MR. TITO: Why the Women’s United States Title is a Mistake for WWE That Overexposes Women’s Wrestling

In my opinion as a wrestling fan for almost 4 decades and a wrestling writer for almost 3 decades, I believe that it’s a mistake by the WWE to introduce the Women’s United States Title. When you’re a promotion who sometimes struggles with the 2 Women’s Titles and especially with the Women’s Tag Titles, there is no need to pile on to the title inflation that already exists in the WWE. When the # of titles equals or exceeds the potential number of segments or matches women have on a show, it’s an indicator that you have too many titles. Furthermore, it’s an indicator that you have too many titles that aren’t properly pushed OR you don’t have enough of a captivating roster to chase those titles.

Now, before I go any further, I want to send a message to the haters who cannot handle opinions and are often looking to cancel anyone with an opposite opinion. It’s one thing if I was spewing hatred or vulgarity, but it’s another thing when I post legitimate facts and professionally stated opinions. 2 years ago, I wrote a column where I expressed my opinion that the eye make-up was too much and then another where I suggested that the ring dimensions should be adjusted to help women (top ring rope is too high). Yet, I was met with a female wrestler attacking me (weeks later, she herself got into trouble about a Tweet regarding Chris Benoit) and an insider news guy (weeks later, he called a female WWE superstar as “stupid”), while NoDQ featured a friend-of-the-website who was so outraged that she wrote an attack column on me.

Again, I state my opinions professionally and often back them up with facts. Furthermore, my columns have been pro-women’s wrestling. You’ll see my past work PRAISING Trish Stratus, Lita, Molly Holly, Victoria, Jacqueline while I was one of the few fans sticking up for the Bella Twins when everybody else was attacking them with vulgarity and personal attacks based on who they were both dating. I’ve showered nothing but praise towards the NXT prospects like Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Asuka, Sasha Banks, Alexa Bliss, and Bayley while I’ve been huge fans of Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley on top of them. I’ve even come around on Liv Morgan, as her 2024 work has been fantastic.

Did you get all of that?

Because I’m here to tell you for as much as I admire the talents currently in the WWE, the fact is that Women’s wrestling is the equivalent, at best, to Tag Team wrestling as a midcard act.

Don’t believe me? Then why does the WWE not feature them much in the Main Event of Paid Live Events anymore? How come Becky vs. Charlotte vs. Ronda and Bianca vs. Sasha been the ONLY female matches to headline Wrestlemania and nothing has been close to that position since?

Want to know the REAL REASON why the WWE is successful as a wrestling business again? BECAUSE OF MALE WRESTLERS SHOWING STRONGLY IN THE MAIN EVENT SCENE AGAIN!!!!! Roman Reigns as a heel and being unfiltered, along with the rest of the Bloodline who portray themselves as real men. THAT IS WHY WWE has grown again.

Tell me what have we seen since August 2020 that would indicate that Women have played a crucial role in the WWE exploding with growth again. While they are a nice addition to fill the undercard, the Women’s division has been plagued with inconsistencies for the past 5 years. Charlotte Flair is hardly ever available, whether it’s a bizarre political dispute with the WWE or injuries. Becky, bless her heart, took time off for maternity leave but she’s had considerable time off in addition to that. Sasha Banks performed and then she’d disappear off camera. The high-risk style that many of them work leads to injuries, which has caused many talents to be there one night, and off the shows the next. Fact is that women have smaller and thinner bones than men, while male wrestlers have larger muscle mass (or padding) to shield them from injury.

WWE’s August 2020 to present growth has been on the back of Roman Reigns and his Bloodline, while the rest of the MALE roster improved behind him. Look at WWE’s male roster back during 2020 versus what it is now. Many great options that are pumping out many quality moments. Then, guys like The Rock can return and convince about another 1 million individuals to watch WWE again.

Compare that to the latter half of the 2010s. The “Divas Revolution” began 2015 while at the same time, John Cena was stepping back from his full-time WWE role and was also not chasing the WWE Title. What WWE tried to push in Cena’s place just didn’t draw at the time. Seth Rollins was good, but was just wasn’t effective in a terrible role working with the Authority and Corporate Kane. Roman Reigns lacked the experience working as a character and lacked in-ring abilities back then, yet Vince McMahon pushed him to the moon as a John Cena clone. Neither option worked that well at the top, hence why they relied on Brock Lesnar too much and his act got old after a while. Hence, why WWE began pushing this shiny new toy a little harder than usual. Suddenly, half, if not sometimes more, of RAW or Smackdown were filled with Women’s matches. Then, they’d get main event spots.

With due respect to Women’s Wrestling, ask yourself this… Why didn’t Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) work? That was an all-female cast of wrestlers who had television options, but it never drew money and ultimately closed. Why is the current Women of Wrestling promotion struggling to catch on?

And let me go further… Why hasn’t the Women’s NBA or WNBA drawn a dime yet? That league has NEVER made money and has only endured because the NBA has subsidized it. They had Caitlin Clark, who herself has mass appeal, packing stadiums and boosting viewership, but the league still LOST $50 million for 2024. Despite Clark booming interest and the league receiving better television options, they STILL LOST $50 million.

Female soccer leagues, failed. Female football leagues, failed. Women’s boxing has tried and tried to gain traction, nobody cares. After UFC pushed Ronda Rousey to the moon, interest in female MMA fights has declined. LPGA doesn’t draw that well. Female tennis does decent, but primarily because it travels with the male circuit for its 4 majors. That idea is why women’s wrestling in WWE or women’s fighting in UFC sort of works because it’s attacked to the male athletic events.

Sorry, but why would sports loving MALE fans want to watch a less athletic version of the same sport?

Go watch the Men’s Royal Rumble match versus the Women’s version. Just watch the women struggle to get thrown over that top rope, as that top rope hits most women at their neck or even head which makes it difficult to naturally roll out of the ring with their shoulders. They are often jumping to clear that top rope, whereas men just naturally take the clothesline because their shoulders are clearing that top rope. Would you rather see lots of slam dunks in the NBA or lots of layups in the WNBA? And again, aside from the Ronda Rousey initial boost, MALE fighting draws in UFC or boxing and it always will.

Just a matter of facts… Men carry stronger bone and muscle mass, along with longer limbs and being taller than women. Men can jump higher and further, along with being much faster. Olympic times will prove every single thing that I’m saying.

Whether it’s boxing, fighting, wrestling, basketball, or any other form of athletic event, what the males can do athletically is FAR MORE APPEALING than what the women can do.

Don’t believe me? Then why hasn’t someone like Charlotte Flair or Ronda Rousey been strong merchandise sellers despite how hard each have been pushed in the WWE? Sure, Becky Lynch did well at the time, but remember, she benefitted from WWE fans REJECTING the overpushing of Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey! Furthermore with Becky Lynch, she benefitted from many fans being sick of Nia Jax getting over pushed despite making many errors inside the ring that hurt other women. When Nia hit Becky with that potato punch, fans backed Becky out of rejection of Nia’s ongoing pushes.

And then compare that to Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley. On their own, both have some good appeal and are well trained wrestlers… But damn, their characters are much more fun with Dominik Mysterio and being his love interest. THIS is where many wrestling fans are clueless about today’s wrestling versus the past.

Miss Elizabeth never wrestled but drew tons of money being a CHARACTER to Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan. Sunny never wrestled and was very appealing with her fun character. Sable tried to wrestle, but nobody came to see her wrestle. Chyna was amazing as Degeneration X’s bodyguard but it was when she began wrestling men where the wheels came off, especially as the male workers had to slow down their style to assist her in the ring. Several of her opponents have expressed difficulties working with her from interviews and books. Then, the second Chyna is a full-time women’s wrestler, that mass appeal drops. While I love me some Trish Stratus and Lita, both were at their best when the great storylines presented themselves. For example, Trish and Mickie James obsessing over her. Then, Lita’s partnership with the “Rated-R Superstar” Edge. As great as Trish vs. Lita headlining RAW was, the Trish vs. Mickie feud and Lita joining Edge drew more money for the WWE because the storylines were fascinating and NOT their in-ring work.

And why is that?

If you look at actual viewership numbers of WWE programming, you’ll see that the 18-49 year old male demographic DOUBLES the amount of female viewers in that same age bracket. DOUBLES!!! If you go younger than that, the 12-34 male demographic almost doubles the female demographic at that age as well. To which I’d argue, there are many daughters seemingly forced to watch wrestling with their parents or younger ladies probably watching along with their boyfriends.

Pro Wrestling is STRONGLY a male demographic product, PERIOD, and the WWE finally figuring out of their MALE Main Event scene since August 2020 is why the WWE is growing rapidly now. Roman Reigns finally figuring out his role is what draws, not anyone on the midcard. Roman has that appear as a heel where many act like they hate him, but they envy him… Kind of how Ric Flair used to draw as a heel, despite his heel antics, many male wrestling fans wanted his rich lifestyle and badly.

Don’t believe me? Let’s do some recent examples that are NOT involving sports.

The Grammy Awards nominees were just announced and normally, the Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Album of the Year award categories are the ones that matter. The rest are just “yay, I’m the top of my genre”. So if you look at all 3 of those categories, what do you see?

For Record of the Year, it’s a scrubbed together Beatles song and Kendrick Lamar versus 5 other female artists (Beyonce, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, and Taylor Swift). For Song of the Year, you have Shaboozey, Kendrick Lamar, and a duet with Bruno Mars against 5 female artists (Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and Beyonce). How about Album of the Year? Jacob Collier and Andre 3000 versus 6 female artists (Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, and Beyonce). In each case, you’re looking at a 2 to 5 or 2 to 6 (or 1 to 3) scenario of Male Artists being represented at the Grammy Awards versus Female Artists.

And THAT IS NOT to suggest that the Grammy Awards are biased towards Women… It’s that the MALE music has been NEUTERED and this process has been in place since 1990s when hairbands were no longer there to sing about getting laid and partying while many early rap and hip-hop acts were objectifying women. There’s been a major movement to SCRUB male music and put more resources towards more feminine acts in Rock N Roll, Pop, and Rap/Hip-Hop instead of what was pushed during the past which featured lifestyles that all horny guys want to emulate through music. Closest thing you’ll see to this type of music is in Country music, though it holds back on the “getting laid” and inuendo that used to be throughout music appealing to men.

The end result? Have you see record or song sales lately? IN THE TOILET.

Album sales from 2011 were 331 million units sold. By 2021, it went down to 109 million. It is projected for 2024 that album sales will be BELOW 70 million for 2024!!

How about individual song sales? Through 2023, sales of individual songs have declined for 11 straight years!!!

Takeaway the true female outliers with Taylor Swift and Beyonce, who truly have a devoted following of female fans… Ticket sales for events are DOWN during 2024, WAY DOWN! Many acts are actually cancelling tours and various dates due to LOW TICKET SALES.

And why? It’s not that the industry has overpushed women, as I’d argue there was a great stock of female artists from the 1990s with Whitney Houston, TLC, En Vogue, Salt & Peppa, Toni Braxton, Alanis Morrissette, Madonna, and many more… But the neutering of the male artist has harmed the music business and has pushed away many male listeners, or at least they are buying LESS music than they have through the 1990s.

We went from Motley Crue, Metallica, Pantera, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dog, and many other great artists to embracing Maroon 5 as the top pushed artist. Oh boy, what a gift. Oh, I’m blinded by the light thanks to the Weeknd. Thank you so much. Another bad Justin Timberlake album, what a gift!

Records sales and concert attendance are DOWN because male consumers have left the market… Nothing is appealing to them right now based on who the industry pushes.

And then you have someone like Eminem. Remember when his music created a stir? Well, it was probably his music that put the big filter on all things men, after all. After his first 2 albums, everything became cleaner and more commercial with him. In fact, Eminem himself doesn’t sing his older tracks because he’s in that thinking, too. The end result is lesser of a mass appeal with him.

And don’t get me started on the Spotify numbers… Yeah, you want to know why people are listening to Spotify? BECAUSE IT’S LOW COST. Why fully pay for something that you can mostly stream for free?

In my opinion, if Spotify listens are now included on Album Sales counts of Gold or Platinum determinants, then so should AM/FM radio play. Man, those 1980s and 1990s acts would have HUGE albums sales if those were included.

But let’s get into another example of how disregarding MEN can have massive consequences: The 2024 Presidential Election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Trump DOMINATED this election, literally showing growth in the majority of counties in each state while winning the Electoral College in landslide fashion along with the Popular Vote. But if you look at his numbers further, the only place where Kamala showed any gains versus prior election was “educated Females”. Everyone else soundly joined with Donald Trump, especially men but also many women demographics.

Why? Because of the tone deafness of the Democratic Party.

The #1 issue was INFLATION. No matter what you think it was, such as “threats to democracy” or “abortion”, the costs of goods and services in the United States was the #1 issue.

While Kamala Harris was appealing strongly to women about their reproductive rights via rallies with celebrities like Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry, and others attending, Donald Trump was appearing on very popular podcasts listened to by MEN. That’s right, if you wake the MUSIC INDUSTRY by men, they’ll listen to something else like GUYS talking about GUYS stuff. Joe Rogan and Theo Von command MASSIVE audiences, along with many other podcasters who have high listeners as well, and that is where Donald Trump was campaigning. HUGE oversight by Kamala Harris, as her campaign was very focused on women only as if men weren’t struggling.

But men have been struggling… Since the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused many men to lose their jobs due to quarantines shutting down their workplace, INFLATION has been eating whatever is left of their paychecks alive. Foolishly, the Democratic Party could NEVER explain how inflation happened, as the Federal Government, including Trump’s 2020 response and Joe Biden’s 2021 response, flooded the market with borrowed funds while the Federal Reserve went overboard pumping money and slashing interest rates. NOT ONCE could Kamala Harris explain what caused the inflation, nor could she ever effectively explain why she and Joe Biden couldn’t do more. In truth, they did a lot to bring prices down via spending cutbacks and letting the Federal Reserve do its job by raising interest rates to cool down bank borrowing… But they never showed empathy for what people were going through.

Sure, inflation is down through 2024, but what happened to the Savings Accounts that I had during 2022-2023 that were eaten alive? How are you going to pay for this HIGH Credit Card debt that I’ve accumulated because of the high prices of groceries? Oh yeah, thank you for raising Interest Rates, too, which is double screwing me on the minimum payments that I’m trying to pay for that Credit Card debt. Good luck trying to buy a home or a car, as both of their prices have escalated and on yeah, Interest Rates screw me there as well. Oh, and thank you for continually frowning upon the fact that I didn’t obtain a college education. Yeah, go ahead and forgive the Student Loan debt…

This tone deafness by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris allowed for Trump to get re-elected easily, while also regaining the Senate and possibly holding onto the house. Harris showed ZERO appeal to hard-working men who are DROWNING in high prices as well as Credit Card debt trying to feed their families. Sympathetic wives or girlfriends of these men see what they are going through and voted to help them rather than listen to Harris on reproductive rights. Because, after all, if they go to the hospital, it’s going to be expensive. INFLATION is the #1 issue, folks.

Harris could not lampoon Trump’s 2020 year where everything fell apart and set the stage for Inflation to happen due to high spending and money printing. Trump was able to effectively and solely blame inflation on Biden/Harris alone and without much rebuttal, Trump could say “look at prices in 2020 versus any year of the Biden administration”. Without economic theory explained, as prices crashed during 2020 because of a recession, Trump was able to persuade voters that Biden/Harris administration caused the price hikes all by themselves for the past 4 years. Trump was able to effectively communicate his message of “I’m a fighter for you” to men everywhere on newer forms of media that reached out to them, like podcasts. Democrats kept using the same old playbook of rallies, never-ending email/text harassment, and knocking on doors.

If you disregard an entire gender in politics, music, or wrestling and try to over-appeal in the other direction, you’ll pay for it.

WWE having a weak MALE main event scene during the late 2010s lost business…

Music Industry focusing too strongly on female artists while neutering male artists is causing record sales to continually drop…

Politicians who ignore the plight of money, drowning in inflation, will lose elections.

And I know the predictable reaction to this column… “I’m a sexist”, blah blah blah blah. But most of you know that I’m right. Not trying to appeal to entire gender is going to cost you with lost consumers or lost votes. It’s a fact.

And Men’s Wrestling is much more entertaining to watch than Women’s Wrestling. NOBODY has packed arenas for wrestling, boxing, MMA, basketball, or other sports like men. NFL draws strongly because it’s male football players colliding like gladiators.

People want to be entertained by the best athletes on the planet and competing at a high level of physicality. Give someone the choice of NBA and WNBA, the NBA will win the majority of the time even with their Load Management issues. Boxing and UFC tried to push women fighters, but males are far more appealing with their physicality. There’s a reason why MEN headline most wrestling events. I’d argue that part of AEW’s struggles include having a WEAK women’s division that anchors them down in viewership.

But I’ll be the enemy for pointing out FACTS and astute observations about the world.

LESS IS MORE, WWE… And more title belts does not make something more relevant. Convince me that the other titles matter, first, and then we’ll talk about adding a title.

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ