WWE: Consistently focusing on women’s wrestling will continue to pay major dividends

Even while touting its “Women’s Revolution,” WWE has had mixed success with building up the women’s division. But heading into WrestleMania season, there’s reason to be hopeful for the future – perhaps more than ever before.

For fans of women’s wrestling, watching the WWE product must be incredibly frustrating at times. Over the years, the WWE Universe has been witness to bikini contests, diva searches, and lingerie pillow fights. Any moments of actual wrestling in the women’s division were few and far between.

In 2015, things began to change — albeit slowly. NXT was home to the “Four Horsewomen,” whose matches consistently received high praise from fans. But at the same time, the “divas” on Raw and SmackDown were short-changed when it came to time. One infamous tag team match in February 2015 lasted 30 seconds from bell to bell.

The overwhelming fan outcry over the injustice led to the “Give Divas a Chance” hashtag on Twitter, and WWE taking its first real baby steps to equality in the wrestling ring with the famed “Women’s Revolution.” And for the past five years, those baby steps have continued, sometimes painfully slow.

For every “first women’s match to main event a pay per view,” there’s multiple instances of women serving as props in male-centered storylines. For all the bluster of rebranding the “Divas” as just plain old Superstars like the male competitors, there were many episodes of Raw or SmackDown with just a single women’s segment.

This stop-and-start focus placed on the women’s division continued even after mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey signed a WWE contract. Rousey was a sort of household name — at least compared to many pro wrestlers — which meant that she immediately became the focus of the entire division from her debut in 2018.

Rousey was an active WWE Superstar for roughly 365 days, and she was the Raw Women’s Champion for 231 of those days. I’m not trying to downplay Rousey’s abilities — she far surpassed the expectations many fans and insiders had. But with a roster filled with many talented wrestlers, Rousey’s rise meant others had to take a backseat — not the best way to build a full division with long-term potential.

But almost incredibly, in a post-Rousey world, WWE’s women’s division is in better shape than ever before. And, even better, it looks like the future is insanely bright for the talented superstars who comprise the roster.

More from Daily DDT

• It’s time for Adam Cole and MJF to drop the ROH tag team titles
• Tom Lawlor talks MLW return, AEW opportunity, CM Punk’s WWE return and more
• Eddie Kingston stands to gain the most from the AEW Continental Classic
• Trish Stratus on WWE NXT would help elevate that women’s division
• Randy Orton signs with SmackDown to go after The Bloodline

What changed? Well, sometimes when you plant a seed, you just need to wait for it to grow. And that’s definitely a huge part of it. Since the beginning of the Women’s Revolution, stars like Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair have blossomed into some of the company’s biggest stars regardless of gender. It makes sense that they, along with Rousey, were the first women to compete in the main event of WrestleMania last year.

In the five years since Flair, Lynch, and Sasha Banks moved to Raw/SmackDown (with Bayley following a year later), NXT has grown one of the best women’s divisions in history. Even after the likes of Asuka, Kairi Sane, Nia Jax, Alexa Bliss, Nikki Cross, the IIconics, Ember Moon, and Ruby Riott left the brand, there’s still a wealth of talent between the yellow ropes.

Take a look at these names: Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, Teagan Nox, Io Shirai, Dakota Kai, Candice LeRae, Mia Yim, Chelsea Green, Deonna Purrazzo, Shotzi Blackheart. That’s ten, and it’s not even everyone. Not to mention Shayna Baszler, who looks to be on her way to Raw for the foreseeable future.

What has this talent pool accomplished? On Wednesday nights, the women of NXT have consistently outperformed expected ratings for their segments. Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics looked at quarter-hour ratings for both NXT and AEW Dynamite, and found that Belair, Yim, Ripley, and Shirai have positively bumped the ratings the most for NXT since the beginning of November.

Couple that with the Wrestling Observer stating Becky Lynch was WWE’s biggest ratings mover in 2019, and we may be able to see why there’s a rumored six women’s matches scheduled for WrestleMania this year. The consistency of the build to the entire division has been key for this growth over the past year. Rather than a singular focal point, the entire division across all three brands has been in the spotlight.

Things still aren’t perfect by a long shot — I’m still waiting for Evolution 2, for the record. But given the lows of the previous thirty years, WWE has made tremendous progress in building a division of talented wrestlers that wrestling fans can be proud of for years to come.