Female wrestlers have come a long way in an industry that first used them as sex symbols. Professional wrestling company leaders are taking the athletes more seriously. In the past, female wrestlers have been entertainment on the side, whether that means being given five-minute matches while men were given matches that were usually 15 to 30 minutes long or being exploited for their sexuality and living up to catty female stereotypes. While women have played a part in nearly every wrestling show in World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE, history, they were not always respected or treated equally in the wrestling business.
The purpose of professional wrestling is telling a story through acting and physical competition. Over several weeks, stories are told between two or more competitors, and it typically culminates at a Pay-Per-View, PPV, event. Other matches occur along the way, but the matches at the PPV are usually the longest. Until recently, men’s matches have always taken priority over women’s, and it is difficult for anyone to be able to tell a story in a match that is less than five minutes long.
Women’s wrestling has been around since the 1970s, when All Japan Women, an all-female wrestling company, obtained a TV deal and held regular women’s wrestling events. Female wrestling became mainstream when wrestling legends Fabulous Moolah and Wendi Richter ushered in women’s wrestling to the WWE. Richter became a star, arguably as popular as Hulk Hogan at the time. After Richter left, WWE decided to use their women as sex symbols more so than actual wrestlers.
“I watched wrestling as a young child. At the time, there weren’t that many females in professional wrestling, so I would say as a young child, I loved Tito Santana,” wrote former professional wrestler Gail Kim via email.
While female wrestlers like Madusa, Sable, and Chyna worked to legitimize women in the sport, they were partly overshadowed by their sexuality. Female wrestlers were reintroduced in WWE’s Raw Magazine, where they posed in suggestively in semi-nude or provocative clothing. Popular female wrestlers have cited male wrestlers as their inspirations, as there were an abundance of credible male wrestlers in the wrestling business, and the women were portrayed as physically weak sex symbols.
WWE’s Attitude Era was the peak of women being sexually exploited to male viewers. “The thing I remember most [about women in wrestling] was probably how they were so exposed,” former wrestling fan Dylan Sweazy said. WWE named their female wrestlers divas, and frequently used lingerie matches, pillow fights, and other risqué storylines as an excuse to undress them, taking away their creditability in the ring. While few female wrestlers were able to make their in-ring talent more relevant than their sexuality, most women in wrestling were shown as sex symbols more so than actual competitors. “Now, because of the women who sort of put up with the bullshit and pushed the line and broke that ceiling, a lot of doors have been opened,” said professional wrestler Kelly Klein.
While the women were taken less seriously as the male competitors during the Attitude Era and years after, the exploitation of their bodies lessened as they exited their “R-rated” phase in the late 1990s and early 2000s. WWE introduced the Diva Search program to bring more women into the company, but after the program, divas were still being used a fraction as much as the male superstars. Programs went from TV-14 to PG in 2008, and while the sexualizing of female wrestlers decreased, women were still barely used in TV shows and PPV events.
“After the Diva Search happened, [it seemed like] women’s wrestling was almost nonexistent, for years. It wasn’t until years later, when I joined TNA at the time, that they took a chance on the women,” Kim said.
Throughout the past decade, other wrestling promotions such as Impact Wrestling (formerly known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, TNA); Ring of Honor, ROH; All Elite Wrestling, AEW; and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, PWG; have all taken a chance on female wrestlers and integrated them more into their product than WWE has. While they may not take up as much time as the men on the program, these companies have worked to legitimize females in the wrestling business before WWE took a chance on them.
Wrestling companies like SHIMMER, and SHINE regularly host women-only wrestling events. “SHIMMER and SHINE promoted all-women's wrestling that was taken seriously by everyone involved long before the women's evolution,” wrote professional wrestling writer Bryan Alvarez via email.
Compared to independent wrestling companies, WWE has typically taken a more theatrical and story-based approach for their weekly television program, while other companies focus more on the wrestling than the story behind it. Some independent companies, like PWG, mix women in competition with men, and on the “indies,” it is a lot more common to see inter-gender matches. Not only is the sexuality of a female wrestler irrelevant in these matches, but women are treated as equals in the match and sometimes in the company.
AEW is a company started by popular independent wrestlers Matt and Nick Jackson and Cody in 2018. While the company is still new, their chief brand officer Brandi Rhodes has assured fans that their female wrestlers will not be paid differently than male wrestlers based on their gender.
“Equal pay means equal opportunity regardless of sex. It does not mean that everyone will be paid the exact same salary regardless of their position. It means the gender pay gap does not apply,” Rhodes wrote on Twitter.
Ring of Honor has had women on their programming since 2002, quite a bit later than WWE, but they rarely had the opportunity for more than a couple minutes to wrestle on TV and live events. Since ROH is more wrestling-based, they focused on the in-ring capabilities of their women over their ability to be a sex symbol. It took ROH some time to put women on their program.
“ROH was looked at by a lot of people as more focused on better wrestling, and it kind of sent a messages if the company that prioritizes good wrestling doesn’t have a lot of women wrestling,” said Klein, current Women of Honor Champion. Women in ROH were named the Women of Honor in 2015 and crowned their first Women of Honor Champion in 2018, and now ROH regularly shows women’s matches on their shows.
While other wrestling companies were ahead of WWE when it comes to giving women more match time and story opportunities, WWE has tried to redeem themselves in the past couple years. In 2015, a match between Divas Emma, Paige, and the Bella Twins lasted about 30 seconds. Tired of the mistreatment of the female wrestlers, fans took to Twitter and started trending #GiveDivasAChance, which trended worldwide for one and a half days.
Fans obtained the attention of WWE’s upper management, including the chairman and CEO, Vince McMahon. Within the next two years, WWE removed the diva title, naming them superstars, just like the men, and replaced the Divas Championship with a Women’s Championship on its two major shows, Raw and SmackDown Live.
WWE has taken the opportunity to create many firsts for women, and women are starting to compete in extreme matches that men had been competing in for years. “They’re starting to market these firsts, and it all culminated into having the first WrestleMania main event being a women’s match this year. This is the first time that people tuned in to watch women wrestle,” said wrestling fan Matthew Franxman. “It’s definitely been a long time coming, and I think it’s a positive change for the industry”. Women have come a long way since they were sex objects in the 1990s, and nearly every wrestling company has proven in the last five years that female representation and respect in wrestling only continues to increase.
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