Name: World Wrestling Entertainment
Age: 67
Occupation: wrestling organization
Last Seen: Stamford, CT
Bee-otched For: another dead wrestler
-Age: 67
Occupation: wrestling organization
Last Seen: Stamford, CT
Bee-otched For: another dead wrestler
This Sunday, I'll be blowing out 38 candles on my birthday cake.
There are others, like Lenny Kravitz (55), Stevie Nicks (71) and Helena Bonham-Carter (53) who have more candles to blow out. Others, like Sally Ride, John Wayne and Al Jolson will be blowing out theirs in the Great Beyond.
And now, Ashley Massaro will be joining them.
Just 10 days before her 40th birthday, the former WWE star ended her life by hanging herself. Those who knew Ashley knew that something was wrong with her.
Massaro's brother and father were amateur wrestlers, so being one became natural for Ashley. A former swimsuit model, Ashley won the 2005 Monday Night Raw Diva Search. Her winnings included a one-year contract and $250,000. She spent three years wrestling for Raw and sister show SmackDown! She never won a championship, though she remained a fan favorite. In 2007, she posed nude for Playboy and was even a contestant on the TV show Survivor.
However, in 2008, her then-eight-year-old daughter Alexa fell ill. Ashley asked the WWE to be released from her contract to take care of her. Thankfully, she survived her illness and is now 18. Recently, Ashley had been appearing at wrestling fan conventions and even worked as a weekend jock at Long Island rock station 94.3 The Shark.
In 2016, Massaro partook in a class action lawsuit against the WWE, alleging that the company hid the fact that they did nothing to stop the neurological damage caused by various moves and acts during matches. She also claimed that while on a tour with the WWE in Kuwait, she was sexually assaulted and they told her not to tell the authorities. However, she expressed regret in participating in the lawsuit years later.
Since her mother's death, a group of WWE female wrestlers - past and present - have all formed The Squared Circle Sisters. The group has started a GoFundMe page to help with young Alexa's education. As of tonight, over $16,000 has been raised in just 12 hours.
Before her death, Ashley had been battling depression in part due to the many blows to the head she got as a wrestler. She might have suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE and even talked about donating her brain to science to study the effects of professional wrestling on the brain. Over the years, many WWE wrestlers have died from various injuries and even drug abuse to alleviate the pain. It seems that for every John Cena, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, there's many Chynas, Reid Flairs, Tests, Umagas, Eddie Guerreros and - dare I say it - Chris Benoits.
Yes, this talk about the evils of professional wrestling and the WWE has all come about all because of John Oliver and his expose on the company a few weeks ago on his Last Week Tonight HBO program.
I know, the WWE is trying hard to stop it with chair shots to the head, plus conducting wellness tests for their wrestlers. But, the sad truth is that the damage is done and to make matters worse, those in my generation who grew up in the Attitude era miss the ultraviolence, plus bra and panties matches that were once commonplace. After all, ratings are down from last year.
And lord only knows if the "24/7 Belt" gimmick will last, judging by the enormous amount of boos on Monday night.
The point is that making wrestling safer is nice, but the WWE needs to do more. Remember, most wrestlers work over 200 days per year, not just on Raw or SmackDown! There are the "blackout" shows where they play in smaller arenas. Plus, unlike most professional sports, the WWE runs all year, which doesn't give wrestlers much of a window to recover.
Maybe - just maybe - it's time for the WWE to only allow wrestlers to work six months a year, or 100 days. But, NOOOOOOO! It'll hurt merchandising and ratings! How about better healthcare while we're at it, but once again, NOOOOOOO! It'll hurt the bottom line, even though the WWE is a billion-dollar company and Vince McMahon himself is worth $3 billion.
All I can hope for is that anybody who chooses to become a wrestler will learn from the mistakes all dead wrestlers have made. It's time for the WWE to learn from their past and make life better for ALL wrestlers. Because of the bullshit they've done in the past, Alexa Massaro won't help her mother celebrate her mom's 40th birthday on Sunday.
1-800-273-8255
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Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
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