There is still the small matters though of the following:
- King's commentary (PUPPIES!)
- Being expected to pose for playboy
And also I think the general attitude towards women in WWE is different. The womens division is not taken seriously and therefore not much effort and thought is put into the writing. Besides I'm betting that WWE will use Gail for no longer than a year before spitting her back out again.
ETA: Oh and I agree entirely about the washed up stars swallowing up the money. Nash and Sting should be kicked out immediately. As for Foley, well I'm a big Foley fan as you can see, so I can't say nothing about him. And the contract is short term whereas Sting and Nash have been in the company for years doing a fat load of nothing.
Well I won't disagree about the King's commentary, but you realize that if the King was doing comentary on Impact it would be the same thing...no matter how serious the Knockout Division is suposed to be. Thats just The King.
The Playboy thing is not a valid arguement. Playboy asks the divas to pose. The Diva has the right to say no.
But how much more seriously can you take the knockouts division when you got Kute Kip and the Beautiful People getting ready for a big match by making sure there hair is perfect, Angelina challenging the Champion to a Beauty Contest with a Swimsuit, Talent, & Evening Gown copitition, and ODB sitting on the crapper while cutting a promo on her upcoming oppoenent? Oh and lets not forget Val forcing Jay & Sonjay into a Ladder match with the winner gets her.....sounds a little like the Matt Hardy vs. Kane over Lita deal if you ask me. The first things seem pretty much the same to me as it relates to explointing the women's division as sex objects....and the being on the crapper thing is as degrading as when the Spirit Squad had to wrestle in women's cheerleader outfits.
The fact is this, Gail was in TNA and loyal to TNA because of higher class the women's division was given. And no one would disagree with that. But the key word in that scentence is "was". With Russo at the helm, its going to go more this trashy route. Scott D'Amore gave the women class. He's gone now. So Russo has his hands in that now too, and ever since then, the Women in TNA are being treated more and more like WWE Divas all the time.
TNA's mistake was thinking Gail would be loyal for less money. And if TNA was still treating there women with the same class they were when the division started, I'm sure she would have, but she left, and the money may have been a motivating factor, but I'm sure it wasn't the only reason.
Yeah Lawler makes comments about the women of a typical male pig. So what? Does it change the fact that the Raw Divas matches are getting better. Look how far along Candice Michelle has come. Playboy cover girl, eye candy, and now she's actually starting to become a decent wrestler. Kelly Kelly has improved quite a bit. Mickie James, Melina, Beth Phoneix, they can actually wrestle and thats what they do, its not about looks or anything else. Its about the gold its getting things done.
Even Smackdown has started to sharpen up there divas image as well. Is it perfect no. But where as WWE seems to be starting to treat there divas with more class, TNA seems to be treating theres with less. Sexist remarks and lude and crude comments over women will always happen. Its just a fact.
As for the Foley comment, although its a short deal what I was trying to say was he is probably making as much for his entire short deal that Nash or Sting make on there entire long term deal. So again that would be a waste of money. I like Foley too, but what is he really going to do to help TNA? Not much...hense why they can't aford to pay women like Gail Kim what they deserve to keep them and have to hope they will stay loyal for less.