WWE: The Alexa Bliss Segment Was Abhorrent On So Many Levels

Alexa Bliss hasn’t competed inside a WWE ring since September due to an aggravated concussion, but she’s at least been a regular on Raw recently. A great talker, Bliss needs to continue be featured in segments, but the promotion must be careful with how they portray a former women’s champion.

There is no doubt that Alexa Bliss has an impressive resume just two years since joining the WWE main roster as a SmackDown Live draft pick. Mere months into her main roster career, Bliss defeated Becky Lynch, who is currently one of the biggest names in the wrestling business, in a “Tables” match to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship.

Since then, Bliss won the SmackDown Women’s Title once more before taking her talents to Raw, running all over the Raw Women’s Division, and capturing the Red Brand’s title three more times. One of those title victories came this year when Bliss won the Money in the Bank briefcase, cashing in on Ronda Rousey that same night to ignite a months-long rivalry.

Though all of Bliss’s championship victories have drawn the ire of members of the WWE Universe because there are so many other women on the roster who are better in the ring, the criticisms against Bliss don’t necessarily hide her accomplishments. Even her harshest detractors will admit her ability to sell a match, cut a promo, and produce solid matches against top wrestlers like Sasha Banks, Mickie James, and Charlotte Flair.

Yet despite the fact that Bliss is a five-time Women’s Champion and the 2018 Money in the Bank winner, WWE hasn’t exactly treated her like a superstar since her concussion. Bliss’s “Moment of Bliss” segment has featured two huge names in Ronda Rousey and Paul Heyman, but Bliss didn’t really get to throw in some good shots at Heyman to boost her own profile and have “The Advocate” put her over a little.

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Worse yet, the segment prior to Bliss’s “Moment of Bliss” show with Heyman was an absolute embarrassment (link here). Some dude backstage was supposed to give Bliss coffee, and instead of waiting like a normal human being when nobody answered (since you know…it’s a freaking dressing room!), he barged in while Bliss was changing. And this dude wouldn’t even leave.

It wasn’t funny. It wasn’t interesting. It didn’t add to the program. It didn’t help anyone.

No, this segment was an uncomfortable embarrassment, and it made a mockery of a woman who has been a five-time champion in WWE. Nevermind the words “deserving” or whatever other buzzwords fans feel like throwing out there about Bliss; I’ve had those conversations and agree with many of those concerns. But Bliss has been positioned as a woman who has produced a lengthy match with Rousey, beaten Sasha and Bayley, and held a prestigious title five times in WWE, yet she’s being treated like some sort of a comedic side-show by Vince McMahon.

Make no mistake, this treatment would be wrong for any superstar, but the fact that WWE decided to do this to someone they have portrayed as a multi-time champion makes this even more nauseating.

This cannot continue. WWE has made some strides with their whole “New Era” rhetoric by giving Sasha Banks, Finn Balor, Bobby Lashley, and others opportunities on Raw, but THIS segment, along with the decision to bring Hulk Hogan back, negates a lot of what this company is trying to sell its audience.

I think this is a microcosm of the problems that remain in WWE. Segments like this in the past were panned by the audience for good reason, and we don’t want to go back to that era, especially when it’s a five-time women’s champion being treated in this manner.

It’s absolutely fine for women to be sexy, but there’s the right way to do it (just take note of Scarlett Bordeaux and the brilliant Maria Kanellis as examples). This? A segment where a woman’s privacy is invaded by some creep? Nope. This wasn’t the right way to do it. This wasn’t sexy; it was just gross and reeked of an old man writing this for his own “entertainment”.

Bliss seems to be headed back to the ring soon (concussion are scary business, after all), but WWE needs to be more careful with how they book Bliss as an on-screen character prior to her in-ring return. She’s a legitimately solid wrestler and great talker who earned being in the spotlight, regardless of qualms with how many titles she’s won.

Alexa Bliss shouldn’t be used like a prop for a cheap laugh from the boss himself, because, really, nobody else found this funny or entertaining in any way. It was the lowest form of television, and WWE has to set a higher standard than this.

From writers to fans of Alexa, this segment was rightfully despised by everyone, and WWE should never do this again. This isn’t what we want, and it’s harmful to try and make light of a woman’s privacy being violated.