Women’s wrestling has come a long way in a short period of time, even referring to the female talents as ‘Women’ is a significant development as they are no longer known as ‘Divas’.
Even as far back as three or four years ago, the typical Women’s match would last just a couple of minutes and consist largely of slapping and hair-pulling, yet already this sort of action feels archaic and modern Women’s wrestling is an entirely different entity.
This Sunday will see Sasha Banks face Charlotte in the first ever Women’s Hell In A Cell which could potentially also be the first ever Women’s main event on a WWE pay-per-view. Whether the latter happens or not, this Sunday will certainly be a significant moment in the recent rise of Women’s wrestling.
But how did we get to this point? This article will look at 10 milestones of the new era of Women’s wrestling, beginning with…
#1 - Paige becomes the inaugural NXT Women’s Champion
Many fans will tell you that the Women’s revolution began in NXT and the crowning of the first NXT Women’s Champion was when the female division officially arrived.
The final of the tournament to crown the inaugural Champion would see Emma take on Paige.
Paige was the standout star of female wrestling in its early days in NXT, not just for her in-ring capabilities but also her look and attitude, it was something that fans were not used to seeing and she was exciting to see purely for being different to the super models that had made up the majority of WWE’s Women’s division in the years prior to her arrival.
She was arguably the catalyst for the entire Women’s revolution as it’d be hard to see anything significantly changing without her and therefore her defeating Emma to capture the NXT Women’s Championship is the first milestone on this list.
#2 - AJ Lee’s pipe-bomb
Another early milestone came when AJ Lee cut a scathing promo on the rest of the division which has become infamously known as her ‘pipe-bomb’.
AJ Lee was an important player in laying the groundwork for the Women’s revolution as she managed to get over at a time when the majority of fans were far from invested in the female talents on the roster.
She shattered the glass ceiling for female performers and became one of WWE’s biggest stars and featured in feuds with the likes of Daniel Bryan and CM Punk and even had a brief spell as Raw General Manager.
So when it came time for her to drop her ‘pipe-bomb’, the crowd was already firmly on her side and the promo she cut only enhanced that.
The brutally honest segment in which she described the other female talents as “cheap, interchangeable, expendable, useless Women” and took a thinly-veiled dig at the Bellas by saying that they are only where they are because they had ’sucked…up’ to the right people resonated with the fans.
It showed the higher-ups that were listening in the back that the fans want to see more talented performers like AJ Lee and less ‘Total Divas’.
#3 - Paige’s Raw debut
When Paige made her Raw debut the night after WrestleMania 30, it came at a time when the Women’s Division was severely lacking any serious talent and the fans were craving something and someone to change that.
AJ Lee had defeated the entire Women’s division in a battle royal at WrestleMania and, just to show how dire the division was, her final one-on-one PPV Title match was against Cameron…seriously!
So when Paige arrived on the main roster and captured the Divas Championship, the crowd were excited not just for the moment but also for what it could mean going forward.
#4 - Charlotte vs Natalya - NXT Takeover
Charlotte vs Natalya was arguably the first ‘great’ match of the new era of Women’s wrestling and it was treated like a serious contest between two female athletes.
The involvement of Bret Hart and Ric Flair at ringside added to the legitimacy of the match and the fans were not just expecting but wanting to see a ‘wrestling’ match between the two second-generation women, nobody wanted to see a catfight between Natalya and Charlotte.
The match itself had some great mat-based submission wrestling and also told a great story, Charlotte staring down Bret Hart before locking in the sharpshooter was a particular highlight.
The emotion that poured out of Natalya and Charlotte (and of course Ric Flair) after the match was genuine and you knew that they had just made a statement of what Women’s wrestling could be.
#5 - NXT Takeover: Rival (The Four Horsewomen)
The NXT Women’s Championship match at NXT’s Takeover: Rival would see Champion Charlotte defend against Bayley, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks.
The build to this match was excellent, Charlotte had been dominating the division since winning the Title although Sasha had recently beat her in a non-title match, Sasha & Becky’s alliance at the time was showing signs of cracking and Bayley had been developing into a more focused and braver competitor.
This all added up to a fascinating and unpredictable match and had the fans on the edge of their seats throughout.
There was some amazing in-ring action on display and all four women established themselves as the future of Women’s wrestling. It would ultimately be Sasha Banks’ crowning moment however as she captured the NXT Women’s Championship.
#6 - The Divas Revolution arrives on Raw
When Nikki Bella demanded more competition to her Divas Title, Stephanie McMahon obliged and promised to shake things up. She did more than just shake things up and changed the entire landscape of the Divas division by calling up Becky Lynch, Charlotte and Sasha Banks to the main roster on the same night.
This was a memorable segment and Michael Cole was right when he said that “the Divas division will never be the same”. There was also an iconic moment when the three new arrivals would all lock in their signature submission holds simultaneously.
This would send out a message that they were there to take over and take Women’s wrestling to new heights.
#7 - NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 2015
Any fans of Women’s wrestling will know exactly what I’m talking about when I bring up NXT Takeover: Brooklyn, Sasha Banks vs Bayley.
There was an emotional story behind this match as Bayley had been left behind in NXT while her fellow ‘Four Horsewomen’ members had all made the jump to the main roster. Bayley had also been on a 6-month journey to get to the NXT Women’s title and, spoiler alert, this would be her crowning moment.
The match itself had some tremendous drama, Bayley’s recent hand injury was used throughout and Sasha stomping on Bayley’s hand while she had the ‘bank statement’ locked in was one of my favourite spots of the match.
There were also plenty of high-risk manoeuvres, not to mention Bayley’s scary bump when she landed square on her head after coming off the top rope.
It all added up to an emotionally draining match and when Bayley finally got the win, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a tear in my eye.
This was, in my opinion, one of the greatest matches ever regardless of gender and would stop people looking at the Women’s division matches as great matches “for a woman’s match” and would be purely considered as a great wrestling match in general.
#8 - Bayley vs Sasha Banks - Ironman match
After the success of NXT Takeover: Brooklyn, Bayley and Sasha Banks would once again compete but this time it would be in the first ever female 30-minute Ironman match. It would also be the first time that a Women’s match would headline a WWE pay-per-view in NXT.
This was possibly the most anticipated Women’s match in history and certainly lived up to the hype.
Sasha Banks’ heel work in this match was particularly good, she was unsympathetic and aggressive and would even make Bayley’s superfan, Izzy, cry at ringside after stealing her hairband. Is it wrong that I enjoyed seeing that so much?
The drama in the match continued right up to the end when Bayley would get the decisive fall with just seconds remaining.
The way both women were treated post-match by not just the fans but the entire NXT roster, who came out to the stage to give them a standing ovation, made this a special moment and everyone watching would have felt like they had just witnessed history.
#9 - Bayley vs Asuka - NXT Takeover: Dallas
When Bayley lost her NXT Women’s Title match to Asuka at NXT Takeover: Dallas, the whole crowd gasped as the referee called for the bell.
This was such a strange reaction to the finish of a match and the only other instance I can think of where this happened was when The Undertaker’s undefeated Wrestlemania streak was ended by Brock Lesnar.
That just goes to show how invested the fans were in this match and into Bayley’s character.
While the crowd were maybe not as loud and excited during this match as they have been during others, I still thought this was a great match. Both women told a great story and the result of the match was unpredictable, hence the reaction at the end.
I believe the emotional reaction to Bayley losing her title was more about it being the end of the ‘Four Horsewomen’ era and the beginning of a new phase of Women’s wrestling in NXT, something that the fans maybe weren’t ready for.
#10 - Wrestlemania 32
WWE would finally drop the undermining ‘Divas’ tag that had been associated with female talents in WWE and would introduce the WWE Women’s Championship at Wrestlemania 32. Not just this, but the match itself was one of the highest billed bouts on the card.
This went to show how far Women’s wrestling had come as years prior we weren’t even guaranteed to see a Women’s championship match at Wrestlemania.
Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks would face-off in a triple threat match to crown the inaugural Women’s Champion and all three of them were treated as legitimate superstars in the build to the match.
They all had great entrances for this match, Sasha Banks even had her cousin Snoop Dogg sing her entrance theme, which made the contest feel like a big deal.
The three women also delivered in the ring and put on an exciting, high-octane match with plenty of high-risk spots, in particular, Charlotte’s moonsault off the top-rope to the outside. It was arguably the match of the night and will go down in history as the moment that Women’s wrestling would arrive in modern day WWE.
The current stars of WWE’s Women’s division have shown that they can deliver when given the spotlight and I for one am excited to see what Sasha Banks and Charlotte have in store when they step inside the cell this Sunday.
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