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Guest Editorial
By Adam Leggott, PWTorch reader

I'm not going to score last night's WWE Raw show, nor provide best/worst match suggestions. As a U.K. viewer, I only want to point out how badly WWE portrayed themselves with the overall presentation of this show, right from the off.

The sad thing is, I expected a few stereotypical gimmicks, since that's all WWE seems to do with foreign concepts. I actually thought, perhaps naively so, that with the development of Wade Barrett, Sheamus, and Drew McIntyre that they had begun to move in the right direction. From Davey Boy Smith to William Regal, all British wrestlers have had to endure some horrible typecasting roles. But it was refreshing to see Barrett, Sheamus, McIntyre have their own personas and not be identified solely by their nationality.

Then came this week's Raw. We'll start with the stage props. Apparently it's not enough to simply tell people that they're broadcasting from the U.K. and treat it as any other episode of Raw; in other words, make the U.K. fans feel part of the "WWE Universe" (which is a term I cringe at at the best of times). I don't see them putting up state-specific stereotypes when broadcasting from various parts of the U.S. No, they have to make it as obvious as possible, which seems like treating their viewers as idiots.

Next comes the highly laughable "Diva Soccer Cup" match, which was the low point of the whole show and showcased WWE's arrogance, ignorance, and anachronicity. Football (or soccer if you prefer) is not just our national game, but is the national game of many countries around the world. Most countries other than the USA, I would suggest. In other words, it is something that a large proportion of non-USA based WWE fans will be interested in.

Now I would really suggest that it has no place on a wrestling show, but obviously WWE couldn't miss the opportunity to crowbar in yet another "U.K." reference. So how do they do it? With a pointless Divas match. Not only that, they spend the whole time completely ridiculing the sport. I could almost understand it if it was just Michael Cole's cardboard heel slating it, but the alleged face announcer was at it too. Great way to appeal to your international audience, but it seems WWE isn't interested in that unless it's on their terms.

For a company with the word "World" in its title, WWE does seem largely ignorant of any culture outside of the States, and it is things like this that give rise to the notion that Americans as a people are just as ignorant, which, as a regular visitor to America, I can say just isn't true. But, WWE does not help itself, especially when Vince McMahon has labeled WWE "a slice of Americana."

Further ignorance was apparent in the Divas choice of attire for their "match." I'd relate this to when a heel gets cheap heat by insulting a local sports team in the States, and is no doubt cheered for doing so by fans of rival teams. Even in his own ignorance, Michael Cole acknowledged that a large majority of locals in Manchester support their other club, Manchester City. Manchester United are a club I'd liken to the Yankees - not very well liked by anyone other their own fans. On the flip side of the coin, you had the heel team dressed as Liverpool, which instantly painted them as the "bad guys." Again, hardly appealing to Liverpool supporters who happen to be WWE fans. Would WWE have done this if they were broadcasting in the States? If broadcasting from, say, Miami would they dress the faces as Dolphins fans, and the heels as Buccaneers? I don't know if that's a relevant analogy, but I think you get my point.

I could go on all day about the numerous ways that match, and its presentation, but I should probably move on to the Santino segment. The content itself was reasonable and Santino was funny (so much so that Sheamus had to control his laughter). However, why on earth did it have to be a "tea party?" Oh that's right, because WWE was in England, and that's what we do apparently. It might be easy to pass this off as part of Santino's daft comedy gimmick, but you can bet that if Santino weren't around, WWE would have found some reason to implement another of their favorite stereotypes.

It isn't just the U.K. that suffers from this pigeonhole approach either. I've noticed numerous international wrestlers succumb to the lazy approach to a gimmick. Tajiri, Lance Storm, and even Eddie Guerrero. If in doubt, "make them foreign." It can only be because Vince and his lackeys believe that his U.S. audience will accept it because "that's what they believe anyway," which is as insulting to their domestic viewership as it is to the international. I have been watching wrestling since the early '90s (Summerslam '92 in London, ironically, being my earliest memory of it). WWE's approach to their international audience doesn't seem to have changed from then.

At a time when WWE is asking fans to "Stand Up" for them, perhaps they should consider reciprocating, rather than continuing to treat their audience as a low-intellect and bigoted bunch. And, in the case of their U.S. fans, stop assuming they're as xenophobic as WWE themselves seem to be.

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