Booker T claims two male SmackDown stars are being used for "women to look at"
Booker T recently discussed all things wrestling on his Reality of Wrestling podcast. When asked about two specific (or three, in this case) SmackDown stars, the WWE Hall of Famer said they are being targeted toward female viewers.
The audience demographic is crucial to WWE. With the company wanting to become younger, they do all they can to resonate with the young target audience. Given that males make up most of the fanbase, it's important for WWE to target females. Sometimes, this objective isn't simply met by pushing women wrestlers.
Booker T was asked on The Reality of Wrestling about the newly-debuted group on SmackDown, Maximum Male Models. Mace & Mansoor (who have been renamed) were repackaged as male models managed by Max Dupri (fka LA Knight). Booker said he likes the idea of MMM and explained that Mace & Mansoor are being used to target the female audience:
"I like it [MMM]. You got to be different. This business is character-driven, it really is. You can't have a wrestling show and just have people excited about people wrestling. Being able to bring something interesting, like the Maximum Male Models. Hey man, women love seeing men dressed a certain way. All the baby oil, pectoral muscle-flexing, quadriceps popping – women love that stuff, whether you realize it or not. I wore the shortest tights I could possibly find, I swear you'd think I was a part of MMM. You've got to give something for women to look at. You got to go out and cater to the women, so big props to MMM and hopefully, Mace can make that thing work. In this business, until you find it [the right gimmick], you're going to be looking for it," said Booker T. (from 58:41 to 1:00:14)
You can watch the full ROW episode below:
Will Booker T be proven right in the long run?
It'll be interesting to see whether Booker T is proven right about Maximum Male Models. What the legend is correct about is the fact that superstars like Mace will have to keep looking for something new until he finds something that works.
The Future of #MaximumMaleModels
@MaxDupri | #SmackDown https://t.co/Rwt8OaZqnN
With his RETRIBUTION and follow-up singles run falling flat, this is perhaps the best way to get noticed by the WWE Universe. The same applies to Mansoor, who was sparsely used on WWE TV in recent months prior to his return.
They've only had one segment so far, and we'll soon see the progress made.
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