5 People Most Responsible For The Women's Evolution In The WWE
On July 13th, 2015, Stephanie McMahon introduced three NXT wrestlers that will change women's wrestling in the WWE for years to come as Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch made their main roster debuts on Monday Right RAW.
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Prior to their historic debuts, the women - who were known as WWE Divas back then- consisted mainly of former models who lacked any wrestling experience (notable exceptions included Beth Phoenix, Natalya and Mickie James) who were hired for eye candy. They also took part in such matches which included bra-and-panties matches, pillow fights, pudding matches and other steamy matches. In addition, they also took part in sexy photoshoots for WWE's website and WWE Magazine.
However, at WrestleMania 32, in Dallas, the Divas Championship (which had a pink butterfly on it that was widely loathed by fans and several wrestlers) was retired and was replaced by the Women's Championship (now RAW Women's Championship) and was contested by Flair, Banks and Lynch in which Flair won. It was certainly the match of the night.
These days, the women in the WWE now compete in steel cage matches, falls count anywhere matches, iron women matches, and in the past year, the Money in the Bank ladder match, the Elimination Chamber match and the first-ever women's Royal Rumble match.
And so without further delay, here are the five people who made the Women's Evolution in the WWE possible.
#5 Triple H
The seeds for the future Women's Evolution was planted back in the summer of 2012 when Triple H replaced John Laurinaitis as WWE's Head of Talent. Big Johnny was criticized by the IWC when he hired mainly bodybuilders, football players and swimsuit models while ignoring independent wrestling promotions (CM Punk and Daniel Bryan were notable exceptions to the rule).
By contrast, Triple H looked to the indie circuit where he hired IWC favorites such as Finn Balor, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens as well as former TNA standouts A.J. Styles, Boody Roode and Samoa Joe.
But The Game eschewed the model type by hiring Banks, Lynch, Bayley and Asuka (as well as trainer Sara Del Rey), women who would not have been hired by Big Johnny otherwise.