Wrasslin' with image

 It was all just a bizarre coincidence. No, really. Bring me a stack of that book the President of the United States has never read and I'll swear on it.

I will swear, so help me God, that the other day when I made an offhand reference to the WNBA getting perilously close to WWE country, I did NOT know there was someone out there who actually wants to do that. 

Well, sort of.

Here's the deal: As reported on the website Awful Announcing, last week the co-founder and owner of Women Of Wrestling, Dave McLane, said he'd love so see Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever step into the ring at one of his event. And then Jeannie Buss of the Los Angeles Lakers, the other WOW co-founder, said she'd love it, too.

Now, if you don't know who Sophie Cunningham is, you've either been living in a snowdrift in the high Andes or you're still operating on dial-up. Cunningham, see, is that tall blonde looker you see showing up for games in alarmingly short skirts, and who functions as Caitlin Clark's oncourt muscle. Think Luca Brasi, only with better legs.

Mess with Caitlin, Sophie messes with you. She can also play a little, which doesn't hurt.

The problem with that is every time Sophie messes with someone, she contributes to the widening perception that the WNBA is a goon league full of cheap-shot Betty Laimbeers. This is not to single out Cunningham, who has had lots of help in advancing that unfortunate rep. She's even been on the receiving end of the goonery on occasion.

However ...

However, when a huckster like McLane says she's "the Marty McSorley to Wayne Gretzky," that's a problem. Basketball is not supposed to be hockey, although occasionally (the 1990s NBA, ahem) it's looked as if it would like to be. And when you start comparing the WNBA's players to legendary NHL enforcers ...

Well. This is surely not the image league president Cathy Engelbert was banking on when Clark hit the WNBA like a whirlwind last summer and sent the league into the stratosphere in exposure and popularity. 

With added exposure comes added scrutiny, see, and that's veering increasingly toward a net loss for Engelbert and her league. Oh, they cashed in on the Caitlin Effect with a chunky new TV deal, but as more and more fans and media have tuned in, they've more and more not liked what they've seen.

The officiating, for one thing, is disturbingly wretched, an object of increasing ridicule and the main culprit in all the WWE stuff. Everyone's seen Clark get knocked around with impunity, in part because the camera's always on her. But she isn't the only high-end player subjected to the rough stuff, and it's become an annoying question that buzzes around Engelbert's head like a fly: Why doesn't your league better protect its stars? Is it because it can't, or it won't?

And now a couple of pro wrestling execs want to put one of your most visible players in the ring?

Sophie Cunningham in tights, bashing Hellzapoppin' Heidi or someone with a folding chair. Executing the Sophie Smash off the top rope to take out Valkyrie Val. Or how about an all-WNBA  grudge match between Sophie and the Queen of Mean, Joltin' Jacy Sheldon?

Oh, yes. That's just what the WNBA needs.

Not.