Reviewing The Women’s Evolution DVD

So, a few months ago, WWE put the very first DVD that highlighted the history of the Women’s Division. When the DVD was announced, there were a lot of opinions about the cover, the women highlighted, and the matches, but I don’t recall seeing anyone saying they’ve actually bought this DVD and watched it. So, let’s take a crack at ‘Evolution’!

Cover and Contents Card. 

The cover was the thing that was most complained about on this DVD. Most people objected to Ronda Rousey, who had only had one match in WWE, being on the cover. They also complained about the lack of women from the 80s and 90s, including Sable, Sunny (who never wrestled), and Chyna. Personally, I’m okay with the cover. The thought behind it was probably to market it to people who are fans of the current Women’s Division plus a few big names from the past. However, there were some other notable absences from the cover of women that should’ve been included:

1. Fabulous Moolah
2. Molly Holly
3. Ivory
4. Victoria
5. Sensational Sherri
6. Michelle McCool
7. AJ Lee
8. Kelly Kelly
9. Eve Torres
10. Kaitlyn

Going over the content card is interesting. There are twenty-one individual women highlighted in this set: Wendi Richter, Sensational Sherri, Alundra Blayze, Ivory, Victoria, Lita, Molly Holly, Trish Stratus, Mickie James, AJ Lee, Paige, Natalya, The Bella Twins, Bayley, Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Carmella, Mae Young, the Women’s Royal Rumble participants, Alexa Bliss, and Ronda Rousey.

Comparing the content card to the cover, I found that a few women on the cover were not given a spotlight on the DVD: Nia Jax, Beth Phoenix, Jacqueline, Mae Young (her ‘match’ was the Mae Young Classic Final between Kairi Sane and Shayna Baszler), Asuka, Stephanie McMahon (though she is involved in the matches of the Bella Twins and Ronda Rousey), and Naomi. With Mae Young, I can somewhat understand her not being featured since all of her WWE matches were from when she was in her 70s-80s and wouldn’t really feature her in her prime, but the rest is a little baffling.

Content.

The matches are:

WWF Women Championship Match: The Fabulous Moolah vs Wendi Richter at Madison Square Garden July 23, 1984

Survivor Series Match – November 26, 1987: Fabulous Moolah, Rockin’ Robin, Velvet McIntyre, and the Jumping Bomb Angels vs Sensational Sherri, Dawn Marie, Donna Christanello, and the Glamour Girls.

WWF Women’s Championship Match: Alundra Blayze vs Bull Nakano – RAW April 3, 1995

WWF Women’s Championship Match: Ivory vs Chyna – WrestleMania X-7

WWE Women’s Championship Match: Trish Stratus vs Victory – RAW November 25, 2002

Steel Cage Match: Lita vs Victoria – RAW November 24, 2003

WWE Women’s Championship Match: Victoria vs Molly Holly – WrestleMania XX. Stipulation: If Molly loses, she’ll have her head shaved.

WWE Women’s Championship Match: Trish Stratus vs Lita – RAW December 6, 2004

WWE Women’s Championship Match: Trish Stratus vs Mickie James – WrestleMania 22

WWE Divas Championship Match: Kaitlyn vs AJ Lee – Payback 2013

NXT Women’s Championship Match: Paige vs Emma – NXT ARRIVAL

NXT Women’s Championship Match: Natalya vs Charlotte – NXT TakeOver

Brie Bella vs Stephanie McMahon – SummerSlam 2014

30 Minute Iron Man Match For the NXT Women’s Championship: Bayley vs Sasha Banks – TakeOver: Respect.

Triple Threat Match For the WWE Women’s Championship: Charlotte vs Becky Lynch vs Sasha Banks – WrestleMania 32

Six-Pack Challenge for the SmackDown Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch vs Nikki Bella vs Natalya vs Naomi vs Alexa Bliss vs Carmella – Backlash 2016

Hell In a Cell Match for the RAW Women’s Championship: Sasha Banks vs Charlotte – Hell in a Cell 2016

Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Carmella vs Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch vs Natalya vs Tamina – Smackdown June 27, 2017

Mae Young Classic Final: Kairi Sane vs Shayna Baszler

Women’s Royal Rumble Match

Elimination Chamber Match for the RAW Women’s Championship: Alexa Bliss vs Bayley vs Sasha Banks vs Mickie James vs Mandy Rose vs Sonya Deville – Elimination Chamber 2018.

Mixed Tag Team Match: Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey vs Triple H and Stephanie McMahon – WrestleMania 34.

I have to say that I was a little disappointed in the matches that were chosen for this DVD. Almost all of them were ones I’ve already seen and are available on the WWE Network and/or on DVD. The Wendi Richter vs Fabulous Moolah match in Madison Square Garden in 1984 was the only one I haven’t seen before. Also, it felt like the original intention was to just highlight the Women’s Division from the last several years and the older stuff was added in as an afterthought. Also, I was bothered by the exclusion of Jacqueline and Naomi, two women who made history in their own rights and should’ve been included.

My other issue is with the matches themselves, I’m not sure who made decision of which match for each woman, because there were several matches where the woman the match was highlighting lost. I get that having a great match can be more important than the outcome, but it seems that the matches were picked at random.

Overall, I really enjoyed the DVD and appreciate WWE’s efforts to finally give the Women’s/Diva’s division its due, but I really wish they’d gone more in depth with each decade instead of just throwing this together. I honestly can’t believe that Richter vs Moolah and the Women’s tag match from the very first Survivor Series was the best that the 80s had to offer in terms of women’s wrestling. Hopefully, WWE will do another DVD about Women’s Wrestling that goes into more depth about the history of the Women’s Division.