WWE have taken advantage of the fact that 2015 has been a monumental year for women in sports, with their very own “Divas Revolution”.
Ronda Rousey has not only made a name for herself in the UFC, but has parlayed that into moving into Hollywood and numerous other ventures, including her WrestleMania debut earlier this year. Serena Williams has once again taken the tennis world by storm and capped off her “Serena Slam” by taking the Wimbledon title in her match against Garbine Muguruza earlier this month. On top of both of these trailblazing ladies, there was the success that was this year Women’s World Cup in football, where millions tuned in around the world for what was once considered a sport that men played.
In a variety of sports around the world, there have been many that have been considered to be dominated by the male population. In football, twenty years ago you would be hard pressed to find a high calibre professional womens team. In MMA, only a few years ago did UFC President Dana White say that there was no space for women in his Octagon, and now Rousey is arguably their biggest attraction. In the world of professional wrestling however, there have been women involved from decades ago; the likes of the Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young were pioneers for women involvement in the squared circle. Once professional wrestling hit mainstream media though, things started to change.
The original WWE “Diva” was a woman named Tammy Sytch, more commonly known by her ring name Sunny. At a similar time there was another woman who was showing that women could be beautiful, but also strong and have exceptional in-ring talent; that woman was WWE Hall of Famer, Alundra Blayze. While both had their selling points, Sunny was more popular with the casual fan due to her striking looks, however she was not an active wrestler and played the role of a valet/manager most of the time. This caused WWE to look into what was popular, and with the main demographic of WWE being males aged 18-34, there was obviously a benefit to the company to run with what was popular. What was popular at that time ended up holding the Divas back for years though.
WWE started looking for people in a similar vein to Sunny, and over the next few years came up with the likes of Torrie Wilson, Candice Michelle and Stacy Keibler; all lovely women who had their talents, but their wrestling ability was clearly lacking. On the other side of the scale, you had Lita, Trish Stratus and Chyna, but due to the highly sexualised types of matches that were going on at the time such as Bra and Panties matches and Pillow Fight contests, even the Divas who could wrestle were thrust into that kind of scene. Trish ended up getting into a sexual storyline with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, Lita had an infamous Live Sex Celebration in ring with her then boyfriend Edge and even though they had all the talent they could have been given, they were largely seen as sexual objects in a world that was dominated by testosterone.
That trend continued and even when WWE hired Divas that had the talent to be on screen more, WWE could not find the time for them on their already busy shows. When there are five or six main story lines on TV, who has time to put ten minutes aside for a match that lots of fans referred to as “toilet break time”? Then came the introduction of NXT, the new developmental site for Superstars and Divas. Based in Florida, NXT gave the entertainers a chance to do more than wrestle for small crowd, but wrestle in front of a live audience watching worldwide, in a setting that was helping them prepare for life as a full time WWE employee. This show saw the birth of three-time Divas Champion and current longest reigning title holder AJ Lee.
AJ was a breakthrough act and managed to find herself in a place where she adapted very quickly and within a short while of her time on the main roster, she found herself involved in story lines with the likes of Daniel Bryan, CM Punk and John Cena, all main event WWE superstars. While AJ herself had a lot of talent and showed that in her promos, she was still not able to get the time to be able to show off everything she had. After another year or so, another graduate from NXT popped up the night after WrestleMania 30 – Paige.
These two would have technical battles that would show the world that Bra and Panties matches were products of a bygone era and that the time for the Divas Division to explode was now. Now it was seen as popular for women not to be judged on their looks necessarily, but their in-ring ability.
WWE Diva Brie Bella stated earlier this year “If I was an NXT Diva, I would not want to come up to the main roster because you get so much time down there. If you come to the live events, you’ll see that we get a lot of time at the live events. When it comes to TV we get so frustrated because it’s hard to tell a story in 3 minutes and especially when they want an entrance. You’re thinking, ‘What? Can you cut the entrance, we want time to wrestle?’ Especially after watching the NXT Rival pay-per-view and seeing the girls go 20 minutes, it’s like a dream. It’s something we’d love and we’re trying so hard to get more time. It’s a three hour Raw and you can’t give more time to the Divas? But, hopefully in the future.”
Who could blame her right? She had been in the WWE for seven years with a one year break in the middle of that, but during her career she had seen a maximum of seven or eight minutes in-ring time during a RAW or Smackdown show.
Slowly though, the general populace of the WWE Universe warmed to the idea of longer matches and the hardcore fans who were watching NXT were seeing it on such a regular basis that it was almost odd when watching a Monday Night RAW and they were given no time at all. Down in NXT over the past two years, three Divas especially have torn the division apart – Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and Charlotte.
Last week, in a blaze of glory, they were all promoted to the main roster and thrust into a feud with a mixture of current and new additions to the roster. Never before has a women’s segment been so widely recognised as being monumental for the division as the one where Stephanie McMahon introduced all three main event NXT Divas. To top it off, that segment ended with the new blood dethroning “Team Bella” — Nikki, Brie and Alicia Fox — and putting them in their places with their respective submission finishers. Then the fans witnessed a must see triple threat match at WWE Battleground featuring Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Brie Bella. Needless to say this storyline will continue for a while and we can really start to see the best shine out of stars like Brie, who is really being tested by wrestling with these up and comers, but still holding her own.
If seeing them in-ring wasn’t enough, there is Total Divas which shows a lot of the more personal aspects to each Diva’s life. It also gives more air time to ones who are used sparingly in the ring, such as Rosa Mendes and Eva Marie.
There has never been a more popular time to be a fan of women’s wrestling than right now.
The #GiveDivasAChance campaign is winning and the “Divas Revolution” is here. Hopefully, to stay.
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