Shane Douglas is Clueless About Harassment, How To Deal With It

Harassment is a genuine concern for women in professional wrestling and former ECW star Shane Douglas has a terrible idea for how to deal with this problem

Few names are more synonymous with the heyday of ECW than “The Franchise” Shane Douglas. During the early 90s, Douglas and other future hardcore legends such as Tazz, Tommy Dreamer, and Sandman blazed a thumb tack-laden trail that would one day take extreme wrestling out of war memorial auditoriums and into large sports arenas. Since 2009, Douglas has wrestled on the indy circuit and been mostly silent about major wrestling issues other than being named as part of the 2016 class action lawsuit against WWE.

While Douglas was undoubtedly a fantastic wrestler, his personal views about women in the industry leave something to be desired. Right around the time of SummerSlam earlier this year, Sasha Banks appeared on Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast and addressed a rumor that had been swirling around the events of that weekend which claimed The Boss ignored fans at her hotel who waited hours for autographs and pictures.

"“I don’t tweet out what hotel I’m at. I don’t tweet out what airline I’m flying. I do tweet you what arena I’ll be performing at, so I do expect fans at the arena, and I’m so happy to sign at the arena, that’s fine because I’m telling you where I’m going to be at. If I see you in public, that’s fine. But when I’m at an airport at 4 in the morning and I see somebody with a carry-on and they open it with a hundred items of everyone and they’re bothering everybody to get an autograph, and I see it on eBay – that’s not okay to me.”"

In order to clarify her point, she relayed a story about once flying home and being met at the terminal by fans who had requested information from airline employees about when she would be arriving. That is not normal behavior. I have lived in Southern California and been to LAX airport many times. I’ve witnessed this obsession firsthand and it’s not just paparazzi who lie in wait for celebrities, but star hunters and eBay hawks as well.

It’s obvious she wasn’t advocating being dismissive or rude to her fans, only that there needs to be reasonable boundaries for their interactions. This brings us back to Shane Douglas. During a recent podcast appearance on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling, he addressed Banks’ comments and decided to turn sexism and abject awfulness up to 11:

"“It’s ridiculous. There is a real simple fix here and I mean an incredibly simple fix. If you don’t like being and I’m using my fingers to make quotations marks ‘stalked’ by the fans, quit. Go be a waitress, go be a teacher, go be an attorney, go be a business owner and go do whatever it is you want to do out of the limelight if that has become such a heavy burden for you…When you get blessed to have a really good career and be on the top of that industry than shut the f*** up and ride the ride.”"

It’s not a coincidence he first suggests that Banks go become a “waitress”, a job traditionally associated with women. His comments make it clear what his opinion is regarding women in the wrestling industry and possibly speaks to his views on women in general.

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His opinion is not far from “she was asking for it” simply because she’s a celebrity. The idea that any form of harassment is “part of the job” and that women who complain need to stay silent and enjoy being famous is not only sexist but it’s also incredibly dangerous. This line of thinking allows people to both rationalize and dismiss any genuine threats lobbed at female celebrities because, hey, it’s part of the job.

The irony here is that Douglas would not tolerate this behavior if it was his family in the same scenario nor should he. I have no doubt that he had his share of uncomfortable fan interactions during his career and even if he took them in stride that doesn’t give any of those fans an excuse to cross personal boundaries with him or his family. Being a celebrity does not give anyone permission to violate your basic rights to privacy or decency.

I’m sure Douglas would feel quite differently if fans were following his wife or children demanding autographs and pictures at inappropriate times simply because they were related to a wrestling legend. The excuse of “shut the f*** up and ride the ride” most certainly wouldn’t go over well and it shouldn’t because it’s complete nonsense. Of course, Douglas had more awful takes to throw out:

"“Be thankful that those fans give a s*** to want to sit there and wait for you and ‘stalk’ you because they are the ones that are paying your salary and without them Vince McMahon wouldn’t be handing you that check or without them Vince McMahon wouldn’t even have you in that spot and without them you wouldn’t be on the show that you are on that has caused you so much duress.”"

“Be thankful” is the quintessential rationale for awful behavior towards women. How is this any different from, “I’m not harassing her. She should be thankful I’m showing her any attention at all”? In this statement, Douglas demeans Banks’ hard work and numerous accomplishments by blatantly suggesting that instead of addressing these issues she should just shut her mouth and be grateful a man is giving her an opportunity to be successful at all.

It’s entirely possible that Douglas took Sasha’s comments out of context or only heard part of her interview or even that he heard what she said second-hand but that still doesn’t excuse any of what he said. Dismissing this kind of treatment as “part of the job” is at best a clueless hot take and at worst a dangerous view on how women deserve to be treated in the entertainment industry.

The problem of harassment isn’t reserved only for women. Back in January, Randy Orton was involved in an incident at an Arkansas gym where he was in town for a house show. While the details and interpretations may be disputed, the bottom line is that a fan approached Orton while he was working out and wanted a picture but Orton was clearly occupied. After several comments about the incident on Twitter, Orton ended the discussion with a simple rule for obtaining pictures/autographs while he’s getting his swole on: “Wait til I’m done? Then cool.”

There is always an appropriate time and place to approach a celebrity and ask for an autograph or picture. People like Shane Douglas either don’t recognize this fact or have been out of the spotlight for so long they have forgotten what is feels like to be famous.

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