In the professional wrestling world as a whole, women’s wrestling has arguably never been in a better place. With far more opportunities to hone your craft, companies who feature women prominently, and even all-women promotions too, it is a good time for the business. In the likes of WWE, this hasn’t always been the case.
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Over the years and eras, women’s wrestling has gone on quite a journey to get where it is today. With questionable programming, classic matches, short run times, and even extended periods where it wasn’t even featured, the division has seen plenty of ups, downs, and changes, and it is interesting to have a look at how it has evolved throughout history.
10 Making Progress With Wendi Richter, Fabulous Moolah, And More
In 1984, when the first true early stages of what became known as WWE came into existence, the NWA Women’s World Title became the WWF Women’s Championship, held by Fabulous Moolah. To mark this changing of era, history was made when Wendi Richter ended what was acknowledged as a 27+ year reign from Fabulous Moolah.
With the likes of Cyndi Lauper getting involved, along with popular names like Rockin Robin, Velvet McIntyre, and Leilani Kai, women’s wrestling in WWE was doing pretty well and making progress. Short matches were the norm and it wasn’t treated like a serious enough division in truth. WWE decided to then pull the plug on the division and focus solely on male wrestlers.
9 Return Of Women’s Wrestling In 1993
After several years of absence in which WWE got rid of the women’s division, it returned in 1993 when Alundra Blayze won a tournament to become the WWE Women’s Champion. It was only really Bull Nakano and Bertha Faye who would join Blayze as a champion.
The belt was featured at SummerSlam and WrestleMania, which was a pretty big deal, but it remained the case that the division was featured infrequently. For instance, according to cagematch.net, the women’s title was defended just four times in 1995.
8 Alundra Blayze Leaves WWE, Taking Women’s Wrestling With It
The WWE women’s division was rocked in 1995 when their reigning champion Alundra Blayze upped and left the company, going over to WCW and taking the title with her. In an infamous segment, she would throw the belt in the trash on WCW programming.
With this, WCW won a small battle within the Monday Night Wars by being the reason as to why WWE ended their women’s division for three years, with no title belt at all in existence during this time.
7 Catfights, Evening Gowns, & Relationships
WWE decided to bring the Women’s Championship back in 1998, however the division became embroiled with valets, non-wrestlers like Stephanie McMahon, a few decent wrestlers, and what would become known as “divas”.
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Catfights were the norm, bra and panties matches were booked, the women’s wrestlers were ogled over by fans and talent alike, and most storylines involved men and relationships. Sure, many wrestlers were over, but it was due to the state of WWE at the time with the risque and more adult nature of the Attitude Era.
6 Trish Stratus & Lita Lead A Small Revival
There were some small highlights during both the Attitude Era and early Ruthless Aggression Era, and they came in the form of Trish Stratus and Lita who did manage to break some ground.
They were able to tell better stories, have better matches, and would even become the first women to main event Raw in a singles match. Of course, on the side of all this there were still all the sexist segments, matches, and feuds, but this breathed life of some possible change.
5 Divas Division Replaces Women’s Division
As WWE went from the Ruthless Aggression Era in the PG Era, there was some less sexualisation, but it was still present. WWE made the call though to change up things, bringing in the “Divas” division and getting rid of the Women’s Championship in place of the ugly Divas Championship.
The next several years saw women’s wrestling more featured but still involved in incredibly short matches - almost laughably short at times, and a lack of being given a chance to prove themselves.
4 NXT Adds Legitimacy To Women’s Wrestling
Triple H’s redesign of WWE developmental saw the birth of NXT, and with this came a completely different presentation of women’s wrestling. More serious competitors, well-thought-out gimmicks, and longer matches became commonplace.
Whilst WWE were still promoting things like Total Divas and silly relationship storylines, NXT were making stars like Paige, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, and Bayley, who were all stealing the show and were presented on the same level as the men.
3 Women’s Revolution
Vince McMahon decided that it was time to copy what NXT was doing, transitioning away from the divas division and allowing the Women’s Revolution to take place, which both fans and talent were pushing strongly for.
With the change in booking of the likes of Nikki Bella, Natalya, Naomi, and more, in addition to calling up the Four Horsewomen, the women’s revolution began. It was very marketing heavy though, with WWE forcing a lot of “first-time evers” and throwing the world revolution into every promo. There was still a way to go.
2 Boom Of Women’s Wrestling And WrestleMania Main Events
When WWE allowed the women to just do what they do best, booking them better and not forcing the “revolution”, it sprung into life. With the expulsion of the Divas Championship and two distinct women’s divisions of Raw and SmackDown, it experienced a boom.
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PPV main events, match of the year candidates, star-making moments, and even WrestleMania main events filled up the next few years. Women’s wrestling in WWE has quite literally never been better.
1 Where Is Women’s Wrestling Now?
In the last couple years, with some terrible booking across the board in WWE at times, women’s wrestling has dropped a little, with a messy tag team division, no new stars coming up from NXT, and shorter matches.
However, it is still a step up from anything pre-2015, and it won’t take much to get it back on track to make it as hot as it was between the years of 2016 and 2021. Stars like Asuka, Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Rhea Ripley, and Bianca Belair are all thriving still, with WWE having all the tools to build around them to make the best division on the planet.
