Opinion: What the world can learn from the Dave Meltzer/Peyton Royce Twitter storm

Twitter exploded last night when Peyton Royce received a copy of the audio from renowned wrestling journalist, Dave Meltzer's latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter podcast.

In it, Meltzer commented that Royce had appeared "lighter" when she wrestled in NXT and her appearance may be the focal reason that she and her IIconics partner, Billie Kay have not proved more successful on the main roster.

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Royce responded with an emotionally charged tweet, which at time of writing had been shared over 4,000 times and liked 18,000 times.

So what would you have me do Dave... starve myself? 🤯🤯🤯 This is how nightmares for young women start. The females in your life must be proud. https://t.co/8MNpZNsR7m

— Peyton Royce (@PeytonRoyceWWE) August 15, 2018

Royce is correct in her outrage of course. Her appearance has no bearing whatsoever on her and IIconics partner, Kay's standing in WWE. It was a senseless comment that was always likely to cause offence. As Royce has pointed out, body shaming comments like these, particularly regarding women, can be very damaging and Meltzer should have known better.

Thousands upon thousands of wrestling fans have put across their thoughts on the matter on both sides of the argument.

It has been speculated that Meltzer's comments were directed at Royce's breast enhancement since she left NXT and joined SmackDown. However, if this was meant to generate a debate about why WWE female talent feel they have to have surgery on their chest to boost their chances of success on the main roster and whether WWE should be held accountable for this or not, these were not the comments to discuss this properly.

In Meltzer's defence he has acknowledged his mistake and poor choice of words with a public apology:

I'd like to apologize to you. You are an exceedingly attractive woman. I do realize the lengths and pressures on women in the entertainment world to maintain unnatural looks at times and am glad you pointed this out. https://t.co/qkgOrpVQOX

— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) August 15, 2018

Critics have been quick to pounce on Meltzer for passing the buck for blame rather than issuing a heartfelt apology. However, I believer Meltzer's sorrow is genuine. He and many others can learn from this. Body shaming is a catastrophic issue for society and if any good can come from Meltzer's comments, it is the fact that this has been brought to the forefront of people's minds.

That is a complex issue and if Meltzer genuinely wanted to explore it properly and sensitively then he should have been more specific and factual instead of causing offence to a female WWE performer and possibly worse still, negatively affect the confidence of female WWE fans. If Royce isn't considered attractive or thin, then what about me? That would be a very unhappy question for young girls to consider.

Meltzer does appear to be sorry and hopefully, these comments can move to produce a more considered, constructive and positive debate.

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