A Brief History Of The WWE Women’s Revolution (Part 3)

The Revolution (Officially)

From: WWE.com

By the Summer of 2015, Women’s Athletics as a whole was going through its own revolution. Serena Williams was about to win her 2nd consecutive Grand Slam title in Tennis at Wimbledon (making her the only woman in tennis history to do so), having won the French and Australian Opens already, and the US Open at the end of 2014.

The United States Women’s Soccer team won the finals of the FIFA World Cup against Japan 5 goals to 2; their success in the tournament made the event one of the most watched live sporting broadcasts in North America that year.

And Ronda Rousey was breaking records when it came to ticket sales and Pay Per View buys for women’s fights in Combat Sports, bettering most of the men in revenue and income too.

WWE could no longer ignore what was going on in the world around them lest they risk being considered a relic of the past; written-off as irrelevant to the public zeitgeist.

It was time to market themselves as having their own Women’s Revolution.

In-story Paige had fallen foul of the Bella Twins trickery on several occasions. Since #GiveDivasAChance in February 2015, Nikki and Brie Bella had largely been the focus of many fans’ ire with the state of Diva’s wrestling. Acting the part of the top villains in the division, it was a reaction they embraced and played up to – even if they were really only a small part of the problem.

AJ Lee had left WWE not long after WrestleMania in April, and Paige had evolved from the ‘Anti Diva‘ in her developmental days to the ‘Diva of Tomorrow‘ after a year on the main roster. Paige was now playing the role of the voice of the voiceless, the lone gunslinger that was trying to disrupt the status quo.

At the Money In The Bank (37:15 on WWE Network) event, both Paige and champ Nikki Bella put on one of the better WWE Diva’s matches of the time, helped by being given more than 6 minutes to work with like their NXT peers often were. The improvement in quality had not gone unnoticed.

The finish in question was another instance of ‘Twin Magic‘ where Nikki and Brie would switch places to confuse opponents and officials alike, before securing a match winning advantage. Since the identical twins Nikki and Brie Bella were now less alike due to… cosmetic enhancements… it was decided the gimmick of padding a bra was needed as the finishing touch.

The fans in the audience were actually pretty into the finish, and WWE got the desired response – loud boos is always better than dead silence.

It was also they type of finish that could be argued was in tribute to the late Dusty Rhodes who had passed away just a few days earlier; a legend of the industry that has been credited by many WWE men and women in helping them develop through NXT and the Performance Center.

Fed up with the Bella Twins’ antics, Paige tries to rally the Diva’s locker room to unite against them on the following night on RAW. Though this did not go according to plan, it was actually foreshadowing of what was to eventually come.

Kicking off the second hour of RAW on July 13, 2015 (from 40:00 on WWE Network), the group known as Team Bella (Nikki Bella, Brie Bella and Alicia Fox) made their way to the ring to address the crowd.

After making a tongue-in-cheek reference to #GiveDivasAChance – Nikki Bella had given the Divas (read: Paige and Naomi) ‘a chance’ at her title, after all – and some other self-serving spiel, Stephanie McMahon came out to put the trio in their place.

Stephanie McMahon made reference to the Women’s Revolution that was going on outside of WWE and made it a point to shake up the company. First McMahon would bring out Paige, who as she put it was ‘the woman who is trying to make a difference’.

Recognizing that neither her nor Paige could make the change on their own (narratively), this was the opportunity to even the odds by bringing up Charlotte and Becky Lynch to aid them. NXT Women’s Champion Sasha Banks would also be brought up, but given her antagonist character was better suited with similar personalities, it was rightly decided to ally her with Naomi and Tamina.

Outside of story telling this was what the WWE Diva’s division desperately needed, a shot in the arm of talent that was not only fresh but highly skilled in all aspects of Pro Wrestling performance. It also likely served as an opportunity for the existing main roster to step their game up or risk being left in the dust of these NXT upstarts.

Whether the theatrical appearance of this Women’s Revolution would actually result in an instance of life imitating art remained to be seen (as of writing in 2018 before WWE Evolution, that’s still somewhat the case). On the surface at least, this was a positive step – although one that could have happened sooner if the McMahons really wanted it to.

Still, better late than never.