The Women's Evolution

For the first time in the thirty five year history of Wrestlemania, the women will main event the greatest night in sports entertainment. Over the course of the past year, women’s wrestling in the WWE has received a much needed and larger spotlight, with events such as Evolution, a women’s Royal Rumble match, women’s tag team championship titles, and now, the main event on the grandest stage of them all.

Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair have been at the forefront of this crescendo that will come to a head at MetLife Stadium on Sunday April 7th. All three women have led this evolution to its utmost peek and Wrestlemania will forever be remembered as the event that showcased the division above and beyond everything else in the company.

But what happens next?

While the aforementioned trio have had a strong showing in getting the women in the main event of the company’s biggest event of the year, there’s been an entire division of superstars behind them that have become after thoughts in an evolution that lends more questions than answers as the WWE moves forward, post ‘Mania.

Here are some questions that I have:

WINNER TAKE ALL

The main event was announced to have a ‘Winner Take All’ stipulation, meaning that both the Raw Women’s Championship and SmackDown Women’s title will both be on the line, ensuring that whoever wins the match walks away with both titles.

While the stipulation adds even more intrigue to the close of Wrestlemania, it’s hard not to try and look ahead and wonder what winning both titles will mean for the eventual victor.

Does the winner carry both titles a la Chris Jericho and the Undisputed Championship? Would the winner then just defend both titles on both shows? Or, does it follow Wrestlemania VI where the champion would hold one title while the other is held up and a tournament is formed to crown a new champion (likely on SmackDown)?

UNIFICATION

The other option would be that WWE is going to unify the women’s championship into one major title to be defended on both shows. While it wouldn’t make a lot of sense in my opinion, it’s a definite option.

That said, WWE has gone to great lengths to give women more exposure on television and in the overall scope of the company. (see; tag team titles, events, etc) Would unifying the championship be a step backwards for a company that is trying to provide more opportunities to their women’s roster? While the WWE has done a poor job of showcasing the division in recent months, one would think having an undisputed women’s champion wouldn’t make sense unless the company was looking at putting more emphasis on the other new title that they’ve really done nothing with to this point. Which leads me to…

TAG TEAM BOREDOM

Sasha Banks and Bayley winning the inaugural women’s tag team championship was a step in the right direction for giving the women more of a platform to perform in the company. The sad reality is that there hasn’t been a lot done thus far to believe that these titles are nothing more than props to keep Sasha and Bayley in a ‘premiere’ position in the division.

When the duo appeared on NXT and claimed that the championships were going to defended ‘everywhere’, it made evident two things; these titles are clearly meant to be showcased on all three brands. Also, there’s no plan for NXT women’s tag team titles any time soon, which is a good thing at this point.

But with tag teams in the women’s division consisting of mashing two superstars together and taking on the champs, it’s hard to see where this is going. The triple threat match at 35 with Nia Jax/Tamina and Natalya/Beth Phoenix is the first we’ve seen in regards to any semblance of a ‘tag division’, but even then it feels thrown together. Nia and Tamina should be a permanent option moving forward, if this idea is going to gain any traction. I’m hoping to see more of this moving forward and we see more concrete teams like The Iconics.

WHAT ABOUT US?

It would appear Asuka lost her title to Charlotte, simply to give the main event a little more ‘oompf’ and cache. But what’s next for her? Or, for that matter, the rest of the roster?

We’ve seen little from the majority of the women’s division over the past several months. The Riott Squad has become the literal J.O.B. Squad 2.0, never getting a sniff of victory or relevance in recent weeks.

Asuka? Did anyone even remember she was the SmackDown women’s champion? Her short reign was completely understated due to all things Becky Lynch and Charlotte on the Tuesday night show.

Carmella? Naomi? Ember Moon? Mickie James? Nikki Cross? And that’s even without mentioning Alexa Bliss who, I assume, is still nursing some sort of injury or ailment of sorts. When are we going to see Lacey Evans in a match?

There’s a lot of women on the roster just cruising along and not getting any exposure on television. Eventually, as they tend to do, fans will want something fresh. It’s hard to get excited for superstars who come and go for weeks at a time. WWE needs to offer something more to these women or find some structure to allow for better exposure moving forward. Perhaps there’s a plan for that? Perhaps not. But what about something more than just an extra match on RAW each week?

THE NETWORK

Is it too ‘outside of the box’ to consider giving the women their own weekly show on the WWE Network to provide that platform that they so desperately need? I know some fans (myself included) are burnt out from so much hourly content on a weekly basis, but isn’t it worth exploring?

The superstars on 205 Live are flourishing much better on their own show, without being a footnote on Raw each week. NXT, while a bit of a different animal, seems to do well with a sixty minute program each week. Could a scenario exist where the women are given their own platform to perform?

I’m not suggesting eliminating them from Raw altogether, but at least the undercard could get more exposure and not worry about having to get written off television. Logistically, I know it’s not as simple as adding another show. To accommodate this, it would potentially mean getting rid of Superstars. The show is recorded prior to Raw each week and if you wanted to record a women’s show, that’s probably when you’d have to do it. It may be creating another problem with a solution, because the argument could then be made that those athletes that feature on Superstars wouldn’t get their moment in the sun.

Is it ideal in either situation? I’m not sure. But if I were the WWE, I’d explore it.

THE BOTTOM LINE

With all the momentum that WWE has created over the past year and leading into Wrestlemania 35, women’s wrestling has never been bigger. The company has very publicly tried, and in some cases succeeded, in getting the women more prestige on television. The popularity of the main event opponents is proof of that, none larger than Becky Lynch.

That said, a lot of decisions have been made to elevate the trio, as previously stated. Other superstars have had their gleam of the spotlight taken away as to shine brighter on those being shouldered with the responsibility of closing the company’s greatest endeavour.

While it’s likely the right move with all the WWE has riding on the main event, the steps forward accomplished by such a feat could result in the evolution taking two steps back if the plans aren’t in place to continue to elevate the women, post Wrestlemania.

Otherwise, a revolution may be necessary once again.