Throughout WWE history, the women’s division has been seen as an afterthought or a joke. Without even giving the women a chance, their matches were deemed popcorn matches–ones in which fans could grab a snack or use the bathroom. In the 2000s, women’s matches weren’t even long enough to take a bathroom break.
In past generations, women were marched out for bikini contests, degrading storylines, or matches that were about hair pulling and hitting, usually lasting less than two minutes.
In the past five years, however, women have been given a chance in WWE. In 2015, fans cried out on social media after a women’s match lasted under 30 seconds, begging WWE writers and officials to #GiveDivasAChance. Since then, women have seen a gradual increase in TV time, matches, and storylines that don’t include provocative and inappropriate behavior.
The Divas Revolution became the Women’s Evolution, resulting in separate Women’s Championship titles for Raw and Smackdown, a Women’s Royal Rumble match, and even a women-only pay per view, WWE Evolution.
History was made once again just last night, as WWE crowned their first ever women’s tag team champions. In the second-ever women’s and first ever women’s tag team Elimination Chamber match, Bayley and Sasha Banks etched their names in history as the first champions. Fans chanted “you deserve it” as Bayley and Sasha celebrated their victory.
Bayley and Sasha have been friends and enemies in the past, and their series of matches in WWE’s developmental brand NXT played a huge part in the Women’s Evolution itself. Becoming Women’s Tag Team Champions isn’t the first time these two have made history–they also competed in the first-ever women’s 30-minute Iron Man match. Sasha was also one of the first two women to headline a WWE pay per view and one of the first two women to compete in a Hell in a Cell match.
Women’s tag team championships are just another step in gender equality in the women’s division, and with a women’s match possibly main-eventing Wrestlemania (also for the first time ever!), it can only go up from here.
This post was originally written on Katie's Digital Journalism Blog.