Molly Belle: Exchanging Fluff for Fury

When I began writing in this space, I wasn’t sure what kind of writer I was going to be. I mean, I knew what I could bring, but how was I going to convey what was in my heart? It took me a minute to find my voice, but I eventually did, and the voice I found is one I’m so proud of.

It’s not for everyone. I’m not for everyone. I know that, and it’s ok.

The more I wrote, the more I realized that all I wanted to do with my features was plaster my heart on the pages. I wanted my work to scream something special. Not positivity necessarily, but emotion. Because that’s what professional wrestling is at its very best. The best stories. The best characters. The best matches. The best human beings. What do they all have in common? Overwhelming palpable emotion.

Ultimately, I just wanted to pass on some smiles in a progressively darkening world. Wrestling had done so much for me, I felt it only right to do for it everything I could. So that’s what I’ve tried to do for the last three years, very much off and on. I’ve given it my all.

Sounds good in theory, right? For the most part, it works just fine.

It’s easy to open my heart and talk about the joy in a wrestler’s eyes, the crescendo of a beautiful story, or any number of other things happening everyday throughout the professional wrestling world. I’ve tried very hard to distance myself from topics and individuals who might place a fog over my love for this thing of ours. I’ve broken that rule a few times, and I’m about to do it again.

It brings me zero joy to write this article. None. I’m sorry if you opened this and were expecting cotton candy laced words about your favorite. Not today.

Listen, I love wrestling. I say it often because I mean it to my very soul. I’ve loved it for 25 years. At times, it has meant more to me than any human being has. At others, it has provided much needed escapes from any number of things (life, ya know?). More than anything though, it has always been there. No matter the state of my life or the world, if I turned on the TV, there it was. I could count on it.

If you’ve read my work at all, you know that All Elite Wrestling holds a special place in my heart, above all other companies. I’ve wanted nothing but the best for it since its inception. Because of the many wonderful humans that it employs but also because I feel very strongly that it saved my wrestling fandom from certain death. I know I am one of a countless many that statement applies to.

I’ve given certain liberties to AEW as a fan that I haven’t given to other companies over the last few years. Some of them I felt were warranted, new company and all. But we’re over four years in at this point. Whatever “kid gloves” some of us were treating them with need to come off if they haven’t already. This may sound like an indictment on AEW, and some of it is, but what I’m about to chat about briefly applies to all companies. It’s something all are more than capable of actively avoiding, but so many choose simply not to.

Professional wrestling isn’t perfect. We all know this well. Stories that make sense. Hoarding talent to fire them in a pandemic. Giving women and people of color the same meaningful TV time as their counterparts. The list goes on and on. You could argue any of these topics and find footing to do so in most companies you stepped foot into. But I’m not talking about any of them today.

So, what is so important?

I would like to know why Ric Flair is being featured on television in 2023 (soon to be 2024). This isn’t just about Ric either, but he’s the most recent and one of the more controversial figures of the last few years. I

both understand and appreciate the value a wresting legend has to the business. The shine never fades, does it? Only in this case, it has, and it should have stayed that way.

You could have made the argument years ago that professional wrestling had a Ric Flair problem, and you’d have been right. Then we got the infamous Dark Side of the Ring episode that took whatever aura the Nature Boy had left and flushed it down the toilet. It was a damning revelation of yet another powerful man taking advantage of an innocent woman.

We’ve seen this time and time again, across all disciplines. Sports. Entertainment. Music. Politics. It goes on and on. In wrestling, many known criminals were allowed to continue working until an army of brave women helped take many of them to task by telling their personal and painful stories.

I used the word “criminals” on purpose, by the way. I just wanted to make that clear.

The stories don’t stop, y’all. They’re endless. So why, after all the business has been through, are we still having problems like this repeatedly?

I’ll tell you why.

Look no further than Ric Flair in All Elite Wrestling. By putting that man on television, in a featured position no less, they are telling everybody where they stand. Intentional or not, they have dug their feet in with the Nature Boy, and for what? A negligible ratings bump that may very well actually have the opposite effect? Sting’s farewell tour doesn’t need Ric Flair. His run in AEW has been immaculate, and to see it come to an end stained by the baggage that Flair brings along with him…that makes me extraordinarily sad.

Dave Meltzer talked about Ric’s debut on Wrestling Observer Radio last week. He said that Flair was originally supposed to come in some time ago, to potentially align with Andrade, but that the Dark Side of the Ring episode derailed that plan. He talked of a verbal deal between Kahn and Flair, but “it was not the right time.”

Take a second for me and let those remarks and the events of AEW Dynamite on October 25 sink in. It doesn’t quite jive, does it?

How I understand it, as infuriating as it is, is that sexual assault and the bad press that goes with it has a statute of limitations. In the eyes of AEW, I guess that time has safely passed.

I wish I could accurately explain how numbing this all has felt. It’s not the first time. It won’t be the last. But it should be the last. It should have been the last fifty lasts ago. When his music hit and he walked out on Dynamite, I legitimately couldn’t believe it. I never thought I’d see the day. Really.

TK banned Hogan for being a racist piece of trash. Rightfully so.

But then he rolls out the red carpet for Flair?!

I became caught up in the emotion on Sting’s face and I chose to focus on that rather than let my anger ruin my two hour Wednesday night escape. But I should be angry. WE should be angry. If we don’t hold companies responsible, no one will. I promise you that.

Beyond exchanging my usual fluff for fury, I don’t know what we do. I’m not that person. But I won’t stay silent on the matter.

I don’t expect it to change anything. My voice is a tiny minuscule cog in a much bigger machine. These companies will continue to do what they want. Powerful narcissistic men will continue to do what they want. What we can do though is hold them accountable. For their actions. For their past. For OUR future.

Wrestling is ours. Not theirs. Without us, they have nothing. Don’t ever forget that.

Until next time…

STAY LOUD.