Ninth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is a worldwide cultural phenomenon. It dominates all other major sports and sports’ networks in ratings and on social media. Traditionally, it has been a male-centric industry, but in 2015, the addition of Stephanie McMahon and Paul Levesque, aka Triple H, to the Board of Directors resulted in equality in the women’s division of WWE as female wrestlers began being celebrated more for their in ring ability than for their looks. Accordingly, analyzing WWE through a feminist perspective will demonstrate the newfound equality for women that many feminists have sought for so long, and though there may be disagreement based on the “wave” of feminism to which one subscribes as to whether this equality is true, it cannot be disputed that women’s professional wrestling has achieved more in the past two years than since WWE’s inception. The reason such a claim can be made is because two of these women, Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks engaged in a match reserved for the best, strongest, and most respected wrestlers: a match called “Hell in a Cell.” Consequently, WWE has elevated women to a position heretofore apportioned for men by sending these two women to hell.