When one says WWE the picture that plays in front of one’s eyes is of big, beefy, sweaty men in tight spandex with spectacular hair-dos or accessories, mouthing off challenging and colorful language to their opponents-all in a wrestling ring. The crowds too comprise of male pro-wrestling fans with occasional ladies in the crowd or as ring announcers – the usual picture you see on TV or in case of live fights.
Females are generally not assumed to be fans of combat sports like wrestling, boxing, mixed martial arts, lucha libre etc. Sportswomen eventually gained acceptance eventually into various world sport championships, gaining respect and adulation also. Even then stereotyping of women is a done thing especially when it adds drama and viewership. And since WWE (superstarcutouts.com) is all about pro-wrestling, which is an entertainment sport; it has been accused of stereotyping women. And then came the Women’s Championship on 3rd April 2016 which launched ‘Women Superstars’.
Although the 80s and 90s saw sporadic female stars risen from positions like managers, presenters and valets they were few and far in between and were soon phased out. Besides they were used in the match-plot to gain attention to specific star or to create fake feuds for fights. The Attitude Era saw the rise of female wrestlers who were given more screen time. As ‘women’s lib’. took off, women wrestlers were given more matches like championships, Hardcore, Smackdown, No Mercy etc. to fight rather than just utilized to create more drama. However, some of these stars left the company and joined other wrestling leagues as the nature of the fights and costumes were made to be unnecessarily ‘sexual or vulgar or explicit’.
In early years post 2000, WWE launched Diva Search where in new entrants participated in contests based more on the sexual appeal rather than fighting skills. However the veteran women talent competed in hardcore events, Smackdown, Raw, Street Fights, steel cage fights. 2005 onwards saw the rise of female only and mixed tag team fights, pay per view fights, WWE Divas championship, Raw, WrestleMania, Survivor series.
The Divas Revolution happened in 2015 when the hashtag #GiveDivasAChance gained global attention over the treatment of women stars.WWE in 2016 after a much publicized championship matched finally dropped the term ‘Divas’ and announced that the female stars would be referred to ‘WWE Superstars’ like their male counterparts.WWE NXT was the considered the next step. Since all these events women wrestlers of WWE have enjoyed promotional tours, separate websites, merchandise sales, photo-shoots, magazine cover ops, fitness videos, feature in several reality shows, news events, music videos, Hollywood stints, commercials etc. But the best part is that WWE along with the UN’s Girl Up foundation created a ‘Sports for a Purpose’ program encouraging girls in sports world-over and for gender equality.