#WomensWrestling: The Movement

When you think of women’s wrestling nowadays the first names that come to mind are Becky Lynch, Bayley, Charlotte, and Sasha Banks, also known as the 4 Horsewomen. As a whole women’s wrestling has come so far. What was once bra & panty matches and undeveloped characters with underdeveloped stories is now at a point were they are seen as equals to the male roster. WWE has has brought in a new WWE Women’s Championship belt that favors the WWE Championship. That alone speaks volumes when it comes to equality between the superstar’s and women’s division. The term “Diva” has been put to rest and they are now seen as main eventers, top sellers, and more importantly they are WWE Superstars.

I remember growing up watching WWE with all my friends and we’d all wait soo anxiously to see the Divas come out. Literally we waited the entire show to see them, most of the time their matches were short, entrances were cut, and there was no story told. Then one day WWE announced RAW was expanding into a 3 hour show, so we thought surely the Divas would get more TV time….boy were we wrong. I remember days I would be soo happy to watch “Monday Night Raw” only to be let down because there were no Divas featured at all on a 3 hour show, it was just a huge sausage fest. I remember during this era of women’s wrestling that hardly any Diva had any street cred like nowadays and were rarely respected unless you were Mickie James, Melina, Nattie, or Beth Phoenix. The rest were only seen as models or barbies. No one cared to play as them in video games, no one cared to see them wrestle, and most people cringed whenever they picked up the mic. When it came to WWE’s Divas division I felt defending them was becoming a losing battle. It felt like I was fighting for them more than just being able to watch and enjoy them. I feel a vast majority of wrestling fans are guys, and most guys look up to guys. So yeah, they have one or two female wrestlers they like but the guys are usually drawn into WWE by guys such as The Rock, Randy Savage, or Brock Lesnar. So I just feel a majority of people don’t feel the way I and other women’s wrestling fans feel. This has been an uphill battle for us fans of Women wrestling and the fact that we feel like we’re in the conversation changes things. All along we’ve seen what the majority couldn’t, that the women have always been able to throw down like the men, they were never given that chance and now that it has come full circle for us and things have changed. Women’s wrestling fans feel more than happiness. More than relief. We feel like we as fans as well as the women we support matter. That’s all we ever wanted. That feeling you have seeing Randy Orton & John Cena main event, we’ve wanted that hype and excitement, so now to even get a taste of that on main roster and NXT. Well it’s about damn time.

Looking back on all the changes that have occurred and the opportunities that have come within the years is mind blowing. I never thought that one day the term “Diva” would be no more and that they would get rid of the Divas Championship. The time and effort put into the #DivasRevolution (now Women’s Revolution), developing the characters and the TV time allotted to the women is honestly remarkable. In recent weeks WWE had a draft to increase competiton and call up superstars from NXT to main roster. How cool was it that the then WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte was the number 3 draft pick! Sure on the surface the typical person might think nothing of it, but the fact they picked someone who is pioneering the women’s division shows that they are just as big a deal as any man that is within high ranks. Also out of 6 picks from NXT to be called up during the draft, half were women, seeing the likes of Nia Jax(RAW), Carmella(Smackdown Live), and Alexa Bliss(Smackdown Live) all being promoted to the main roster.

I know a lot of people have many different theories on what started the revolution before it became a storyline. My theory is that first and foremost the NXT women opened everyones eyes that it was possible for women to put on good matches when given the proper time, development, and training. They began main eventing NXT TV shows and stealing the show at live events as well as pay per view specials. I feel this translated over to main roster Diva fans who were like “hey why aren’t the main roster Divas being given these opportunities?” Which brings us to #GiveDivasAChance, which was sparked by the dreaded match that happened on Raw where Paige and Emma faced The Bella Twins. Once the bell rang Brie knocked Paige off the ropes and bella bustered Emma in less than two minutes for the win. I feel this was a pivotal moment that made people enough is enough at this point and the womens division needed a facelift. For quite sometime many people tweeted and retweeted #GiveDivasAChance making it the #1 trend worldwide. After such an influx of outrage and disappointment even Vince McMahon had to respond “We hear you. Keep watching. #GiveDivasAChance”. It was really powerful how a social media hashtag was powerful enough to spark such change.

That being said, so much has changed and we have indeed come very far but, there’s always room for improvement. When will we see the women headline Wrestlemania? What about ladder matches at MITB? When will there be a women’s tag team division?  Unique stipulations for women’s matches? Perhaps some of these things are in the works, maybe some are too far fetched. However, I still have hope that one day it will be an even playing field for the woman in professional wrestling.
Thanks for reading.