So Long Island native Ashley Massaro claims Rolling Stone's article connecting her to a prostitution ring is wrong, and the magazine stands by its claims.
This is the wrestling business. Does it really matter if it's true or not?
It's out there. People are talking about it. Which in America in 2008 means people are going to believe it no matter what.
So it's time to take what wrestling does best and exploit a painful reality.
On the heels of the Eliot Spitzer madness (with someone named ASHLEY Alexandra Dupre!), I'm surprised WWE hasn't done something like this sooner.
Heck, Ashley's even got the right name! They could do a gimmick with her and Renee Dupree and voila -- WWE has an Ashley Dupree of her own! (Does he even still work for them?) I'm kidding about this part, by the way.
It's not like this is uncharted territory. Remember the Godfather? He was only one of the most over guys on TV during the attitude era.
And it would give the divas an actual bigtime storyline for once!
Either the allegations are true or they're not. But either way, why not take the concept to give Ashley and the divas something to work with? I mean let's be honest -- Ashley's on-air character right now is completely uninteresting, and her ring work is brutal.
At least this would give her a fighting chance.
Comments (10)
Great idea for WWE, but too bad they probably won't do this. They'd rather waste time with Regal threatening to stop the show, then something like this.
I'm actually really sick of the WWE trying to capitalize on "real life" occurences and trying to turn them into works. This never goes well. Remember "Last Call" Scott Hall in WCW? Or drug-addled Hawk committing suicide off the TitanTron? Even the return of Matt Hardy made no sense, since in the storyline Lita had cheated on him with Kane, not Edge. Or more recently, Mike Adamle. No, this couldn't go well.
The ongoing federal prosecution of the matter should be enough reason for WWE to avoid placing it in storylines. As a potential real-life witness in the case, Ashley Massaro may soon not be allowed to reference it anyway.
I can't possibly see a useful angle coming out of this. Real life angles suck in general and Ashley is NOT the one to try it with. She's served her purpose, let her go. I'm sure she can find work, apparently there's a market for fug phoneys in the high priced prostitution circles.
I agree with the comments above, real life angles tend to disappoint more often than not. My favorite real life storyline gone wrong was the Kidman-Hogan feud during WCW's new blood era. If they didnt capitalize on the steroid scandal after benoit, then they shouldn't even think about making a storyline about this. In any case, I don't think anyone would care about any angle involving Ashley.
Maybe if Russo was still on WWE he could work out a "controversial" angle where Ashely would end up "servicing" cm punk and stealing his mitb briefcase and then cash it in on raw to win the WWE title, but thankfully he is gone. Lets just hope Christy Hemme never gets caught in such a scandal
I rarely have issues with real-life situations getting turned into angles, but I would rather WWE focus its efforts on talent whose on-air characters are not uninteresting and whose in-ring work is not brutal.
I would hope that WWE is learning from TNA that a tasteful women's division could capture fan interest, so the last thing they should do now is to gimmick one into a high-end callgirl. WWE should move the Divas to Smackdown! (so King is NOT the anouncer) and give them a respectful division.
It would be nice to see the WWE treat her like the whore she is. Have her play one for a few months. Those would be great promos, she would not need to know how to act.
Personally, the LESS Ashley is on my television the better, and the happier I'll be.
I can kinda see your point, but where would you have them go with it? Within a wrestling context, there doesn't seem to be much of an opportunity to do anything out side of a couple shot deal. I mean take MVP - he came in saying he was the best, but where was the evidence to back this up, and how did this impact his feuds? For a long time it didn't, and was just a half assed footnote tacked onto a cookie cutter feud with Kane.
More importantly, how did this claim impact the fans or the product? For a long while it didn't, because it was a gimmick that no one seemed to want to follow through on, which is the same problem I see here.
Outside of getting the audience to chant "slut slut slut" what would this achieve in real story terms? What storytelling oppportunities does it present that wouldn't otherwise be there?
Dude you are a jackass for suggesting this... no wonder you DON'T work for the WWE