7 Best women's matches in WWE history
The WWE Women's revolution began life as a hashtag; #GiveDivasAChance after then WWE performer, AJ Lee incredibly called out her boss, Stephanie McMahon on Twitter in response to McMahon's publicity stunt of praising Patricia Arquette's famous Oscars speech in which she stood up for females in Hollywood stating they did not get the same opportunities as men:
AJ Lee called out McMahon on her hypocrisy stating that WWE's women outperformed some male performers in television ratings and were among the highest merchandise sellers, yet received a fraction of the television time and exposure.
Rattled, McMahon merely replied with a simple tweet:
The hashtag movement #GiveDivasAChance took on a life of its own, trending to such a massive degree that WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon felt the need to pass comment on Twitter as well:
Although you didn't see AJ Lee get any credit on WWE television prior to WWE's inaugural all-female pay per view, Evolution (her marriage to WWE outcast, CM Punk, makes her a pariah in the company), make no mistake as to where the momentum for WWE's women's revolution truly began. It was not Bella's reality TV shows, despite what the company would have you believe.
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Although it wasn't instantaneous, the pressure that built from the hashtag movement saw WWE call up highly rated female performers in Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks to the main roster in July 2015.
The influx of new talent saw an increase in women's bouts and first time ever type matches such as the first-ever female Ironwoman and Hell in a Cell matches in 2016.
In 2018, the women main evented the Royal Rumble pay per view with the first ever all Women 'Rumble match as well as competing in the first ever all women pay per view offering, Evolution in October.
Rumours continue to abound, that the main event of Wrestlemania 35 will feature female performers for the first time.
This slideshow celebrates the finest ever women's matches to ever take place in WWE; many of which have occurred since WWE gave it's "diva's" a chance.
#7 Trish Stratus vs Mickie James - Wrestlemania 22 (April 2, 2006)
In a storyline that you will definitely not see on WWE television today; new signing Mickie James portrayed a giddy Trish Stratus mark, who gradually turned into a bunny-boiler type lesbian stalker.
It seems a laughable premise when reading on a page but this slow building storyline which commenced on the October 10, 2005 episode of Raw received a lot of TV time and promotion.
Beginning their relationship as allies, things began to turn nasty after James kissed Stratus and the heterosexual Women's Champion rejected James.
The excitable James appeared to have called a truce with Stratus when the pair teamed up at Saturday Night's Main Event special on March 18, 2006 but after James kissed Stratus again and Stratus rejected her, James snapped kicking her idol in the head.
This set up a Women's Championship match at Wrestlemania 22, two weeks later on April 2, 2018 wherein James defeated Stratus to win her first title.
It was a terrific encounter that had the crowd fully invested in every move the participant's made.
Stratus performed her athletic Matrix-style moves while James focussed on her greater power to overwhelm James and used her grappling acumen to attempt to submit the champion.
Stratus appeared to be heading for victory when she put James in position for Stratusfaction but the nutty James distracted Stratus by grabbing her crotch.
In a moment that was edited out of the DVD version of the event, James then licked her hand before attempting a Stratusfaction that was botched horribly.
It appeared to be Stratus who was at fault for not getting James up high enough. Regardless, the error was not enough to blight a brilliant bout and James, thinking on her feet, hit a head kick instead for the win.