The treatment of women in wrestling, at least in major promotions from the US, wasn’t necessarily the biggest, and they are often treated like eye-catching or dolls compared to real athletes and humans. That there is a female wrestling WWE The occasional roughness was a vast understatement.
They always had great workers, but their treatment did not reflect that. Fortunately, there have been significant changes in recent years. Just comparing it to 2015 alone shows that at the time it seemed impossible to achieve some of the large-scale achievements that the women’s sector could have achieved. So let’s take a look at some of these things and talk about how women’s wrestling has changed so much in WWE.
10
Match length
They are given much more time in the ring
- In many cases, women only got just a few minutes to play games on TV or PPV.
- More recent shows are giving them more time.
It may seem almost ridiculous to have to call this an achievement, but this is a big deal because of how the women’s department has been treated over the years. A quick comparison is to check out the WrestleMania 30 compared to the WrestleMania 40. New Orleans was a Vicki Guerrero Invitational match in the Diva Championship. It featured 14 women and lasted only 6:48.
WrestleMania is currently split into two nights, but just comparing one of the ones on the WrestleMania 40 nights is a challenge. Night One had a total of 25:10 action between the Women’s World Championship and the six-women tag match. During the two nights, Bailey and Aiyo Skye competed at 14:20.
9
There are multiple matches per show
Often there was only one female match on the show.
- The show usually features only single women’s matches.
- They were also often made up of the same repeated talent.
- This is still a problem, but not too often.
Looking back at the match cards for 2014 and 2015, it often shows that there is only one female match throughout the event. Also, in very rare occasions, like Summerslam 2014, there was only a diva championship in many years.
Playing one woman’s match on the card can still be a problem right now. Summerslam2024 shows that, but it’s much less. WrestleMania 41 featured four women’s matches, so they strived to make women a priority in 2025 alone.
8
Multiple women’s titles
A division within the women’s division has been created
- Previously, there was only one title for all women to fight.
- Currently, WWE has eight women titles, and even more women titles.
Back ten years ago, there was the WWE Diva Championship, which turned into the WWE Women’s Championship, and there was nothing else. The entire women’s division must fight for that single title or feud with each other for other reasons. That’s far from what happened today.
For example, each brand has its own women’s world titles and mid-card titles such as NXT Women’s North America and WWE Women’s Continent. In addition to the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, which works across all brands, there is also the WWE Women’s Speed Championship. The company has also confirmed the creation of the WWE Women’s ID Championship for the new ID program being created.
7
Conformance of key regulations
Women compete in TLC, hell in cell, etc.
- Women usually did not compete on large regulations such as hell of the Cell.
- That has changed because there are no many regulations women do not do.
- WWE has women’s money, exclusion rooms and more in the bank.
Women’s matches were usually normal matches. There are no major provisions other than rare submissions, extreme rules (probably), and a few others. WWE has done a rather solid job of equalizing these special match types. This is because women compete in events such as bank money, hell cells, steel cages, and emission rooms.
This has done a very great job of making the women’s sector more equal with men. And it clearly brings more entertainment to the audience.
6
Queen of the Ring
It’s not just men’s tournaments anymore
- The King of the Ring Tournament was created in 1985.
- The Queen of the Ring Tournament will not be held until 2021.
- So far, there have only been two QOTR tournaments.
King of the Rings has been a pretty big deal for several years at WWE, helping to push the star to the next level of career. Names like Brock Lesnar, Bret Hart, and Kurt Angle benefited from the tournament, but in the end WWE didn’t focus on it, and regulations declined and returned frequently.
It wasn’t until 2021 that WWE decided to have the King of the Ring Tournament, but for women it calls it Queen of the Rings. In the first edition of this match, Zelina Vega simply won the crown, but the next time they did it, Nia Jax scored the title shot at Summerslam that year.
5
Women’s Royal Rumble
Currently, the largest provisions of WWE are available to anyone
- The Royal Rumble was created in 1988.
- The first women’s royal rumble was in 2018.
- It has been a tradition every year ever since.
Like the bank’s money and the king of the ring, these provisions were usually only for men, but there was nothing equal for women. WWE finally decided to change it when they had their first women’s royal rumble in 2018.
Since then, it has been a tradition every year, and has even helped women in WWE play for another achievement they ultimately accomplish.
4
Top 10 product sellers
Women have been featured multiple times
- In 2024, Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley saw among the top 10 merchandise sellers.
- In 2014, there were no women in the top 10.
How wrestlers are booked and their income is one of the more important sources by selling products such as t-shirts, hats and many other things. You can usually find major names like Steve Austin, CM Punk, The Rock, Roman Reigns, John Cena, and more.
For example, compared to 2015, Bayley was the best-selling female wrestler on WWE.com’s T-shirts, ranking 21st overall. The 2024 statistics are available, indicating that both Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley are in the top 10, sitting in sixth and seventh place respectively.
3
Pay-per-view/PLES for the main event
This is a more common trend
- Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair will be in the Main Event Hell Cell 2016.
- This is the first time that Women Main has held a PLE/PPV event.
- The women will hold a succession of main events later.
It took a lot of time for women to win main event spots at weekly shows such as Raw and Smackdown. That honor finally happened, and it went to Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks. He went to war in women’s hell for the first time in a cell match in the show’s 2016 edition.
Since then, women have the honor of being able to close many shows. The Survivor Series and TLC 2019 also had a back-to-back stint that ended with some sort of Becky Lynch match.
2
evolution
Women’s only show
- The show took place on October 28th, 2018.
- Over 50 women participated in the event.
- It is the only WWE PPV so far that has nothing but a women’s match.
WWE made history in 2018 when it decided to create an Evolution PPV event. This is the first time WWE has held a show dedicated to women’s matches, with one pre-show match on the main card. Next, create this PPV by combining the current main roster star, NXT name, and legend.
The show wasn’t doing the biggest financially and hasn’t been done since. But that could change with reports claiming WWE is planning a second edition scheduled for 2025.
1
WrestleMania Main Event
It was my first time with WrestleMania 35
- Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey will host their first WrestleMania main event at the age of 35.
- Sasha Banks and Bianca Bella will be performing the main event at WrestleMania 37.
The WWE concept that allowed women to make the main event WrestleMania ten years ago was, and certainly not far from far away. WrestleMania 31 took on the Bella twins for Page and Aji Lee in the middle of the show at 6:42. Once Becky Lynch has become one of WWE’s most popular characters and the rise of Ronda Rousey as a WWE star is now in 2019, the company will have women shut down the show.
When Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair met and first marked the show when the two African-American wrestlers found it, WWE did it again with the WrestleMania 37. It hasn’t happened since 37, but it could soon be again.
