Should WWE Bring Back Intergender Competition?

Is it time for WWE to revisit intergender matches?

During the height of the Divas Revolution, a common focal point between the Four Horsewomen was that not only were they going to bring respect back to women’s wrestling, but that they would, in the process, main event a live special/PPV. In particular, a rallying cry among Charlotte, Sasha, Becky, and Bayley, was to one day headline Wrestlemania, whether it was one of the four, or any combination of the Horsewomen against each other.

Bayley vs. Sasha II, the rematch of the instant-classic (and to some, 2015 MOTY), NXT Women’s Championship bout in Brooklyn, was the main event of the following live special, Takeover: Respect, where the two women competed in a historic 30-minute Iron Woman match. Just like their first championship title match, the sequel was highly praised for WWE’s presentation and protection of women’s wrestling.

The Iron Woman match was only the second time WWE featured women in the main event match in any of its shows, live, TV, or PPV. The first was in 2004 when Trish Stratus defended the Women’s Championship against Lita to close out Monday Night Raw. Since then, women have had segments end Raw, such as the Stephanie McMahon-Brie Bella contract signing. However, this practice is becoming more and more prevalent down in NXT, as it should, where it is getting increasingly more and more common to see women main event a taping, or close out the episode with an in-ring segment.

With the Triple Threat WWE Women’s Championship match at Wrestlemania 32 putting the stamp on the restoration and newfound respect for women’s wrestling in the company after Charlotte, Sasha, and Becky’s show-stealing performance, the logical question is: what now?

A woman is arguably the most popular star in the entire company in Bayley

Women have now main evented Raw, main evented a PPV, closed out a show, and stolen a show. A woman is arguably the most popular star in the entire company in Bayley. What now? Obviously, more of the above would be par for course, but where does the revolution go from here? What more can be done to elevate women’s wrestling in WWE? How much more of the envelope can the women push? How much higher can women raise the bar for themselves, and wrestling in general? The answer lies in the elephant in the room: intergender competition.

the WWE audience has been conditioned for so long to believe that women cannot compete against men in WWE

During her feud with Alexa Bliss, Bayley dropped Buddy Murphy with her finishing move, the Bayley-to-Belly, and the Full Sail crowd erupted. While a very cool moment in of itself, upon closer examination, you can’t help but ask, WHY exactly did the crowd pop the way they did? It’s Bayley’s Hugplex; we’ve seen her win countless matches with it, so why was it so special when she delivered it on Murphy? What made it different? It’s because the WWE audience has been conditioned for so long to believe that women cannot compete against men in WWE, so when something happens like a woman wrestler hitting her finisher on a man, it is viewed and treated as something special, when in reality, it shouldn’t be.

It shouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that a woman could beat a man in WWE. It shouldn’t be because we know that women can go in the ring. We know that they can hang with the men. It’s wrestling, it’s scripted, it’s a work. Why couldn’t they unless they were specifically booked to not be able to? This is where WWE must improve in its presentation of its women athletes.

The last five to ten years have seen a revolutionary and historic shift in the rise of women’s sports and women’s athletes

WWE prides itself on competing with the other major sports leagues, but also entertainment: film and television. WWE likes to view itself has having its finger on the pulse of pop culture and several steps ahead of the game. The last five to ten years have seen a revolutionary and historic shift in the rise of women’s sports and women’s athletes. Inspiring and influential women dominating their sport, such as Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, and the United States Women’s National Team, who won their third Women’s World Cup last summer, around the same time that the Divas Revolution was starting to pick up steam.

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On the entertainment side of things, it is now no longer uncommon to find women in leading roles in major movie franchises. Jennifer Lawrence was the central protagonist in the four Hunger Games movies. Despite its title, Mad Max was more about Furiosa than the titular character. Four women have taken the mantle in a brand new Ghostbusters lineup. It’s time for WWE to follow suit, as they always look to be a pioneering force in both sports and entertainment.

Outside of the WWE, intergender competition is nothing new, in fact, it’s rather normal

With the recent boom in women’s sports, coupled with WWE’s recent partnership with ESPN, it’s only common sense that WWE use the venerable sports juggernaut as a platform to bring women’s wrestling to the next level. Interestingly enough, outside of the WWE, intergender competition is nothing new, in fact, it’s rather normal, perhaps none more well-known among wrestling fans as Candace LeRae, who has become synonymous with intergender wrestling with her work on the independent scene. Intergender competition is also featured in Lucha Underground, as well as WWE’s main competitor, TNA, with its Knockout Division.

However, in WWE, where a man vs. woman is still very much looked at as a social taboo, intergender competition has been effectively removed from the product, save for mixed tag matches, where men can only wrestle men and women can only wrestle women. At its core, it’s gender segregation, really, which is rather befuddling considering the theater, showmanship aspect of pro-wrestling where it suddenly has to be true to real life to its audience in one aspect: to not allow men and women to compete against one another, much less a woman beating a man.

The audience has been trained over the years to simply accept the concept of Bubba Ray Dudley driving Mae Young then or Dixie Carter now through a table, or Umaga absolutely destroying Maria, or Carlito dropping Torrie Wilson with the Backstabber, or most recently, Roman Reigns spearing Stephanie McMahon out of her boots at Wrestlemania.

Of course, it had been done before in WWE, ‘it’ being a woman defeating a man in sanctioned matches. The late Chyna defeated Jeff Jarrett for the Intercontinental Championship, effectively making history as being the only woman to ever hold the company’s second most important title. Jacqueline defeated Chavo Guerrero for the WWE Cruiserweight Title. During the Attitude era, it was not uncommon to see Lita pin men in intergender six-man tag matches with her Team Xtreme partners, Matt and Jeff Hardy.

WWE shifted to become a publicly traded company with a more kid-friendly, family oriented product

A common theory as to why WWE abandoned intergender matches altogether was because of the new direction the company went with the PG Era. WWE shifted to become a publicly traded company with a more kid-friendly, family oriented product. As such, they could no longer feature incredulous and downright oddball booking during the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression eras that gave way to such matches as Stephanie McMahon vs. Big Show and A-Train in a handicap match, or Stephanie McMahon vs. Brock Lesnar, or most notoriously, Stephanie McMahon vs. Vince McMahon in a Father-Daughter I Quit Match.

However, simply being “PG” is no longer an excuse as to why WWE can’t bring back intergender matches. As stated earlier, the Hunger Games is a primarily teen/young adult franchise that features mild violence. People are now slowly getting used to the idea of a woman, regardless of their age, becoming not only, leading characters, but perhaps most importantly, action stars, dealing with violence and physicality that was once forbidden and frowned upon.

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The sheer talent WWE has as of this moment in both of its women’s divisions, main roster and NXT, is quite possibly the greatest they will ever see. Furthermore, these aren’t models who were taught and trained how to work; these are actual legitimate professional wrestlers who happen to be women. Ten years ago, the crowd was conditioned to believe that someone like Maria would have a snowball’s chance in hell of wrestling against Umaga, much less beating him purely based on how WWE portrayed both competitors in the match: Umaga, the huge, punishing, bulldozer of a man, and sweet innocent Maria.

With the changing landscape in WWE, the male wrestlers have gotten smaller, and the women’s wrestling has gotten significantly better. Why is it out of the realm of possibility for Becky Lynch to have an entertaining and competitive match with Heath Slater? Why is it hard to believe that Charlotte could not be able to have a real story line and feud with Cody Rhodes (had he not left the company)? Why would audiences reject the idea of Sasha Banks being able to hang with and defeat The Miz? We have gotten past the days of the demure valet in Miss Elizabeth. We are no longer in the era of Diva search models. If there is any group of women in WWE who could pull this off, it’s the Four Horsewomen.

In the independent scene, the Young Bucks famously superkicked Candace LeRae in the face with a thumbtack-loaded boot. While WWE certainly doesn’t need to go to that extreme, perhaps the climate is once again right and the circumstances are lined up for them to revisit intergender matches. Audiences have had to unlearn the taboo of women in professional wrestling within the last five years and relearn that women can indeed wrestle and can take bumps. WWE has to, honestly, catch-up with everybody else in the industry in this aspect. It’s time.

WWE has the ability to do something that only one other major sport is willing to do, and that’s allow women to compete alongside and/or against men

WWE has the ability, with the talent they have right now, to do something that only one other major sport is willing to do, and that’s allow women to compete alongside and/or against men. NASCAR did it when they allowed Danica Patrick to race with the men. FIFA won’t allow the USWNT to compete against the USMNT, regardless of how many championships the women have won and how much better they are than the men’s program. The powers to be in tennis won’t allow Serena Williams to face Roger Federer, despite Serena’s long term dominance in the sport and numerous championships and accolades. Dana White would not allow Ronda Rousey to fight a man in the same weight class as her. NBA and WNBA are segregated. And because of this conscious restriction, casual sports fans, as well as casual wrestling fans, automatically assume that women cannot compete with men in any way, shape, or form.

WWE can do something special and revolutionary by not only bringing back intergender competition, but to expand on it. Enough spur of the moment booking a man vs. a woman for the sake of having a man vs. a woman. Why not have actual three-month long, six-month long feuds, that may or may not have championship implications? Chyna winning the IC title, by all means, should not be an anomaly, it should start being uncommon, and eventually, one day, normal.

WWE wants to be ahead of the game, they want to make headlines in sports and entertainment; this would be the perfect opportunity to do so. Instead of fearing that featuring man vs. woman violence in their product will have a negative effect on their child audience, it doesn’t have to be booked that way. It can be inspirational to have women beat more and more men in WWE, much like how the Women’s National Team inspired an entire generation of girls to pursue soccer when they won the 1999 Women’s World Cup.

This is the next step in the Women’s Revolution and gender equality in sports

This is the next step, the natural evolution, in the Women’s Revolution, and really, gender equality in sports. It would give WWE such a positive look in the eyes of the public as pro-wrestling has recently begun to become more and more accepted to mainstream audiences once again, thanks in part to ESPN’s coverage of it, where ESPN truly treats pro-wrestling as it is, a sport. It would also put them back on top of the wrestling world in an aspect that has been sorely lacking in their product. This is something that WWE would benefit from being on the right side of, a far cry from the negative press they have garnered through drugs and deaths.

The Four Horsewomen vow to headline Wrestlemania one day. It’s time. It’s not impossible to have someone like Bayley, the most endearing and popular babyface wrestling has seen in decades, follow in the footsteps of Chyna, Beth Phoenix, and Kharma and compete in the Royal Rumble, only this time, win it, and go on to headline Wrestlemania 40 and compete for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against a villainous champ the likes of Kevin Owens. Why would we be so hesitant and resistant to the idea that Bayley could win and become the first woman to ever become WWE World Heavyweight Champion? It’s pro-wrestling.

Next: Sasha Banks Should Be The Next WWE Women's Champion

We’ve had to endure some of the most unbelievably, dumbfounding story lines and plot devices and characters in WWE. Women in active feuds and nightly competition against men won’t be in that category. Everybody wins. The women get more exposure, as do the underutilized guys who barely get any TV time. We’ve had celebrity outsiders coming in and becoming world champion. Surely we’re ready for women to wrestle men, beat men, and win championships that were thought to be only for men, on a regular basis. It’s time.

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