Beth Phoenix On Fit Finlay & Others Championing Women’s Wrestling, Feeling Pressure To Deliver

Beth Phoenix was a part of the generation who started laying the groundwork for the rise of women’s wrestling’s in WWE, and she recently talked about being championed by agents and feeling the need to deliver. Phoenix was a guest on Stories With Bradshaw and Brisco and talked about her peak era in wrestling when the WWE women’s division was trying to push for more TV time and more. You can check out the highlights below:

On agents like Fit Finlay championing the women’s division: “They put in the time to the women. He’d come early. If we’re working live events and Fit was an agent with us — and that goes for all of our agents. You know, know Dean Malenko, William Regal would physically get in the ring with us. Especially women that were kind of put in the toughest position which is, ‘You’re gonna start on TV and then learn how to wrestle.’ Like, I think about Candace Michelle, who came in again as a model in her business, and literally learned on the road to wrestle. I can’t think of a more nightmare scenario than that, than being put in live TV matches and having to like figure it out as you go. And you know, what I think people didn’t see because it was on live events and not televised, and it doesn’t live in infamy is that there was a lot of hours put in before live event shows. The girls were always there, wanting to learn.

“And we had men like Fit and William Regal, and Dean Malenko that were there putting in the time with us. And like if we showed an eager attitude and interest, then they were there to answer that. And I thought ‘What a great thing we’re creating.’ But you could you could see it would take time. It would take years to also educate our audience that the girls match is not going to just be a 90-second throwaway, that it’s going to tell a story. And you’re going to have time to to feel empathy for somebody selling. And you’re going to have time to get excited when somebody fires up. Because once the product was investing more in the women, then the audience could see that. And you know, it just feeds one another.”

On the pressure of needing to deliver: “The problem is if we’re demanding this — we want this platform, we want this reward. If we go out there and, I don’t want to curse, but ‘ish’ the bed then it’s harder to get another opportunity. And it kind of denies the opportunity to others. So there was a lot of pressure on like for example, Trish and Lita in that moment. Because they know the the women’s division is standing on their shoulders in that moment. Like, the future and like you said the progression, and, ‘Are they going to give the women in one more chance,’ and ‘Are they going to get the chance then to pay it forward to the next generation?’ Does all of that happen as quickly if that match wasn’t as fabulous and remembered as it was. So we we all knew that we all felt that pressure each time we went out there to deliver. Because we were asking for it, we wanted it, so there was no option to fail. We could not fail.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Stories With Brisco And Bradshaw with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.