Bruce Prichard has estimated about half of the current main roster is female, and he’s admitted that sometimes they’re performing at a higher level than the men.
The WWE Women’s Evolution has put a bigger emphasis on female stars than prior. Dropping the term “diva” from the WWE dictionary, the women are given equal respect as performers, which has opened the gate to a lot of firsts. Whether it was the first WrestleMania headlined by women, the first female Hell In a Cell match, or an all women’s pay per view, the presentation of the women has come a long way since the days of bra and panties matches and Jerry Lawler objectifying them by shouting for puppies at the commentary booth.
Of course, it wasn’t always like this. The WWE went years without a women’s division, the low point arriving when Medusa showed up on Monday Nitro and threw the then-WWF Women’s Title in the garbage. She was really the only attraction of the division at the time, as not many female talents were contracted.
Bruce Prichard spoke about this at length on his Something to Wrestle With podcast, talking about how at the time of this low point, the audience wasn’t ready for a women’s division full of athletic women and the talent pool in America had not been deep enough to sustain a division. WWF had tried to bring in Joshi talent during Medusa’s time in the company, highlighted by a feud with Bull Nakano, but it was short lived. Eventually, Prichard said that in 2015 the women proved to be equal to the man and every now and then eclipse them in quality.
“There wasn’t [enough talent] and that’s always been a challenge. I think when you look at different divisions. While there may be some great light heavyweights, well, there may not be enough for division, there may be some great women wrestlers, but there weren’t enough to have an entire roster of women wrestlers at the time. Also, I don’t think that the audience was ready to accept that you didn’t have the caliber of athlete that came along in 2015 and has exploded and made it like — as far as I’m concerned, they’re 50 percent of the show and sometimes, the better 50 percent of the show. So it wasn’t that way back then.”
While America hasn’t always been prepared for talent of that caliber, it had put them decades behind other countries. Japan had long had the well respected All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling promotion for many years, while Mexico had often featured women in prominent athletic roles. While it’s taken many years for the United States to get to that point, the embrace of major promotions putting women in prominent positions is long overdue.
h/t to Fightful for the quote
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