Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: athena, ember moon, mandy rose, NXT, NXT 2.0, Triple H, women's wrestling, wrestling, wwe, WWE Divas

Former NXT Star Says Women Are Treated Differently In NXT 2.0 Era

If you're a fan who watched NXT in its black and gold glory days up until now in the rainbow-splashed unfocused nightmare that is NXT 2.0, one thing you will surely have noticed is the dramatic change in the brand's women's division.  While once celebrated as the best in all of professional wrestling, the division has now taken a noticeable step backward and has sacrificed featuring some of the best female talents in the world for those who lack the in-ring talent but have a certain look.  Now we have an inside account from one of those great female talents who was there for both eras and is ready to detail how things have changed and what WWE is asking of their women wrestlers in the NXT 2.0 era.

Former NXT and WWE superstar Athena, formerly known as Ember Moon, had a wide-ranging interview with Chris Van Vliet on his podcast INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet where they zeroed in on her frustrations with WWE creative and specifically, the transition into the NXT 2.0 era, where a heavy focus was put on the look and fashion of the women wrestlers on the brand.

This included talent meetings where it would be stressed to the women how they were expected to look and dress.  "We'd have to sit through stupid meetings about how we would have to dress sexy. And I remember looking at someone else like 'I cater to children. I am not about to wear a fishnet booty butt cheek shorts because we had a two-hour meeting about how to dress like Mandy Rose. That's not fair."

Moon made it clear that she didn't have a personal issue with Rose, but rather that WWE was wanting everyone to be the same as one person, despite their obvious differences and diversities.  "Not everyone is going to be Mandy. Mandy is absolutely phenomenal and she's an amazing person. But not everyone is Mandy Rose."

Like most (if not all) of the issues with the NXT 2.0 era, the problems started with the removal of Triple H from running the show, something Moon and the rest of the talent noticed immediately.  "I started seeing this downslope as soon as Hunter (Triple H) was gone, and like for the first little bit, we didn't know why he was gone. We just knew he wasn't there, you know? I got so angry."

Needless to say, it's disheartening to hear how WWE's mindset has changed in regards to their women's division in NXT.  They've taken what was an industry gold standard and reduced it quite a bit and in the process, hurt great talents like Ember Moon.

h/t to WrestlingNews.co

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