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For decades, WWE has strived to become a major sports entertainment player and has become the largest wrestling promotion in the world, holding over 500 events a year. This has enabled the company to lead by example, be more innovative and experimental, and also do things no one in the industry has ever done before.
With the power and the legacy the company has, it continues to achieve many milestones and does many things for the first time in the industry - something that has kept it unique and successful.
Within the company, there are many things done regularly which have never been done before, and the year 2019 was host to many 'firsts' for the company itself. The year was great, especially for the women’s roster, and gave fans many things to cheer about at the end of the day.
In this article, we will look at the six things that the company, and its Superstars, did for the first time ever, and how it has impacted the WWE and the industry.
#1 First Female Grand Slam Champion
The women’s roster has been bringing many changes to how the company sees and handles its female talent, and this was proven when the company arranged its first all-female pay-per-view, WWE Evolution.
A few years ago, a female Superstar was lucky to win Championship reigns, while currently, it has become common for the top women of the company to continuously stay in the Championship picture due to the increasing number of Championship belts in the company.
With the company now having top Championships for the women for all three brands, and also the Women’s Tag Team Championships, it’s possible for a woman to become a Grand Slam Champion for the company.
This feat was first achieved this year, only a few months after the introduction of the WWE Women’s Championship, as Bayley was crowned the first Women’s Grand Slam Champion in May.
By winning the NXT, RAW, and SmackDown Women’s Championships, as well as the Women’s Tag Team Championships, Bayley achieved this milestone in just over six years.
The numbers are soon expected to rise as Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair too are homing in to become Grand Slam Champions sooner than later. This will help the women rack up the records, as the company has over 25 male Grand Slam Champions following the original and the modern format.
#2 First Women’s Match in Saudi Arabia
WWE is known to put on a spectacular show in the ring all over the world. This includes the company coming up with unique matches and Superstars to compete outside the United States to bring as much attention to its product as possible.
At the end of October this year, the company did the unthinkable by arranging a women’s match in Saudi Arabia. The company had received much criticism during it’s three previous pay-per-views which were held in Saudi Arabia, as no female Superstars were present during the events.
This year, the company defied all odds and proved the critics wrong by arranging a match between Natalya and Lacey Evans in front of a packed crowd at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The match was dubbed the first professional wrestling women's match to take place in Saudi Arabia. This was not just a big step for the women’s roster of the company, but also for the entire company and for the nation itself, which has seen many positive changes take place over the past year or so.
WWE proved many critics wrong by fighting for the rights of their female talent and going ahead to put on a great last-minute match between two of its top Superstars in the Kingdom.
#3 First African-born WWE champion
The WWE Championship is arguably the most prestigious in the WWE, and possibly the entire wrestling industry. We’ve seen men such as Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Yokozuna, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Randy Orton, and many other legendary Superstars hold the title on several occasions.
At WrestleMania 35, the Championship was won by an African-born WWE Superstar for the first time in its long history. Kofi Kingston achieved the feat at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey in front of over 75,000 fans at WrestleMania by defeating Daniel Bryan.
Kofi has been in the company for well over a decade and won every mid-card Championship and Tag Team Championship there’s to win. However, his first big one took over a decade to come, as the entire WWE Universe got Kofi Mania after the Superstar replaced Ali at Elimination Chamber 2019 after the latter sustained an injury.
The Ghana-born Superstar emerged onto the scene as a Jamaican character with an accent inspired by listening to Damian Marley. The gimmick worked well with the WWE Universe, and the Superstar continued to battle as a babyface, only turning heel for a few months with The New Day.
His victory at WrestleMania was not only emotional for himself and his brothers in The New Day, but also for the entire WWE Universe and the people of Ghana who see him as a role model.
#4 First time women headline WrestleMania
Headlining WrestleMania is a dream every single Superstar has when they walk into the squared circle for the first time. Men such as The Undertaker, John Cena, Randy Orton, and Roman Reigns have headlined WrestleMania a number of times during their careers, making them the top Superstars to ever walk inside the ring.
Unfortunately, women had never gotten a chance to headline the Grandest Stage of the Them All before 2019. Even though the company had stars like Beth Pheonix, Lita, Trish Stratus, and others, they never had a storyline big enough to take the main event of WrestleMania.
The entrance of Ronda Rousey into the company in 2018, and the subsequent rise of Becky Lynch brought a lot of change into the women's division in 2019. The two got into a heated feud for the RAW Women’s Championship, which later included then SmackDown Women’s Champion, Charlotte Flair.
The three women managed to get so much attention and cook up such a great storyline that the company allowed the three women to headline WrestleMania 35, with both the RAW and SmackDown Women’s Championships on the line.
The match was won by Becky Lynch and allowed the women’s roster to bring the biggest change ever seen in the company for the female talent wing.
#5 First female double champion
The headlining match at WrestleMania 35 was not only iconic in featuring three top women of the company, but it was a match that crowned the first main roster double-champion for the company.
Becky Lynch pinned Ronda Rousey during the match to become the first-ever woman in WWE to win and hold two main roster Championships at the same time. While the men of the company have won and held two Championships on the main roster several times, it was a huge achievement for the women of the company, who managed to make several headlines of their own in a single night.
Becky’s change in character and gimmick, coupled with the backing of the WWE Universe, allowed her to pick up one of the greatest victories in sports entertainment, and the greatest victory for women in the sport. She became the RAW and SmackDown Champion at WrestleMania 35 and made 2019 not just her year, but the year of the women of the company.
Since her victory, Lynch, along with several female Superstars, have now become faces of their respective rosters and have continued to deliver some great performances and achieve more than anyone else in the industry.
#6 First Triple-branded Pay-Per-View involving RAW, SmackDown and NXT
Survivor Series is one of the 'Big Four' events the company hosts every year, and the action inside the ring keeps getting bigger and bigger each year. While the Wild Card Rule had sort of ruined the build towards the event in the past few months, the recent WWE Draft and the brand split once again given fans hope that the event will be one to look out for.
To add to the excitement, the company brought in the NXT Superstars to the show for the first time ever. The event, which usually features a war between RAW and SmackDown, will now see NXT also be in the race for brand supremacy.
This is a huge step for the Black and Gold Brand, as well as for the company, as NXT was usually seen as a developmental brand before, with Superstars 'taking a step up' to the main roster after proving themselves on the developmental brand.
However, over the past few years, we’ve seen several NXT Superstars prove that they are as good, if not better than the main roster talent, and we have even seen Superstars such as Finn Balor go back to the Black and Gold brand after succeeding on the main roster.
The addition of NXT to one of WWE’s pay-per-views will increase the exposure of NXT’s roster, while showing the world that the Superstars on the brand are not just developmental talent. It will also increase fans’ excitement regarding the PPV, as we will see all three brands go head to head for the first time ever.
