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Perhaps the ultimate victory of the WWE's women's evolution is the idea that nobody bats an eyelid anymore at the sight of women main eventing PPVs or battling it out at Royal Rumbles. The point of the movement originally was to place women's wrestling on a par with the men and in some respects, we are pretty much there already.
That being said, there are many things left to do, which should be the source of immense excitement for both the WWE themselves and its army of fans. 2017/18 has seen its fair share of firsts - the first ever Women's Rumble match, the first Hell in a Cell, Last Woman Standing and - most impactful of all - the first all-women's PPV, Evolution.
So where do we go from here? How can this already impactful movement take the next step and expand on what it has already achieved?
One move the WWE might want to consider is the introduction of more title belts. As good as the action is right now, there is still only one prize for the ladies to fight over on each brand. This has the effect of narrowing the talent pool unnecessarily and leaves those not in the title picture feeling aimless at best. Why not deepen the roster significantly and create other prizes for them to go after?
One huge factor standing in the way of this progression is that WWE women's wrestling is still split across two brands, making each talent pool slightly too shallow to do anything too extreme. In this article we argue that having all the women on one brand is what is best for business right now. Here are just 5 reasons to argue the case. Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
1. Tag Team Division
Fans of the older persuasion will often surmise that a Pro Wrestling era can be judged on the quality of its tag team division. The Attitude Era, despite being led by incredibly charismatic individual superstars, was also the home of various legendary tag teams. So too with the Hogan Era.
Tag Team divisions offer more layers to the entertainment of Pro Wrestling compared with the individuals categories. You get to witness two or more people interacting with each other in a friendly, jovial and often comical way compared with the animosity and one-upmanship of the traditional divisions. In a sense, Tag Team wrestling allows superstars to showcase aspects of their personalities you wouldn't otherwise see. You only have to refer to the long list of WWE legends who started as tag team specialists to understand this point.
In its current state, the WWE is correct to avoid making a tag team division for the women. There simply isn't enough depth on the rosters to create enough of a delineation between two or more titles.
However, this can all be altered by creating one women's division on one brand. Given the number of women this would feature on one weekly show, it would be foolish to have them all going after the main title. Women who are new to the main roster, or those who are not involved in signature feuds will benefit greatly from creating a different type of persona by playing off a teammate.
2. Secondary Titles
Many of the points raised in the previous entry could be made here when we discuss the possibility of a female secondary title. Having all women on one brand will bring the depth required to justify having various sub-divisions within the female cohort, and will allow superstars not in the main event picture the chance to shine in different ways.
In addition to all this, a secondary title, as we've seen over the years with the men's division, can act as the perfect step in the ladder towards the top. Imagine what this would do for so many female wrestlers in WWE right now whose names aren't Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch or Ronda Rousey.
The Intercontinental Champion has historically been the first stop on the road to ultimate success. Guys like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and countless others were all holders of the belt in the earlier parts of their career. And while you could argue that most of these guys would have made it to the top anyway through sheer charisma and talent, holding the secondary title for a while didn't exactly hurt.
Another advantage of secondary titles is that they allow the roster to be broken up into different styles. There have been those throughout WWE history who have made a career out of being associated with the US or IC title. The Miz, for example, is the perfect modern day example of this, but the same could be said for guys like Dolph Ziggler, Chris Jericho and Mr. Perfect.
Vince clearly likes some of his talent in the main event picture and others to hold that 'workhorse' role in the Mid Card, why not do the same for the ladies?
3. More Factions
Factions, much like two-person tag teams, have been a staple of high-quality entertainment throughout Pro Wrestling history. From the early days of the Freebirds and Four Horsemen to modern day examples like the Shield and the Wyatt Family, factions offer you something that even traditional tag teams cannot.
You can build an entire backstory around why the faction exists. You can place younger talent with legends in a co-beneficial relationship. You can put two factions together and get months of matches out of just one feud (see DX vs. The Nation in the 90s).
WWE's women's division has so far flirted with the idea of factions but never really went all in. The Women's revolution itself arguably started when three factions were formed in PCB, B.A.D and Team Bella but this soon dissipated into some fabulous singles careers instead.
Today we have the likes of the Riott Squad and, until recently, Absolution. If more time and effort were put into promoting these women to the same degree as the main event talent who knows where these groups could have ended up.
Splitting the women over two brands is not a conducive environment for factions at the moment, but with all of them on the one show you would soon see some formidable groups forming and the overall entertainment would surely be the better for it.
4. More of a Presence on PPVs
Fans of women's wrestling must surely be grateful that women are now an integral part of WWE PPVs. WrestleMania 34, for example, saw both women's belts feature highly on the main card, something the women of 5-10 years ago could only have dreamt of.
However, one cannot help but think more could be done given the amount of effort being placed in the women's division at the moment.
The problem with having the women on two shows means that the majority of the superstars are either involved in the main title picture, or are finding ways to get there. The result being that despite the amount of usable talent on the roster, you still only get two women's matches for the respective belts on PPV cards and maybe some meaningless multi-women bouts on the pre-show.
Imagine one big female roster on the one brand. This would allow you, as we've already seen, to build a tag team division and/or a noticeable mid-card. If you really wanted to get fancy you could even introduce a cruiserweight division and have three women's titles to play for.
You would then pretty much guarantee that every PPV would feature at least four high-profile women's matches for championship belts instead of the two we normally get. Concentrating the women's division in this way will make more sense when it comes to highlighting the various weight divisions and sub-categories. This will not only be great for women's wrestling, but would also give a new lease of life to the PPV concept itself.
5. Just the One 'Alpha-Female' Spot Available
While occasionally it can be a source of frustration amongst so-called 'hardcore' fans of Pro Wrestling, the WWE have historically stuck to a simple formula of having one guy at the top of the roster, allowing those below to jostle for position.
In the 80s this individual was Hulk Hogan, fighting off the constant challenges to his title from legends such as Randy Savage, Mr Wonderful, Roddy Piper and others. Fast forward to the Attitude Era and that spot was taken by Steve Austin.
Vince seemingly likes to forward one superstar at a time to be the face of his company, regardless of how deep or shallow the rest of the roster happens to be.
The problem with an out and out brand split in general means you will always have two champions and de-facto two faces of the company. Sure, one may be elevated slightly higher than the other, but it is still difficult to argue categorically about whether Brock Lesnar or AJ Styles is the current posterboy for the WWE at present.
This issue can be resolved in the women's division by having all of the superstars on one brand. After you've unified the championships there will be no doubt as to who the Alpha-female of the WWE is.
In its current incarnation, this will probably end up being either Charlotte Flair or Ronda Rousey - both are very marketable individuals with a degree of prestige behind them. Once this is in place, other women like Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss will become the chasing pack, giving Flair or Rousey the same kinds of challenges to their throne that the aforementioned stars of the 80s gave to Hogan.
