Breaking The Walls Down - Your Thoughts and My Own Submitted by Chris Dailey on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 at 5:37 PM EST
Breaking The Walls Down
Hello all and welcome to another edition of Breaking The Walls Down. Following last week’s column, I only received feedback towards the actual column question itself. I did receive plenty of one sentence answers, but not enough to actually post. Amazingly enough all answers were the same, though not as in-depth as this answer below. So, what I’m going to do is post the question and answer in the column and then give my opinion on the matter. But first, onto Bits and Pieces this week.
Bits and Pieces
Rest in Peace Eddie Guerrero. You are a born again Christian and I have faith that you have been welcomed into The Kingdom of Heaven where your soul will live forevermore. I will say that I am not dedicating my column entirely to Eddie this week. The reason for this is simple, there’s not much more out there for me to say. Everyone else has pretty much covered it from top to bottom. I respect Eddie and I truly feel for his wife, daughters, family, friends, and his fans. I am an Eddie fan through and through and his loss has finally begun to sink in and it bothers me as much as Owen’s tragic loss did. Again, rest in peace Eddie.
The WWE has been said to be very interested in Sting. I was wondering when this was going to start making its way around the rumor mill. Ever since I saw that Sting was present at Eddie’s funeral, I was wondering when something would be said. It has been reported that Sting is interested in a DVD that The WWE would put out; however, I believe that the only way this would happen is if The WWE and Sting come to terms on him wrestling in The WWE. Sting appears to be firm in his beliefs that The WWE is not the place for him and, honestly, I can’t say I blame him. However, if Sting really wants a DVD to come out on him, he may have to consider his hard-line stance on the matter and maybe make a few appearances. Who knows, he may end up enjoying performing for WWE crowds.
Lex Luger has been quite open recently about his past. Forgive me for seeming skeptical on this, but something seems out of whack here on all of this. I’m not sure what to say about all of this yet, but it does seem all of a sudden, doesn’t it? I mean, why is he coming forth with all of this so suddenly? Something here doesn’t seem right.
Christian has jumped ship to The NWA-TNA after his contract expired with The WWE. The jump was speculated and discussed for quite some time. I will say that Christian is going to inject a sense of charisma into The NWA-TNA as only “Captain Charisma” can. Will Christian win The NWA-TNA World Title, honestly, I don’t know. I think it would be nice for Christian to win, but I don’t see what kind of financial rewards The NWA-TNA will see from him holding the title. However, there is another wrestler that is rumored to be getting ready to enter The NWA-TNA, Chris Jericho. Should that happen, I can honestly say that The NWA-TNA will have begun to turn the tide in their favor. Competition, it can be a wonderful thing.
On a more light-hearted note, Rick Steiner has become a school board member for his local school. It seems that he has found a life outside of professional wrestling, as he is a realtor along with being a school board member. Congratulations to Rick, as he has begun the transition from active professional wrestler to a career far away from the limelight. Best of luck to him.
Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the United States!
And now, onto the column.
Your Thoughts and My Own
Here are the questions I asked, followed by the response that represented what everyone was feeling (wow, I must be the only one thinking differently):
With The WWE relying upon female performers more and more, should The WWE be able to simply release women once they decide to become pregnant and start a family? Keep in mind that the male performers in The WWE start families all the time and get no retaliation. In fact, they are given time off to be with their wives. But, how many pregnant female performers have there been in The WWE (minus Dawn Marie at ECW’s PPV, that was an exception, she was released at some point after the PPV)? Is it unfair to put such restrictions on women or is this the nature of the game? And finally, is The WWE, with regards to the on-air talent, disregarding equal rights for women? The WWE would never come out and say that female performers can’t get pregnant, because a huge lawsuit would ensue. However, there are always unspoken rules. Do these rules exist (obviously, you won’t be able to answer that question) and if so, are they unfair considering the nature of the business? What the last part of the statement means is, female performers who get pregnant would have to avoid physical situations and that can get really hard. The WWE may be looking at the fact that they become a liability, but why couldn’t they then have them do work in the back?
Dave writes:
I believe that women in wrestling need to accept that the nature of the beast is that pregnancy and wrestling do not mix. As a new father, I saw my wife go through 9 months of afternoon and evening sickness, not to mention so many other unexpected changes. Given that WWE shows are done during that time, how can they expect to perform feeling that way. This doesn't even bring into question the risks of travel, especially later in the pregnancy. Lastly, wrestling is about the look and the physical competition. It cannot be unfair on the WWE's part for women to feel restricted by this, it's just the nature of the beast, and they knew it when they took the job.
After reading through Dave’s e-mail and the many others who voiced a similar (yet much shorter version of it) voice, I did some further thinking on the subject. I completely understand your viewpoints. I can understand that it should be understood that a female cannot competently perform in or out of the ring in an on-camera or house show environment. I can also understand that the risks of travel on a pregnant woman can be extreme even under the calmest of situations. And, finally I can understand that wrestling and professional wrestling do not mix. All of these points I wouldn’t argue against. In fact, if my wife was involved with professional wrestling and we decided to have a child, I certainly would not want her to step one foot through that curtain. However, there is not one person who sent me an e-mail that stated one important fact, The Family Medical Leave Act.
The Family Medical Leave Act, enacted on February 5, 1993 states “To grant family and temporary medical leave under certain circumstances.” (credit U.S Department of Labor. In said document, line two clearly states, “Any period of incapacity due to pregnancy, or for prenatal care.” Now, after reading that line, one must wonder at which point this becomes necessary. At most, a simple note written from a family doctor is all that would be required in this case. The synopsis of the law, found in the page provided by the link above, states, “Covered employers must grant an eligible employee up to a total of 12 workweeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period.” Covered employers are defined as having, “50 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year. Employers covered by FMLA also include any person acting, directly or indirectly, in the interest of a covered employer to any of the employees of the employer, any successor in interest of a covered employer, and any public agency. Public agencies are covered employers without regard to the number of employees employed.” What defines an “eligible employee” can be found here. One of the most important lines in this section is “Has been employed by the employer for at least 12 months”. This is simply to help cover employers who have recently hired for a position and now the new hire wants to take leave. This portion is there to protect the employer first and foremost.
Now, it’s not like me to quote laws in this column (or in general), but I feel the law is very relevant in this case. Couldn’t it be possible, once a female becomes pregnant to, in the early stages, perform an on-air manager type role or do behind the scenes work (i.e. story line ideas, sit in on production meetings, etc.). Then, once the female performer has become pregnant to the point where travel is not an option, the female could be presented the option to either work at the Stanford office or take vacation time. Once the female has gotten to the point where she can no longer take vacation or any leave with pay, she could enact the Family Medical Leave Act.
My point is that there is always a work around to any situation that arises. This is not an earth-shattering dilemma or even a new dilemma. Females become pregnant; it’s a fact of life (you know, the whole human reproduction thing). Why is it so difficult for people to accept a female who is pregnant in The WWE? The Family Medical Leave Act exists for a reason. To let go of a female because she has become pregnant is a disgrace and should be intolerable in these times of equality. This is one of the reasons why WWE workers should have unions. I’m not a big fan of unions, but I think in this case unions would actually do what they were designed to do, help the employees be treated fairly.
Unions have always been a touchy subject when it comes to professional wrestling. Way back when Jesse Ventura attempted to start a union, but Hogan supposedly ratted him out to Vince McMahon, unions have been a hot and cold topic for professional wrestling in general, but The WWE specifically. If the union were a strong union, issues such as women being let go due to age, the desire to become pregnant, or pregnancy itself, would be a non-issue, it simply wouldn’t happen. I’ve heard the positive and negatives to unions argued over the years and, while I admit unions tend to get power hungry and rise above their intended purpose, if a professional wrestling union were kept in check somehow, it would be a huge benefit for the wrestlers.
I don’t want to dig up old wounds, but it should be mentioned that had Owen Hart had union representation, it is possible (I’m not saying definitely, only that it’s possible) that Owen would never have died that horrible night. It was said that he was very nervous doing that stunt and if he felt his life was unnecessarily being put in danger he could have contacted his union representative and that union representative would have contacted WWE management and said that Owen has no business doing that stunt and would not be taking part in it that night or any night. Again, that is pure speculation on my part, but I definitely believe it’s possible. Unions, strong unions that is, are notorious for hard-lining with management. Could this negatively impact WWE programming, sure, it’s possible. Anything is possible, but the fact remains that union representation could be a huge benefit to WWE wrestlers, and professional wrestlers as a whole.
I am a proponent of not allowing females to be released upon becoming pregnant or that their age surpasses a certain point. I believe something should be done to stop this now, before the issue is widely accepted. It might not be a popular topic or one that many people care about, but it’s a topic that needs to come to the forefront and examined very, very closely. Heaven forbid that a now-returning to television Stephanie McMahon were to become pregnant. What would Vince do then, fire his own daughter? I sincerely doubt that, but, then again, the shoe is always different when it’s on the other foot, now isn’t it Vince?
