Almost two years ago (July 13, 2015, to be exact), Sasha Banks, Charlotte, and Becky Lynch debuted on Monday Night Raw in what would be the beginning of the “Divas Revolution.” Since then, WWE has plugged the Revolution and the “Women’s Evolution” constantly, but there have only been a few instances where they show history instead of telling it, which was one of the issues with the Sasha Banks/Charlotte feud of 2016. This week was a culmination of everything the Women’s Evolution has been building towards, with every night of WWE programming having women featured in the main event.
The historic week in women’s wrestling started off with Monday Night Raw. Last week, it seemed like Raw’s Women’s Division was just an afterthought, but this week felt like the complete opposite. Since Alexa Bliss retained her Raw Women’s Championship against Nia Jax a couple weeks ago, she needed a new #1 Contender, so General Manager Kurt Angle put together a Gauntlet Match.
The Gauntlet Match featured the entire female roster and the division benefitted greatly from it. Nia Jax looked the best in this match, wrestling for about a half-hour and defeating four women in a row (Bayley, Mickie James, Dana Brooke, Emma). Sasha Banks was in momentum limbo for a while, but she put on an incredible match against Jax to close out the night. Lastly, the Raw Women’s Championship is elevated because all of this effort went into Banks just getting an opportunity at the title.
The next stop in women’s wrestling ruling the week was SmackDown Live, with Naomi defending the SmackDown Women’s Championship against Lana for the second time. Lana had a surprisingly decent showing against Naomi at the Money in the Bank Pay-Per-View, but the champion would retain. After Lana blamed her loss on being distracted, Naomi proved that the inexperienced wrestler was not worthy of the title by beating her in about a minute in their rematch. Even after getting hit with a cheap shot before the match began, Naomi proved to be a dominant champion.
After the SmackDown Championship match, SmackDown Live hosted its second Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match in under two weeks. The rest of the division was featured, and even though it featured some illogical wrestling, it did a great job of showcasing premiere talent. Every woman came out of that match looking great and Becky Lynch got revenge on James Ellsworth. To top it all off, Carmella became the second Superstar to win two back-to-back Money in the Bank Ladder Matches (the only other Superstar to do so is CM Punk) and she grabbed the briefcase all by herself this time.
This leads to the end of the historic week with NXT. In the third consecutive women’s main event, Asuka and Nikki Cross had a violent battle in a Last Woman Standing Match for the NXT Women’s Championship. This has been a dream match for the NXT Universe ever since Cross made her presence known and it delivered. There were tables, ladders, and chairs (oh my!), and both women dealt as much damage as physically possible. Since NXT is supposed to represent the future of WWE, these women are going to make huge waves on the main roster.
2016 was incredible for women’s wrestling, but WWE beat fans over the head with how amazing their decisions were. It seemed like almost every week, Raw was “making history” with Sasha Banks and Charlotte, and to their credit, they were. However, they put so much focus on those two women that the rest of the roster was ignored. SmackDown Live’s approach last year was to showcase the entire division, using each woman to her strengths. It felt like at least seven women were being used every week.
This week’s success stems from the SmackDown Live approach of last year. Between all three shows, 15 women competed in incredible matches all around. Compared to a few years ago when women would just give five minutes a week including entrances, this is a tremendous place to be. With the recent release of Netflix’s GLOW and the upcoming Mae Young Classic, women’s wrestling has an incredibly bright future.
