A Brief History Of The WWE Women’s Revolution (Part 2)

A continuing look at the modern figures and events that helped to shape the WWE Women’s Revolution.

In Part 1 recognition was given to some of the key women who broke the mold of what it was to be a woman wrestling in WWE, shattering the stereotype of a Diva and in some cases marketing themselves as being in opposition to the very concept.

Here Part 2 looks at those who would go on to set new standards and smash through glass ceilings, the importance of a passionate fandom and the power in using your voice. This is very much The Good, The Bad and The Ugly side of the WWE Women’s Revolution (note: WWE Network links are included for those with a valid subscription).

The TakeOver

From: WWE Network

As the then NXT Women’s Champion Paige was in the home stretch of her developmental career, a new host of women in the Orlando based brand were vying for the opportunity to succeed her.

Bayley, Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks had taken part in the same mid-2013 tournament that crowned Paige as the division’s inaugural belt-wearer, but the three future Superstars were not yet ready to be given the ball to run with.

For reference, Sasha Banks would not become the fledgling version of ‘The Boss’ until a few months later, Charlotte Flair was simply known as ‘Charlotte’ (the Flair name comes with a certain amount of weight and expectation), and Bayley was… well, pretty much Bayley.

As for Becky Lynch, the future SmackDown Women’s Champion was yet to début her namesake until a live event that November; she would not appear on NXT television until June 2014 when she took on Summer Rae in a winning, River Dancing effort.

But let us not get ahead of ourselves. After NXT Arrival in February of 2014, and Paige’s successful defense of her title against Emma, the producers and creative team for the brand already had some idea of what should happen next.

Perhaps not knowing in advance Paige would soon get the call up to WWE’s main roster, plans were immediately set in motion for Charlotte to enter the title picture. With her father the great Ric Flair in tow, Charlotte interrupts Paige’s post-match interview to declare herself as the next champion in waiting.

At this point in-story, Charlotte had aligned herself with Sasha Banks (who was in full-on Boss mode by now) and Summer Rae to form antagonist faction The Beautiful Fierce Females (The BFF’s for short). The group was already running roughshod over the NXT Women’s Division, and the stage was set to make Paige a sympathetic character by being outnumbered by her enemies.

Unfortunately a marquee championship match between Paige and Charlotte never actually materialized, not counting the match they had at WrestleMania Axxess in New Orleans; a non-televised fan event and house show for WrestleMania weekend.

Paige would have one more recorded NXT match before her call-up, teaming with Emma to take on Charlotte and Sasha Banks, and although it was taped prior to Paige’s departure and her shock win of the WWE Diva’s championship against AJ Lee, the match was edited and broadcast a few weeks later. The episode actually edits out Paige’s entrance to hide the fact she was still NXT Women’s champion at the time, when in TV continuity the title had been vacated.

Indeed the vacant title in question was up for grabs in the finals of another NXT Women’s tournament that Charlotte had reached; her opponent would be Natalya who had defeated Sasha Banks in the semi-finals.

The match to figuratively crown the new Queen of NXT would take place at the first NXT TakeOver, May 29th 2014, and the conflict between Natalya and Charlotte had the story of family legacy behind it. Charlotte being the daughter of Ric Flair, and Natalya being the niece of Bret Hart, added to the historical significance of the bout.

Even the rivalry itself was billed by WWE as a ‘Battle of Second Generation Divas’, alluding to some of the past conflict between the Harts and the Flairs.

The contest ended up being even better than the promotional build for it. Charlotte and Natalya not only fulfilled the promise of good WWE women’s wrestling made by Paige and Sofia Cortez way-back-when, they over-delivered.

Paige vs Emma at NXT Arrival was a really good match; Natalya vs Charlotte at NXT TakeOver was truly great – arguably the best match thus far of this new era of WWE Women’s Wrestling. NXT afforded both ladies a solid 20 minutes to build their match and ramp up the intensity with enough peaks and valleys in the physical story telling to keep the audience completely invested.

Importantly as the match got more ferocious, it did not become messy; it never devolved from Pro Wrestling into ‘cat fight’ brawls as main roster matches had a tendency to do.

The match was also respected enough by the producers to be given co-main event billing, second only to the men’s championship match that followed.

Here the narrative was two women fighting over a title that would symbolize the winner’s conquest of the division; meanwhile on RAW the narrative of the developing feud between Summer Rae and Layla was two women fighting over the attention and affection of a man.

In the same month Charlotte and Natalya gave the NXT audience an instant classic, Paige as WWE Diva’s champion was being restricted with 4 minute matches on RAW, and a 6 minute match at the Extreme Rules marquee event at the beginning of the month.

On that show Paige defended her title against Tamina (Tamina Snuka) who had won a Battle Royal for the privilege – a regressive booking concept from the dark ages of the Diva’s division that WWE has sadly included for the WWE Evolution event.

While the NXT crowd was buzzing for the rapidly evolving women’s division, the main WWE crowd were often disinterested and bored by the meaningless matches put on by the Divas – not helped by the wretched creative direction that was compounded by some woefully inadequate performers.

Anyone who had experienced the excellence of Charlotte vs Natalya could not go back to watching the frankly awful Eva Maries of the world, or the stomach churning, cliché narratives. NXT was now THE place to go for WWE Women’s Wrestling. The NXT Generation was here.

The Horsewomen

From:WWE.com

The story of how Becky Lynch, Bayley, Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks took women’s wrestling in WWE to a previously unseen level is as important as it is complex. Charlotte as the new champion in mid-2014 was still a part of The BFFs faction with Sasha Banks and Summer Rae, but Rae was pulling double duty between NXT and the RAW brand.

Paige as WWE Diva’s Champion and old rival Emma were similarly splitting their time between struggling to get fan reaction on the main roster, to being welcomed back by a loyal, dedicated Full Sail crowd.

Charlotte’s first rivalry as champ would be with Bayley who was an easy to like pure Babyface protagonist. Her match with Charlotte on the first episode of NXT that followed the successful TakeOver would mark the beginning of something special.

The fictitious dissension among the BFF’s had also begun with a surprise return of the previously mentioned Summer Rae, whose appearance served as an almost costly distraction to Charlotte. The inevitable break up of the group that would help the real-life transition of Rae to RAW fully and completely, was nudged further along by the NXT television début of Becky Lynch.

Dressed nearly head to toe in Irish green, while dancing a ridiculous jig to badly composed folk music, Lynch’s initial gimmick in NXT would have been a career killer for anyone less talented between the ropes. Having had a decade’s worth of experience Pro Wrestling internationally, Lynch ran with the absurd character she was asked to play while remaining a workhorse in the ring.

After losing embarrassingly to Lynch with no aid from Charlotte or Banks, Summer Rae went off to lick her proverbial wounds for a couple of weeks, while the remaining two BFF’s would attempt to show their fallen compatriot how to get the job done.

On the following episode of NXT Charlotte and Banks would tag against Bayley and Lynch. This would be the first time in televised continuity all 4 women would be in the ring together, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

What started as a match that showed Charlotte and Banks working like a well oiled machine that outmatched their opponents at every turn, ended with the dissolvement of the BFF’s in spite of having won. Banks had taken exception to the fact Charlotte did not celebrate in the ring with her, or have her back in chastising a prone Lynch nor coming to her aid when Bayley fought her off.

Charlotte was striking out on her own as champion. A successful defense of her title against Summer Rae concluded the latter’s NXT obligations, opening the champ up to a continued rivalry with Bayley and an emerging one with Banks.

Thankfully within a couple of months of her first televised appearance, Becky Lynch was able to evolve her twee Irish character into more of a Hard Rock Headbanger that – while far from perfect – was a vast improvement. By October 2014 and after a series of losses, Lynch was given the opportunity to further her character arc still.

On the October 23rd episode of NXT television, after Sasha Banks had defeated Bayley but continued to assault her beaten adversary, it appeared Becky Lynch was charging down to the ring to rescue the helpless Hugger.

Instead – and to the shock of the crowd – Becky Lynch turned on Bayley and proceeded to batter her herself. A new villainous alliance had formed between Banks and Lynch in what would be known as Team B.A.E. (Best At Everything). It was a great chance for Lynch to show off a more serious side to her persona.

(Important to note at this point in time is the polished characterization in Banks and Bayley, as both have settled on a look that current audiences are familiar with as well as having their iconic, present day entrance themes in Sky’s The Limit and Turn It Up, respectively.)

The title matches between Charlotte and Bayley were good but for many did not capture the audience’s attention quite like the Charlotte vs Natalya match earlier in the year. It would be the feud with Banks and in particular the match at NXT TakeOver R Evolution that helped kick the division up a gear.

Needing nothing more than a competitive animosity to be the best, the atmosphere on December 11th, 2014 inside the home venue of Full Sail University was thick with fan anticipation. The match itself managed to surpass the intensity of Charlotte vs Natalya through higher risk moves spurred on by sheer hostility.

The crowd was split down the middle with half in support of Charlotte, and half in favor of Banks, and by this point in the card NXT TakeOver R Evolution was the number #1 trend on Twitter. Arguably more fans were watching WWE’s third brand than ever before.

Not only were those in attendance moved to chant “This Is Awesome” during the last leg of the contest, they were motivated by what they were witnessing to follow-up with “This Is Wrestling” moments later. Judgment was being passed on WWE Women’s wrestling that night, and the fans found Divas outside of NXT wanting.

Both Charlotte and Sasha Banks had upped their game and were performing feats of athleticism and physicality that was on par with many of their male peers. The match would end with an incredible top rope version of Charlotte’s Natural Selection signature maneuver; the result – another successful defense of her standing as legitimately the best Woman in all of WWE.

These two women only needed 12 minutes to tell a high pace, high performance story to completely win the audience. By contrast the WWE Diva’s title had changed hands a couple of times in sub-10 minute matches, most notoriously at one of WWE’s ‘Big 4’ events, Survivor Series 2014.

The match lasted a mere 34 seconds. This, just 2 and a half weeks before the NXT crowd-pleaser.

AJ Lee and the Bellas had a chance to put on a proper match a few days after NXT TakeOver R Evolution, and Nikki Bella would again defend her title this time at WWE Tables, Ladders, Chairs (… and Stairs). Both women were also in the unenviable position of following John Cena vs Seth Rollins, a No DQ affair that incorporated the event’s title.

The bout between Lee and Bella was clearly booked to cool the audience down after going wild for the comically violent match beforehand. The result was a competent but mostly dull exhibition with plenty of lulls in action that lasted about 7 and a half minutes. The biggest reaction this Diva’s Championship match got was actually when the referee ejected Brie Bella from ringside because she had been caught interfering.

With the referee occupied, Nikki Bella sprayed a liquid in Aj Lee’s eyes to get an unfair advantage and continue her nefarious winning ways. The crowd response was far less than the one earlier in the match, the finish was not clean, and the experience as a whole utterly paled in comparison to the classic put on by Charlotte and Sasha Banks just 3 days earlier.

With another match that was limited on time and even more so on content, fans’ patience with the main Women’s product was wearing very thin.

Just over a month into the new year and a continuing war between Charlotte and Sasha Banks, NXT TakeOver Rival would take place. Team B.A.E. was beginning to crack under the pressure of competitive ego, and even Bayley who up until now as a character would always do the right thing for the benefit of others, was beginning to think and act more independently.

With every woman for herself and unresolved issues between the quartet, it was decided to pit all of them together in a Fatal 4 Way match for the NXT Women’s title (video above).

And so on Tuesday, February 11th 2015, these 4 women would put on a clinic of exciting Pro Wrestling. Every one of them got their chance to show what they could do, at times being innovative while continuing to tell a story that made sense and remained true to their character.

This was a match that was given reverence by both the audience, and by the producers in its booking. Not one of these women were made to look inept, and their performance was not treated as little more than an active break in the schedule of their male peers.

The finish was clean and genuinely surprising, with Sasha Banks picking up a pin fall victory after wearing old adversary Charlotte down with her signature submission hold, The Bank Statment. The spectators at the familiar stomping ground of Full Sail University were left satisfied, and eager to find out where the NXT Women’s division was heading next.

13 days later however on WWE’s flagship RAW program, the fans who had endured the Diva’s division reached their breaking point.

#GiveDivasAChance

30 seconds. That was the final straw that broke the camel’s back. A match that was over in less than a quarter of the time it took its participants to enter the ring. This episode of RAW on February the 23rd, 2015 was the moment the relationship between WWE and its audience was irrevocably changed.

Paige and Emma were set for tag team action against The Bella Twins, and as was typical for Diva’s division matches of the time it was booked with little care or consideration. Brie Bella knocks Paige off the ring apron with a forearm that actually missed, and while Emma checks on her fallen partner, Brie sets her up for her Bella Buster finisher. That was it. The match in its entirety.

Fans in attendance barely reacted. But fans at home were in enough of an uproar to take to social media and cause a viral trend. In less than 24 hours the tag #GiveDivasAChance – a spin on a silly gimmick R-Truth (Ron Killings) was working in WWE at the time (Give Truth A Chance) – had been mentioned over 50,000 times on Twitter.

It was the number #1 trend of the night, outperforming #RAWNashville and other WWE related mentions. It was a trend that was outperforming almost everything else that was being discussed for the next couple of days.

Pro Wrestling at this point in time had never seen anything like it. More importantly the message was clear and consistent: the women on the main roster deserved better.

There are many tens of thousands of tweets from fans echoing similar sentiment. It was something even mainstream online media could not ignore.

Buzzfeed was one of the first outside of the normal Pro Wrestling specific sites to pick up on the phenomenon. Uproxxx and USA Today soon followed.

The Bellas official twitter responded the day after the episode of RAW with appreciation to the response in wake of their match.

https://twitter.com/BellaTwins/status/570261758008537088

Interestingly the Bellas ignored the trending hash tag #GiveDivasAChance, in favor of the WWE promoted #LikeAGirl. That particular tag was WWE trying to cash in on the success of the Always like a girl advertising campaign that ran during that year’s NFL Super Bowl.

WWE had put out their own cheesy spin on the commercial featuring women from NXT at the WWE Performance Center.

In the Bellas’ complete Twitter history, they actually  used the #LikeAGirl tag just twice (the above being the second and thus last time). As for #GiveDivasAChance? The @BellaTwins account only ever directly referenced the tag once… in a tweet from August, 2016, some 18 months later (the lone retweet of Melissa Joan Hart not counting).

The Bellas did however use the #TotalDivas tag on average at least once a day in the 2 weeks that followed that notorious episode of RAW.

Paige’s use of the #GiveDivasAChance tag was just as limited. Apart from a seemingly tongue-in-cheek, in-character jab at her Bella rivals, Paige uses the tag in earnest just once herself – in September 2018, defending her Total Divas cast mates.

As already noted, The Bellas and Paige had minimal engagement with the tag in question, contradicting present day revisionism. Even just searching their Tweet history for the term “a chance”, shows nothing of relevance from The Bellas and maybe one tweet of relevance at best from Paige. The Anti Diva in reality had become the ‘Anti Diva‘ Diva.

The truth is, this was almost an entirely fan-driven movement.

Paige did share her thoughts on opportunity and representation of women in a radio interview with Chuck Carroll for Turnbuckle Weekly, posted the day after that particular episode of RAW.

"“If we get given the time (on the main roster)… a lot of us could be better than the guys, I feel like, if we get given the time. The guys get all the time to showcase what they can do. So, of course people say ‘the guys are better than the girls.’ We do a couple minutes and that’s it. We don’t really get to showcase what we do… In NXT you do. I feel like a lot of people tune into NXT just to watch the women because they literally kick ass. They have all this time and they’re just incredible.” – Paige to Chuck Carroll (February 24th 2015)"

There was another woman who was part of that now infamous match, and the one that arguably came off looking the worst from it: Emma (Tenille Dashwood).

Out of all 4 women, Emma is the only one that took #GiveDivasAChance and truly ran with it. It soon became #GiveEmmaAChance to help promote her EmmaLution character angle, but her use of the original tag in solidarity with the fans is noteworthy.

A few other women in WWE would use #GivaDivasAChance or words to that effect on Twitter over the next couple of years, but again rather minimally.

There was also an ultimately embarrassing series of tweets from WWE announcer Corey Graves in regards to the movement, spurred by an initial tweet that was misinterpreted by many.

Graves was not trying to belittle the fan movement, and it did seem he was referring to the women (or ‘Divas’) of NXT making the most of the chances they were afforded by excelling in the ring.

When challenged by fans who did not understand where he was coming from, Graves responded unprofessionally and immaturely, going so far as to say he hoped the movement that would help lead to the WWE Women’s Revolution would fail.

How did the more professional higher-ups react to #GiveDivasAChance? Vince McMahon made a rare appearance on the social media outlet to give a short, non-committal but arguably positive answer.

And what of Stephanie McMahon who in many ways has positioned herself at the center of the current WWE Women’s Revolution? Similar to the Divas, McMahon makes mention of it once in 2015 and once again much later in 2017.

It is possible of course the minimal reference to #GiveDivasAChance by many in WWE was due to certain people of power bristling at the notion fans were outwardly unhappy with the company. Just as likely, many may have felt the need to tread carefully around this topic of conversation for fear of upsetting the decision makers and check writers.

But was the match that sparked this fan movement all that it seemed? Nikki Bella was a guest on Mark Madden’s radio show on March 4th, 2015 and revealed that she and the other 3 women in that match were actually the ones that came up with that finish (transcription by CagesideSeats.com)

"What’s funny about that is we were given about three minutes. Three to four minutes. And we – us four girls who were in the match – we put our heads together and said look: we can either give them a two minute match, or we can give them nothing and get Brie and I so much heat and tell a great story…We’re not gonna give people three minutes of BS, and it ended up being a big chance. It ended up turning into #GiveDivasAChance trending worldwide for two days. I mean, we could’ve gone out there, done a few moves and called it a day, but we were like, ‘How do we tell a great story?’ and at the end of the day, that’s what we did. Brie and I got good heat at the end of it, we got trended for two days straight, and it was like, ‘Whoa. We’re storytelling now.’ And that’s what puts the Divas on the next level. Instead of just going out there and doing moves, we storytell. ‘Cause that’s what the boys do, and that’s what we need to do."

Essentially in Nikki Bella’s mind, the passionate fans that took to Twitter to demand more of WWE and better treatment of their women, were part of a Work that the Bellas, Paige and Emma orchestrated.

It should also be noted then that while all the main brand women at this time did indeed deserve better opportunity and representation, not all of these women suffered equally. The Bellas fit the stereotype that WWE brass loved, and they fully played up to that fact. They were the stars of the hit reality / unscripted TV show Total Divas;  a ratings and financial success that WWE were proud of. Thus The Bellas were almost always the sole female beneficiaries when it came to bad WWE booking.

The Bellas were both directly and indirectly part of the problem that lead to this fan revolt in the first place. They were comparatively in a place of benefit and comfort to their peers, and thus with regard to the treatment of women as a whole, would not be the ones to challenge WWE’s authority.

Only one ‘Diva’ actually had the fortitude to do so.

The PipeBombshell: AJ Lee Uses Her Voice

From:WWE.com

Of the few who did not fit the mold of a ‘Diva’ in the post-Stratus/Lita era of WWE, AJ Lee (AJ Mendez) may have stood out the most. Whilst Paige was turning heads and changing opinions on women’s wrestling in FCW and later NXT, Lee herself was an ‘Anti Diva’ of sorts on the main RAW and SmackDown brands.

And yet through hard work and gift of the gab, Lee had ingratiated herself with the WWE audience and had become popular enough to win the fan voted ‘Diva of the Year’ award twice.

Lee was a diminutive, often tomboy looking wrestler who – without the marketing benefit of the typical Diva aesthetic – would rely on her intelligence and cunning, both in-character and out. Nearly 2 years before #GiveDivasAChance, Lee cut a promotional monologue against long time rivals The Bella Twins, while also savagely critiquing the cast and vapid nature of the Total Divas television show.

On the surface this promo was just an exercise in cementing Lee as cruel villain who was full of contempt, but underneath there was the implication that the oft suspected nepotism and favoritism in WWE concerning the promotion of its talent was a real issue.

Fast forward to  the February 23rd, 2015 episode of RAW and the #GiveDivasAChance movement, and AJ Lee spots an opportunity to publicly challenge her boss, Stephanie McMahon.

First, some context. Patricia Arquette had just won the ‘Oscar’ for Best Supporting Actress in the film ‘Boyhood‘ at the Academy Awards, February 22nd, 2015 – the night before that fateful episode of RAW.

During her acceptance speech, Arquette used her platform to call for wage equality and equal rights for Women.

The speech prompted Stephanie McMahon to Tweet the next day – several hours before RAW broadcast live – her support of Arquette’s statement.

AJ Lee – who was absent from WWE’s active schedule due to needing time to heal an existing neck injury – saw her opportunity to raise her concerns.

The time stamp on those Tweets show they were sent at least a day after the February 23rd episode of RAW, and after the #GiveDivasAChance tag was in top gear as a viral social media trend.

AJ Lee did not use that tag, but instead did something smarter: Lee used the same #UseYourVoice tag that Stephanie McMahon does. McMahon’s public use of that tag ended up being an invitation for others to do the same, and that included one of the women who worked for her.

Any public repercussion from Lee tweeting honestly at her boss would likely have turned #GiveDivasAChance into an even bigger sensation, and a PR nightmare that WWE would have to do damage control over.

Stephanie McMahon responded the only way she could.

AJ Lee was the only woman brave enough in WWE to legitimately user her voice this way, and it was not part of a gimmick or angle to further a fictional story.

Lee would have a handful of matches on her return to WWE, but with long-term injury issues and the continuing awkwardness of being a part of WWE after its ugly split with her husband, former superstar CM Punk, Lee would retire shortly after WrestlleMania 31 in April of the same year.

Lee’s contributions and tenacity are as much a part of WWE’s Women’s Revolution as anyone else’s, arguably more so than others.

WWE might have dragged their feet over pushing the women on the main roster, but there was a different Women’s Revolution happening in a parallel field they could not commercially ignore.

The Rowdy Revolution: Ronda Rousey

Credit: WWE.com

Many Pro Wrestling fans might not realize the significance of Ronda Rousey on the WWE Women’s Revolution. On the surface, Rousey has been officially with WWE for less than a year.

However WWE had been courting her to work with the company for a several years, not just because of her success in the UFC brand of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), but because she truly transcended the sport by becoming a mainstream sensation.

For the UFC alone Rousey opened doors to multiple appearances on massively watched US shows such as The View, Jimmy Kimmel Live, CBS This Morning, The Tonight Show, Good Morning America,The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Rousey would be the magazine cover feature for issues of ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Men’s Fitness, Maxim, Self  and more, and was highly in demand for appearances on international Television and in literature.

Rousey was just as in-demand from Hollywood who wanted her to make cameos or have small but heavily publicized roles in action blockbusters such as The Fast and The Furious franchise.

No other woman in WWE at the time of Rousey’s UFC peak could do the same. Less than a handful of the active men on the WWE roster could either, with megastar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson mostly retired from in-ring competition, and John Cena not quite breaking through in the same way.

This level of promotional and PR exposure for a strong role model for women was something WWE desperately coveted, as it would benefit their attempt at a cleaner, more family friendly reputation which would in turn improve their stock value and keep their shareholders happy.

A more direct benefit in having Rousey as part of WWE was her track record when it came to revenue for the UFC. For a several years both the UFC and WWE had a very similar business model: Pay Per View buys, online subscriptions, live gate receipts, ancillary licensing and merchandise sales.

In January 2014, MMA Payout detailed the impact Rousey had on the UFC over the previous 12 months, including how her first appearance for the promotion at UFC 157 in 2013 garnered them the most number of PPV buys in High Defintion for that entire year.

Rousey’s appearance as a coach on ‘The Ultimate Fighter‘ (TUF) television show with arch rival Miesha Tate drew one of the best series ratings for the UFC in quite some time. It was also through the TUF  show that a long lasting friendship with Shayna Baszler and Jessamyn Duke was forged; Marina Shafir was a Judoka Rousey already knew and had picked for her staff on the show.

Rousey’s fight with Tate at UFC 168 in December 2013 – a co-headline slot under Chris Weidman Vs Anderson Silva II – pushed the PPV buy rate north of 1.1 million, making it the most successful event since July 2010 (UFC 116, headlined by then UFC Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar against challenger Shane Carwin).

Competitively Rousey was just as dominant as she was commercially, and her success was something even WWE ‘Divas’ could not ignore. On Saturday February 28th, 2015 – the very same week of the #GiveDivasAChance episode of RAW – Ronda Rousey was the main event of UFC 184, where she obliterated the previously unbeaten Cat Zingano in 14 seconds.

The event reportedly did a strong 600,000 PPV buys, a rate UFC was more than happy with in absence of another Pay Per View star. More importantly perhaps it garnered the adulation and support of women in WWE who saw in Rousey something they themselves wanted: a position at the top of a card, to be as respected as the men for the work they put in, and to be similarly compensated.

https://twitter.com/NatbyNature/status/571899356401553408

Ronda Rousey was not just a success for herself and the UFC; her success paved the way for other women in the UFC too. Rousey helped usher in the first Women’s division after UFC President Dana White had infamously stated women would ‘never’ be a part of the promotion. From 2013 to 2018 the UFC has since introduced 3 more Women’s weight classes.

Even UFC Event Reporters such as Megan Olivi give credit to Rousey for opportunities that came her way because of Rousey being a trail blazer.

Rousey was a game changer for women directly and indirectly in combat sports and entertainment, even down to the grass-roots levels where she has inspired many women young and old to take up martial arts and physical fitness. In Rousey WWE saw a possible future for their own women, even if their agenda to do so was financially driven.

If Rousey could draw incredible amounts of money and widespread press attention as a headline attraction, on top of being a role model and icon many women around the world looked up to, maybe it was time for WWE to begin pushing for their own Women’s Revolution.

In the final part of this series, a look at two women who put on match of the year contenders, the official beginning of the WWE Women’s Revolution, and some of the significant milestones accomplished in the time since that lead to the WWE Evolution event.