The Hot Tag: It's Time For WWE's Female Stars To Go To 'Hell'
The following is an excerpt from my weekly pro wrestling column, "The Hot Tag," for PressBox:
"Our fans don't want to see the girls fight like the guys."
That quote is from WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, and I heard it several times during my three years on the WWE creative team (2011-14) when discussing the women's division in booking meetings.
The days of WWE's female performers wrestling in pudding and Bra and Panties Matches (the winner was the first to strip her opponent to her underwear) were long gone by that time, but the women were still branded as "Divas," and McMahon made it clear their role was to provide sex appeal to WWE's TV shows. Women's matches were rarely given more than a few minutes of TV time and were generally treated as filler segments.
Last year, however, McMahon finally got the message from fans that they do indeed want to see longer, more athletic and harder-hitting women's matches. You know, matches like the guys have.
Women possessing solid in-ring skills, such as Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch, were simultaneously called up to the main roster from NXT, WWE's developmental promotion. Eventually, "Divas" were out and "female Superstars" were in.
Great strides have been made with WWE's women's division, but there's still work to be done. To truly be on equal footing with the men, the women need to participate in the brutal specialty matches always exclusive to their male counterparts.
WWE's "Hell in a Cell" pay-per-view takes place Oct. 30, and the time is right for the first women's Hell in a Cell match.
It may sound like the title of a women-in-prison exploitation film, but two women competing inside a 20-foot high roofed steel cage would actually be the greatest example of feminism in WWE history.
In WWE Raw Women's Champion Charlotte and former champion Sasha Banks, WWE has the right two athletes and right story line for the groundbreaking match. (WWE did have a "regular" steel cage match between Lita and Victoria on Raw in 2003).
To read the column in its entirety, click here
