What Progress Looks Like: Women At WWE WrestleMania

A look at ten years of women’s matches at WrestleMania and the progress WWE has made.

To say that the state of women’s wrestling in the WWE is nowhere near where it once was is no longer hyperbole, it’s a fact.  Even in just a year’s time there have been some huge strides albeit among the usual mess that is the business we love.  We’re coming off a season now where there has been an all women’s WWE pay per view in Evolution (which most people rightfully put on their list for best show of the year in 2018), the women have some of the best segments on RAW and Smackdown every week, and they’re even main eventing house shows now.  But despite some really rapid progress it’s been a long, slow road to get to this point.  Just look back on the women’s matches at WrestleMania since 2010:

• WrestleMania 26 : A 10 Diva tag team match that lasts a whopping 3:26.  I haven’t watched this match, did all 10 women even get to do anything in the match?  And this was on a show where Bret Hart wrestled Vince McMahon…….in 2010, not 1999.  Good grief.
• WrestleMania 27: Mixed Tag featuring John Morrison, Trish Stratus and Snooki (remember her?) vs Dolph Ziggler and LayCool.  I have watched this.  It wasn’t terrible, but again they got all of 3 minutes and change here (3:17 to be exact).  Yes you have to protect the TV star but with five other people in the match they could have gotten more time than this.  Please note that on this show Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole got almost 15 minutes for what was a truly terrible farce of a match.
• WrestleMania 28: Kelly Kelly and Maria Menouos (the TV show host) vs Beth Phoenix and my first wrestling crush since getting back into it, Eve Torres (please come back for a Rumble or Battle Royal or something…we miss you!).  This one was fine for what it was, they got 6:22 to work with which is fine for a match with a non wrestling celebrity in it.
• WrestleMania 29:  The nadir.  No matches at all.  Nothing.  There was a Diva’s champion, Kaitlyn, but they decided that a Puff Daddy ‘performance’ (I’m being nice here) was more deserving than having her defend the title even in a short match.  The Bellas and The Funkettes were scheduled for a mixed tag team match that was cut for time. To be fair, United States Champion Cesaro also didn’t have a match. Sheesh…….

Well you couldn’t do any worse than that so there was only one direction to go.  And things did go up……a little teeny bit.

• WrestleMania 30:  AJ Lee defended the Diva’s title in a 14 woman invitational match.  Not a battle royal, or a gauntlet match, or a six pack challenge style elimination match, just a 14 woman one fall match.  LAZY.  On a show where Brock Lesnar and the Undertaker got 25 minutes (about 10 too many for real), no reason that this couldn’t have gotten better than 6:48 and something better than a straight up one fall match.  But at least the title got defended on the show.
• WrestleMania 31:  AJ Lee and Paige, who’d been feuding over the Diva’s title until Nikki Bella won it in November, beat Nikki and Brie Bella in a tag team match that went 6:42.  On the same show where HHH and a 56 year old Sting had a match that went almost 20 minutes and had about 50 run ins, and tacked on another 10 minutes for entrances and a post match staredown.  Five minutes off of that wouldn’t have been asking too much.

Now that’s just WrestleMania matches; we’re not even talking about the weekly embarrassment of sending them out there every week on TV for literal 2 minute matches, even 8 and 10 woman tag matches and battle royals that should never go s short as 2 or 3 minutes.  But things have really taken an upswing since then.  At WrestleMania 32 Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch had arguably the match of the night to crown the new Women’s champion (now the RAW Women’s Title).  WrestleMania 33 was a mixed bag in that there were two women’s title matches thanks to the brand split but the Smackdown one got cut really short in an unintended consequence of it getting pushed to the main show after originally being on the pre-show (remember folks, 10 to 15 minutes on the preshow is often better than 5 minutes on the main show).

Last year, at WrestleMania 34, we got Charlotte vs Asuka in what was a match of the night contender, another MOTY in the mixed tag with Ronda Rousey and Kurt Angle vs Triple H and Stephanie, the RAW title match with Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss and the Women’s Battle Royal.  For now that’s the high point for inclusion.  This year we’re sure to get the battle royal, two singles titles matches, a match for the new Women’s Tag Team Titles, and possibly an intergender match featuring Nia Jax.  That’s almost half the card right there, and it’s deserved because the Women’s side has been bringing the heat more than the men since the fall.

And to me that’s the best part of this.  They’ve gotten some opportunities, they have consistently outperformed the men, so they are getting to drive the train here.  As someone who has a been a fan for over 30 years this is truly remarkable and I’ll admit that if you came to me in 1989 with the notion that one day the women would be the best thing going every week I would have called you crazy.  But here we are.  The job isn’t finished yet, though.  This momentum needs to be kept up and maintained.

The women’s side of the roster has gotten pretty deep and more of them need the time and exposure they deserve.  (If there’s a hour for just the women somewhere in that Fox TV deal that would be great).  We as fans need to reward what’s being done here, with our attention and most importantly our financial support so that it proves to be viable over the long haul.  They deserve a spot on the stage and the way they’re going now they deserve the bigger one.  The guys had a long run with not so much as an inkling of competition but it is there now and quite frankly they need to step their game up.

All in all, this is a time to be a little happier with the state of professional wrestling.  Leave the Debbie Downers on the internet and social media alone for a bit and enjoy what we’re getting here.  Long way still to go but this is a true bright spot.