Last summer, the WWE’s Women’s division appeared like it was stalling. Nikki Bella was the “Divas” champion, but was still not garnering the respect of the fans, A.J. Lee had just retired from wrestling, and seemingly none of the women currently on the main roster were getting any love from WWE executive or creative. They ended up bringing up 3 of the main women from NXT, Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Sasha Banks to create the “Divas Revolution”. Immediately, they became 3 of the hottest superstars in the promotion, even ending up with Charlotte winning the Divas title about 3 months into her debut on the main roster. The 3 of them also ended up in a Triple-Threat match together at WrestleMania and was widely regarded as having the best match on the biggest card of the year.
But you see, this emergence of seeing women being given the ball and running with it is not just confined to WWE. All over the world it is being shown that this new generation of women in wrestling aren’t just in it for the fame or the money. Gone are the days of promotions signing women, such as Sunny and Sable from the 90’s, just for their good looks and letting them parade around in skimpy clothing. Yes, this group of women have grown up with the Trish Stratus’ and Lita’s of the world and WANT to be in the ring and main-eventing WrestleManias. We used to use the women’s matches as “bathroom breaks” or “time to fill our cups or get food”. Nope, the group of women I’m about to tell you about are worth your time and effort to check out.
Just this past weekend, Ring of Honor devoted their entire hour of weekly television to their “Women of Honor” division. ROH fans are very familiar with Mandy Leon being the host of “Inside ROH” and Taeler Hendrix being the valet for ROH World Champion Jay Lethal, but Leon’s match with Hania the Huntress and Hendrix’s match with Kelly Klein were amazing exhibitions that while these ladies have super-model good looks, they are some of the best athletes on Planet Earth. These 2 matches could have easily been both placed on an ROH pay-per-view and it wouldn’t look out of place and nobody would be leaving their seat. This comes on the heels of Insance Championship Wrestling out of Scotland having a Match of the Year candidate “Last Woman Standing” match between Carmel Jacob and Sammi Jayne that is worth a monthly subscription to ICW On Demand alone.
Lucha Underground is also a great example of the “Women’s Revolution”. While I’m not a massive fan of intergender, but the way Lucha Underground does it is a great example of female empowerment. It doesn’t hurt to have incredible talent, like Ivelisse, or Taya or Mariposa, who all 3 are among the best workers, men or women, in the world. Their success in Lucha Underground was also a catalyst for their promotional partner, AAA in Mexico, to hold a women’s Lucha World Cup to go along with their annual male Lucha World Cup.
The women that are now in the wrestling business are the ones that we should steer our daughters and little girls to. The powers that be in wrestling no longer have them prance around in tiny outfits for the male audience to enjoy. They are all athletes at either the high school or college level. They are more athletic than 99.9% of the wrestling audience. But most importantly, in this era where we most of us judge who our favorites are by how much hardship they had to endure to get to the top, all these women have done just that. They aren’t just eye candy, the women in professional wrestling in 2016 have started a “Women’s Revolution” and I couldn’t be more happier.
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