What happens when you virtually mix an Olympic medalist/former UFC darling with a high-profile sex media starlet and a WWE badass via social media?
This.
Reports surfaced recently that Ronda Rousey — the first woman from the United States to earn an Olympic medal in judo (bronze, 2008) – may be joining the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment).
This led social media personality Mia Khalifa, who many would argue is most known for her limited work as porn performer between 2014 and 2016, to suggest that this would be a bad move for Rousey — specifically because professional wrestling is fake and embarrassing.
Which in turn prompted professional wrestler Eva Maria to fire back at Khalifa, letting her know wresting was way more real that she thought.
“You have to put your body through a lot of physicality with wrestling,” Maria was quoted saying. “You’re saying you/[Khalifa] think it’s fake, however when you get in the ring, you’re really taking those bumps.”
Also, “NFL, NBA… they all have off-seasons. Wrestling doesn’t have an off-season. We’re on the road 209 days out of the year, performing in different cities every single night… and [NFL, NBA, etc] are taking charter flights going to the next city. We’re driving in rent-a-cars to the next city.”
Contrary to what she may think, Maria’s clap back to Khalifa suggested that professional wrestling is 100 percent real. Just because something is choreographed doesn’t make it fake, which is something I’m certain professional dancers would agree with.
Further, Maria suggested that professional wrestlers actually work harder and longer at their sport, perhaps with less glory and acclaim, than other more pampered “real” athletes. This reads as a direct dig at Rousey, whose fall from total UFC domination is often attributed to the distractions of superstardom and buying into her own hype.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb-i_BrBLaQ/?hl=en&taken-by=natalieevamarie
Here’s the thing.
Porn is fraught with discussions of realness and fakeness. What sex is “real” – or, how actual sex happening on a set is somehow less real than actual sex happening in a private setting. Another: how instances of recorded occurring orgasms are somehow more valuable – realer, if you will – than choreographed “fake” ones.
Thought experiments about the value of porn based on its perceived realness and fakeness are basically endless. It doesn’t take too many mental gymnastics to see the parallels between the devaluation of “fake” porn sex and “fake” athletics (wrestling) and their “real,” thus more highly valued, counterparts.
The irony of a relatively brief-stint performer who made initial waves for wearing a hijab as a costume in a scene — The Washington Post reported that Khalifa said the controversial scene was satirical and should be taken as such — is pretty easy to see, too.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BafitMyDtav/?hl=en&taken-by=miakhalifa
Image via ramzi hashisho.
