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| "What, it's all about you and what YOU want to see? How cute." Photo Credit: Wayne Palmer/DDS |
Sara del Rey has joined WWE, something that has been a lifelong dream for her. However, for fans of her in the ring, she started out assuming the role of trainer of WWE developmental in Florida, part of Bill DeMott's staff. To say this was a curveball is an understatement; many people, myself included, thought del Rey would become the next great hope for WWE's women wrestlers, the veritable Diva-buster if you will. She was clearly the most talented woman in the WWE's cadre of wrestlers excepting maybe Natalya Neidhart and Beth Phoenix (I'd argue she's better than both). She also was leaving for WWE with so much to accomplish as a wrestler. Even though she totally and thoroughly conquered SHIMMER, she was still making strides for gender equity in other independent promotions, Chikara the most prominent among them.
However, rumors were swirling around that one of the conditions of her employment in WWE was that she would become a trainer. I'm not sure whether it was a mandate from WWE or something she wanted; either way it would make sense. WWE would want her to train because she's clearly a talented option with knowledge of the business to pass onto the sometimes too-green-for-their-own-good signees WWE has garnered in the past. del Rey would want to train because it's far less strenuous than living the life of a wrestler on the road for 300+ days a year. Still, neither completely passes the smell test to me.
The best way for WWE to ensure that their women would be ready for prime time wouldn't be training in-house, but seeking out women who actually wanted to be wrestlers. The best way to go for that would be scouring the indies and wrestling schools for female students of promising aptitude. With that being said, training is a unisex exercise. Finlay trained the women in the mid-aughts, and del Rey herself was in part trained by Bryan "Daniel Bryan" Danielson.
Secondly, would del Rey have signed with WWE demanding only to be a trainer? Training is a nice gig, especially for a corporate entity with money to throw around. However, the real money is definitely in performing in the ring, especially for a potentially transcendent talent like del Rey. Then again, if she got too much momentum, would WWE sabotage her? Don't laugh, they've done it before in ways more concrete than conspiracy theory that they were sticking AJ Lee in the general manager position because she was getting too popular. Still, why wouldn't she want to wrestle Phoenix, Neidhart, Layla El, Eve Torres or someone like Paige, Emma or other potential developmental wrestlers coming in? Why wouldn't she want the chance to break the WWE's gender barrier? Why wouldn't she want that scrilla?
Of course, we don't know if she's a permanent, fulltime trainer either. We don't know if this will always be the case if it is right now. We don't even know if she WANTS to be a wrestler. Even with the money and the fame, there's still the latent misogyny in WWE's treatment of their women, even to the point of the name of the division. Still, when the "Divas" could use a shot in the arm, it's curious to see del Rey's role as more of a trainer than a wrestler. I'm willing to let this bear out, but if the Queen of Wrestling abdicated her throne to be a mere advisor, I won't lie. It would be somewhat of a disappointment to me as a selfish fan of her in the ring.
