Sky Sports is featuring an interview with Stephanie McMahon discussing the big announcement last night about the first ever all-women’s WWE PPV, Evolution.
Stephanie spoke at length about the #GiveDivasAChance movement and how it started a chain of events leading to changes within the company.
“That was created in response to a match that took place in February 2015, a tag match of our then divas division that lasted for all of 30 seconds, which unfortunately was more the norm. Our women were treated more as secondary characters to the storyline and our fans had had enough and they were specifically calling for longer matches, better athleticism, better character development and better storylines. Their voices were so loud that this hashtag trended for three days worldwide, until our chairman and CEO Vince, and yes he’s also my father, he said ‘yes we hear you, keep watching #GiveDivasAChance’. So later at the next WrestleMania, in front of our biggest audience ever, over 100,000 people, we had Hall of Famer Lita go out and announce the rebranding of the divas division to the women’s division.”
On the early pioneers of women’s wrestling in WWE.
“I saw Alundra Blayze, I saw Wendi Richter, I saw Bull Nakano and what these women were able to do in the ring and then as I continued to grow and evolve and then become a part of the business myself, there was Chyna, there was Trish Stratus, Lita, all of these amazing women who all had the in-ring ability but they just weren’t being given the spotlight and there was a feeling that that’s not what the audience wanted. Additionally, when my husband took over talent development, recruiting, relations, he started recruiting women the same as the men. So he started recruiting athletes versus models, and he started training them the same as the men and giving them the same opportunities on the live events.”
Stephanie was also asked about the possibility of women’s tag team titles.
“Not quite yet but that’s absolutely something we’ve heard loud and clear from our fan base and it’s something we’re keen on implementing as soon as we are able to.”