In case you haven’t noticed, over the past year, WWE has become innovative and experimental with their women’s division. Since shedding the label of “Diva” back to the more appropriate “Women” to compliment the men, WWE was insistent on making women’s wrestling a feature part of their programming, and if you think nothing else of it, they have at the very least tried to put them on par with the men in terms of what they could do. However, the past couple of years have been years of firsts for women.
We have had the first ever women’s Hell In A Cell match, Money In The Bank Ladder match, steel cage match, Falls Count Anywhere Match, Tables Match, you name it. WWE has done everything under the sun to put women in similar match scenarios that the men are commonly placed in to prove that women could do everything that men could do just as well, if not better. However, from the moment WWE started to be inventive with the women, I’ve always noticed a trend for each match that really degrades the moment for me time and time again. They always push this same narrative time and time again, and I think the focus of the match and more importantly, the feud that the women are involved in getting degraded as a result.
Instead of focusing on the women, the focus is placed more on the actual match stipulation. How many times have you heard Mick Foley, Daniel Bryan, Shane McMahon or the announce team say, “For the first time ever….” in some form or fashion when the women are out there trying to be innovative in new surroundings. For example, Charlotte and Sasha Banks were the first two women to step inside Satan’s structure, Hell In A Cell, last year. I think because WWE was so ecstatic to put women in these matches for the first time, they were simply put out of their comfort zone, and as a result, it sort of lessens the quality of the match, because they aren’t familiar with the psychology of the match. In addition, women, at least historically in wrestling, aren’t used to the physical punishment that men take.
For example, in Tuesday’s Women’s Money In The Bank ladder match, there were multiple spots where I thought something crazy would happen. In one sequence, Becky Lynch had Carmella from behind and was about to give her a Pumphandle Suplex. A fallen ladder was right behind her. Now, if it were the men, and say if that was Sami Zayn doing it to Kevin Owens, Zayn would slam Owens back first onto the side of the ladder. However, Becky simply slammed her on to the mat. Another sequence came when Carmella was about to retrieve the briefcase and was on top of the ladder. Then, all of the other four women competitors came to stop her and it looked like they were ready to dump her out of the ring. I think the crowd was sensing that as well. However, they stopped at the last minute and attacked each other instead.
These matches that the women have been involved in have been far from bad. I’ve seen much worse in nearly every type of match. However, I think what WWE needs to do is stick to their strengths with the women. Sasha Banks and Charlotte’s Hell In A Cell match, to me, was slightly above average. However, when Sasha Banks took the Women’s Championship from Charlotte on the first RAW of the “New Era”, they put on a clinic. WWE doesn’t have to be intent on making history with the women just for the sake of making history. I’ll put it to you this way. At WrestleMania 32, we had a ladder match, a Hell In A Cell Match, a No Holds Barred Match, a Battle Royal, and the match that was talking about by the night’s end was the triple threat match between Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks. No steel structure surrounding them, no special stipulation, just three women going out there being true to themselves and doing what suits themselves.
The implication here isn’t that the women can’t hack special matches, and I would certainly approve of WWE trying to do similar experiments into the future. However, I believe they need to go about it with a different mindset that focuses the attention on the women and NOT the actual match surrounding them. If we do that, then I think the women won’t be able to tell the story because we are too distracted by the fact that it’s the first time they are doing it. No matter what you think about them, superstars like Alexa Bliss, Becky Lynch, Charlotte, Sasha Banks and company are world class performers and I put my faith in them that they are capable of making any type of match work. But going forward, let’s stop doing things just for the sake of making history, and let’s stick to what works best because there is an abundance of talent in all of them. Men like Triple H and Undertaker set the standard for the brutality that takes place inside Hell In A Cell. Men like Shawn Michaels, The Rock and Bret Hart made the Iron Man match special. Making it about history cheapens it to me. Let’s stop that.
What are your thoughts on how the women have fared in these special matches? Agree with what I said? Disagree? I welcome debate, so let’s have a discussion.
