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Wrestling Forward: We’re failing LGBTQ wrestlers during Pride month

By Kevin Parvizi

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 05: A view of pride rainbow flags outside the Stonewall Inn as Entertainment Weekly Celebrates Its Annual LGBTQ Issue at the Stonewall Inn on June 05, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Entertainment Weekly)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 05: A view of pride rainbow flags outside the Stonewall Inn as Entertainment Weekly Celebrates Its Annual LGBTQ Issue at the Stonewall Inn on June 05, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Entertainment Weekly) /
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R-Truth has made the 24/7 Championship a positive addition

Some of the best segments in WWE over the past couple of weeks have involved the new 24/7 Championship, which was a quirky idea that has become an immediate success thanks to the creative genius of R-Truth.

There’s no doubt that Truth is one of the greatest mainstream comedy wrestlers of all-time, and he holds a special place in WWE history. Truth has only added to his legacy by making the 24/7 Title one of the bright spots in WWE during a time where the quality of the programming has been rather mixed (stares a hole through Shane McMahon).

From pinning Jinder Mahal on an airplane to hiding under the ring, Truth has been a boundless source of creativity. Always one for pure, light-hearted fun in wrestling, Truth has become an important part of WWE programming as a veteran due to the 24/7 Title. Of course, he was shining even before that in the United States Championship picture, but the European/Hardcore/24/7 Title is SO him.

More importantly to WWE, Truth’s work as 24/7 champion is also insanely popular. These simple, entertaining videos regularly garner millions of views, and the airplane fiasco with Mahal is already up to seven million views on YouTube (embed above).

Mick Foley raising money for Ashley Massaro’s daughter

Ashley Massaro’s death shocked the wrestling world and made us have an honest conversation about mental health, specifically the way mental health isn’t taken seriously enough by wrestling promotions. WWE have rightfully come under fire for potentially covering up an incident that occurred during an overseas tour in Kuwait in which Massaro was raped.

But as always, even when WWE doesn’t step up to the plate – and instead focuses on discrediting Massaro’s legal representation – the rest of the wrestling world does. Massaro’s former colleagues in WWE, which include Mickie James and Gail Kim, created a GoFundMe to help raise money for Massaro’s 18-year-old daughter.

Mick Foley is playing a key role in this fundraising effort, which will go to Massaro’s daughter’s education. Not only has he donated $5,000 of his own, but he’s willing to spend three hours of his time (most likely to watch wrestling) with anyone willing to match that donation. Some things about wrestling are still uplifting.

More Tournaments

I love the NBA Playoffs and I love the back-and-forth nature of best-of-seven series. We don’t see that type of format for story-telling in wrestling often, but the best-of-seven series between Cesaro and Sheamus on Raw that led to the formation of the awesome tag team, “The Bar”, was a perfect example of this being executed.

WWE’s Network-exclusive brands, especially 205 Live, have run some fantastic tournaments. It’d be great to see more of them on the WWE main roster, and since WWE likes to match wrestlers up against each other multiple times (Cesaro vs. Ricochet comes to mind), why not have best-of-three or best-of-five series? It’ll allow the tournaments to have fewer wrestlers but still take up a significant amount of time. Trading wins can make the losing wrestler look stronger, whereas a “sweep” can assert a pushed wrestler’s dominance. Or a wrestler can be the victim of a surprise sweep in the second round after winning in the first.

It’s just something to consider…

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