WWE: Could We Ever See an All-Female Show?

Would the WWE Universe accept a live event featuring all women?

If the WWE “women’s revolution” has taught us anything it’s that the company still has a long way to go towards actual equality. While the WWE has touted their recent Hell in a Cell, Money in the Bank, and Gauntlet matches as “groundbreaking” I would more accurately describe them as diet versions of better matches. A glorified cage match is not the same thing as HIAC and the same goes for a standard ladder match disguised as MITB.

Before Sasha and Charlotte met at the first women’s HIAC match more than 8 months ago, I made my concerns known when I asked at that time if we will get a match that lives up to this name or something else entirely:

"“I hope Vince puts his trust in his competitors and lets them go all out. While balancing safety and entertainment is a must, the very nature of this business involves pushing the envelope every now and then in order to elevate the brand. This is one of those times.”"

As it turns out, these concerns were justified because the match we saw was barely a cage match at all, much less something worthy of being called HIAC. Despite it arguably being fair and honest criticism, many fans lashed out at me for not towing the party line and being completely amazed at what was witnessed. Based on some of the more R-rated comments received, this prompted me to correctly observe that “any comments besides absolute praise are unfairly viewed as condescension even if they are well-intended and respectful.” The same holds true for both of the women’s MITB matches which were underwhelming at best. So how would a live event featuring all women be received?

The answer is “not very well” because the women’s division currently has no variety. This is what the WWE never understood about giving women a bigger role within the product. The women’s revolution was never about the female wrestlers themselves, but rather about what they represented. Up until a few years ago, the role of women in the WWE was primarily to be the object of teenage male fantasies. For every one female wrestler who touted empowerment, there were at least three others put on display simply to appease a specific (i.e. male) demographic. These women were not getting respect from the WWE and the lack of a hero for female fans to emulate left a noticeable gap in their programming so something had to be done.

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Superstars likely Bayley and Becky Lynch serve as solid role models for young women but having these types of women should be a given, not something we applaud as brave. One of the first actions of the post-Attitude Era landscape was to put a stop to intergender matches which may have given WWE more time to focus on their growing female roster but has limited their opportunities. It’s understandable why WWE has moved away from these matches because men fighting women sends the wrong message to the WWE’s younger viewers, but this means the women’s division needs something more within it’s own universe if equality is the name of the game.

Unfortunately, we have a long way to go before we see a WWE program exclusively featuring women. Even getting their own championship belts felt like it had to be pried from Vince’s bygone era fingers and women still don’t have a tag team division. The WWE tried to experiment with a women’s tag team championship back in the 80s, but retired the idea after less than 6 years. An all female show featuring only two championships (assuming it was a RAW/Smackdown hybrid) could still work but would require several (if not exclusively) non-traditional matches if they want to keep the audience interested.

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It’s good to see the WWE at least making an effort in putting women into various match types. The next step is to actually allow them to put on the same type of matches as their male counterparts. Allow these women to take the big bumps and jaw-dropping falls that make matches like HIAC and MITB so unique. Until then, the women of the WWE will be shackled to someone else’s idea of what greatness is allowed to be instead of blazing their own path.

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