Impact Wrestling: An Alliance Between Su Yung and Scarlett Bordeaux Could Offer Viewers an Important Survey on The Depth of Women in Wrestling

Scarlett Bordeaux’s two-week tenure on Impact Wrestling may not have people using her name in the same sentence as current Knockouts Champion Su Yung just yet. That said, a alliance between Scarlett and Su could still offer viewers a very loaded message about the history, the future, and the versatility of women’s wrestling.

I’m sure you’d agree that we’ve never seen anything quiet like Su Yung on any professional wrestling television program in recent years, especially not from a woman. The character Su Yung has been able to create on Impact Wrestling is nothing short of a spectacle; a red-soaked dress, a hoard of zombies in color-coordinated outfits, and vile red liquid spewing from her mouth leave Su on a plain of sheer theatrics that not many women in wrestling are matching just yet.

On the other hand, newest Knockout Scarlett Bordeaux is almost reminiscent of the days of old – a few tight-fitting dresses, a good wind effect, and vows to “make wrestling sexy again”, Scarlett is blast from the past with a twist. That twist, of course, is the fact that her sexuality is for her own benefit and not for that of the men in the audience and at home with their jaws on the floor.

The two women are worlds apart, and seemingly, if they ever were to meet somewhere in a wrestling ring, the mismatch would be not only noticeable, but maybe even laughable.

That is exactly why these two women need to meet one day in the Impact Zone, because their mismatch is more representative of dynamism of women’s wrestling then we may realize.

The way I see it, women’s wrestling, or rather the characters within women’s wrestling have always been dichotomized. In the early WWF days, the spectrum was simple; there were women who wrestled and women who didn’t wrestle. Working into the Attitude Era, the scope shifted, and there were petite, “beautiful” women who wrestled, and then there were more muscular, “unconventional” women who wrestled. In the era of Divas, there were the beautiful women who wrestled, and the beautiful women wrestled but also competed in (my favorite) bikini contests.

Su Yung and Scarlett Bordeaux would have never found their place in wrestling back then.

That point is probably more difficult to see in the case of Scarlett. Here she is, slinking up the entrance ramp to talk about being “hot-shamed” and how the other women in the locker room should be jealous of her.

Don’t be fooled, viewers – Scarlett Bordeaux is a new breed of sexy in women’s wrestling, one that’s focused not on being ogled and toted alongside the world champion. Scarlett is all about agency and calling the shots on when, where, and how she implements her sexuality; it’s about the way she defines herself, not us, and that makes all the difference.

Su Yung throws every thought you’ve ever had about what a female wrestler should look, talk, or act like, puts it in a coffin, and sets it on fire. She challenges the notion that a female wrestler should be sexy, strong, a good leader, a role model, or anything of that sort. She would rather be absolutely terrifying; not only that, but the creepy level is amplified sixfold with the inclusion of her Undead Bridesmaids. Su assumedly once got the memo of what she was supposed to do and how to look for a match, but apparently went for something a little more fun.

These two women paired with one another against each other would be two things.

Firstly, it would be exactly as I described it before – a mismatch of comical proportions. There is a lot of room for real humor in this pairing, what with Su giving her all to scare the bejeezus out of Scarlett and Scarlett coming back with a critique on Su’s look. They’re as close to a pro-wrestling Odd Couple as Impact could get right now.

When you really think about it, Scarlett and Su may be the only pairing you could choose out of the current Knockouts roster where Su potentially wouldn’t come off like the bad guy.

Scarlett’s already said she’s expecting the entire division to be jealous of her; I have no reason to think that Scarlett would assume Su wouldn’t be in the same boat. In all truth, Scarlett would never be threatened by Su because no matter what Su does, she’ll always be leagues beneath Scarlett because Su is never put together.

Yet, Scarlett would still appreciate the fact that Su has beaten a majority of the women’s roster, and the rest of the women are afraid of her, and Scarlett would definitely see that as an asset.

More importantly (most importantly, actually), a Su Yung and Scarlett Bordeaux alliance would be the ultimate showcase of the fact that we have officially moved from the age of the Women’s Wrestling Dichotomy, and we are well into the age of the Women’s Wrestling Spectrum.

Women in wrestling no longer have to be subject to a single choice, to pick the lesser of two evils if you will. They no longer have to be one or another; instead, they now have the agency to choose one, another, or absolutely any other fathomable idea in between.

These two performers are at the forefront of women’s gimmicks and pushing the boundaries of what women should or shouldn’t be doing in a wrestling ring. To bring them together makes sense, as they prove that whether it’s as plain as day or maybe a little more subtle, women are still making leaps and strides, and they’re demanding to be seen in a way that challenges the preconceived notions many people still have of what women can do in a wrestling ring.