA. But that may be about to change.
Kimber Lee & Drew Gulak
So what are the chances that the WWE finally starts to bring intergender matches back to the WWE now that they’ve brought in so many of these stars and embraced so much of the indie norms this past year? After all, from 1997 to 2004, the WWE revolutionized intergender wrestling, but then abruptly withdrew when the PG Era began. Are they afraid of the backlash? It’s understandable. There are so many people in this world who would look at any potential defeat of a woman by a man as merely domestic abuse on display, without seeing the bigger picture of good vs evil, or that the woman would most likely be heading towards the ultimate victory. It’s seemingly okay for heroines in film and television to have the narrative of being held back or beat down only to end up with the victory, but for some reason it’s viewed differently in pro wrestling. But recent events have given some fans a glimmer of hope that perhaps something is brewing that could at least be the signs of a toe back in the waters, so to speak.
It’s no secret that WWE signed former Chikara Grand Champion Princess Kimber Lee late last year. They just posted an article and photo series welcoming her (along with Heidi Lovelace, Andrea and Julia Ho) on their website to confirm the deal. But a series of Dirk Gently-esque seemingly random things could be a slowburn groundwork for a showdown between the former Princess of Suplex Kingdom, Kimber Lee, and her mentor and trainer, current Raw/205 Live Superstar Drew Gulak.
Back on the December 20, 2015 edition of 205 Live, Drew Gulak lost a match to Cedric Alexander due to the involvement of Alexander’s ‘girlfriend’ Alicia Fox. After the match, interviewer Dasha Fuentes caught up with Gulak who said that “women had no place on 205 Live.” Sure Gulak is a heel and that’s a heel thing to say in 2016, but could it have been a small ember in a potential future storyline? Was Gulak merely frustrated that Fox cost him the match or was he beginning a new woman hater angle in its infancy?
Gulak has been paired with “The Premier Athlete” Tony Nese for months and while other storyline feuds have evolved in the WWE Cruiserweight division, Gulak and Nese are primarily in a holding pattern right now. They are involved in Cedric Alexander and Noam Dar‘s feud, but they’re pawns right now in it to advance the narrative for the other two men. Once Alexander and Dar tangle full throttle, Gulak and Nese will be left without an angle.
But here’s the interesting part. In Kimber Lee’s photo gallery, WWE pays particular focus on her intergender accomplishments. Not only do they show her holding the Chikara Grand Championship in one photo, they also followed that with a photo of her wrestling in an intergender match. And her opponent is none other than Drew Gulak. In her photo introduction of Kimber Lee to the WWE Universe, they chose to promote her intergender combativeness. By picking a “woman hater” currently on the main roster, it creates an instant and lasting impression for casuals and die-hards a like, something that can be visited later.
With a rapidly increasing female fan base, the WWE has the opportunity to now showcase intergender wrestling properly. With so many smaller male performers than before, the size difference is nowhere near as “unbelievable” as they were in the 70’s or 80’s. With access to so many indie promotions, legend of many of these intergender match-ups are becoming increasingly well known to wrestling fans worldwide. And while there are some logistics that could suppress them from being common place – most promotions that feature prominent intergender matches don’t have a Women’s title (why would they if they can compete for any of them? It negates the value) – there has at least been groundwork set – however minimal – that we could see at least one come to the WWE. And you couldn’t have two better performers to show the WWE Universe how it can be done right that the teacher vs pupil of Drew Gulak vs. Kimber Lee.
Main Photo: WWE.com
