5 Takeaways from WWE Backstage (February 11th, 2020)

#3 The Evolution of the WWE Women's Division

Flair and Paige

Stephanie McMahon joined the show for a brief moment and gave her favorite memory of WrestleMania in California. She recounted how "right before WrestleMania 21, my dad tore both of his quads at the Royal Rumble and I had to step in and fill his role" of going through match ideas with participants in the Money in the Bank match that year.

In addition to McMahon being present at the advent of the Women's Evolution in WWE, Paige and Flair were key components of it at the beginning. Paige claimed that at the inception of things, "AJ Lee was the first person to get people to take notice but people weren't given the time in the ring." She added that "they weren't giving us enough time on the main roster" opposed to in NXT. After a 30 second match on RAW, #GiveDivasAChance "trended for three days straight."

Charlotte added that "it's not that we didn't have talent before AJ Lee" but that it "really took characters" to get noticed. The women with well-defined personas worked because "the audience was identifying with characters and not just groups of women" Flair also added that "every opportunity we were given we delivered and delivered."

Paige added that she "felt nervous from the get go" during the whole process, so much so that "we (herself, Lee and the Bellas) went out on RAW and had our WrestleMania match because we knew it'd get cut short."