Posted in: Opinion, Sports, TV, TV, WWE | Tagged: mandy rose, opinion, ric flair, Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, wrestling, wwe

Your "New" WWE Means Goodbye, Mandy Rose; Welcome Back, Ric Flair?

I'm not quite sure what happened with the WWE this week, but in terms of "perception is reality"? Well, this week, the WWE started to look a little like its old self. Yeah, that's not a good thing. And it's a dramatic change from the waves of love and hope that Paul Levesque (Triple H), Stephanie McMahon, and Nick Khan had been enjoying from the fans since taking over of the wrestling company following Vince McMahon's departure after allegations of inappropriate behavior and payments made through the WWE's books to settle those matters came to light. And speaking of him… let's start with Vince, who was the subject of another The Wall Street Journal report. This time, it was newly-surfaced documents showing additional legal demands from two women alleging sexual misconduct on McMahon's part. Yet even with that eye-opener, the part of WSJ that grabbed most of the headlines was the part about McMahon considering a return. "He [Vince McMahon] has said that he received bad advice from people close to him to step down and that he now believes the allegations and investigations would have blown over had he stayed, these people said," the report claims. And then there was this week's VICE TV's The 9 Lives of Vince McMahon, which felt like part-Dark Side of the Ring rehashes and part-PR image repair move. That's a whole lot of "Vince McMahon" to see attached to the WWE in just a few short days. And that created a pretty sizeable social media perception that it's not a matter of whether Vince is returning as much as it's when he's returning. But that was all just prelude to what's going on with Mandy Rose and Ric Flair– but to best do that, we're going to need to take a look at some dates to keep in mind…

Wednesday, December 14, 2022: Less than 24 hours after losing the NXT Women's Championship to Roxanne Perez following a 413-day run, Rose was released by the WWE. Reports are that Rose and the WWE parted ways over suggestive content on her FanTime page. "Hey guys, thank you for all the messages. I am overwhelmed with all the love and support from you guys. And don't worry, the page is still up!" Rose wrote on her official FanTime site. Now, in case you need some historical context? If that's the reason why Rose was let go, then that means a company that had Sable topless in the ring wearing only paint… would regularly book "bra & panties" matches… and once had McMahon treat Trish Stratus like a dog (to name about 0.083% of the possible examples) is playing morality police. And then there are those who say it has nothing to do with being "family-friendly" and a lot more to do with the reports that Rose was doing well financially with her site (and that the WWE wasn't getting a gut of it). If it's the former, then that's a problem that brings us to our next date…

Monday, December 26, 2022: Hey, did you know that the WWE, Peacock, and Flair collaborated on an original documentary about Flair's life that's hitting the streaming service the day after Christmas? Yup, that "Ric Flair." The last time we were talking about Flair, it had to do with "The Plane Ride From Hell" fallout stemming from the Dark Side of the Ring episode focusing on the infamous incident and (in particular) Flair's alleged inappropriate conduct during the plane ride (check out our coverage here, here, here, and here). During the docuseries' examination of the controversial incident, a flight attendant alleged that Flair exposed himself to her and made her touch his genitals. "I was in the galley… Ric Flair was naked in a cape only, and then he decided to come back to the galley to get a coke, and then he wouldn't leave the galley. He had me up against the back door, and I couldn't move," the flight attendant related during the episode. "I couldn't get away from him… I couldn't… I couldn't move. He was spinning around his penis, and he wanted me to touch it. He took my hand and put it on him."

And now, a little more than a year later? Flair is being welcomed back to the WWE family by having his life & times celebrated with a documentary that Flair claims will be "the most accurate depiction of my life to date" (ugh). But I don't remember a lot of apologies or any sort of redemption tour or even a sustained acceptance that what he did was some really messed up s**t. He feels like he played the waiting game…played the victim… and might very well be playing the WWE.

So to Triple H, Stephanie & Nick, some friendly public relations advice. If you're ending the week with rumors of Vince returning, the company happily promoting a Ric Flair documentary, and Rose clearing out her locker? It looks like you're not having a very good week. But even worse, it all feels a little too "familiar"…

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