There’s no denying that women’s wrestling has come a long way over the past few years. Nowadays women who wrestle are viewed in a very different light, and it’s not unordinary for the women of WWE to steal the show when it comes to pay-per-views.
The words “women’s revolution” are thrown around a lot, and the words are a fitting way to describe the current state of women’s wrestling.
WWE gets a lot of credit for bringing the revolution to the forefront, but before the revolution became a whisper in NXT, and then a roar on the WWE main roster, the ladies of Impact Wrestling were making waves and changing the game. Women like Gail Kim, Awesome Kong, Mickie James, Taryn Terrell and others did what they could to take women’s wrestling to the next level.
During a recent interview with ESPN, Stephanie McMahon credited the fans and the #GiveDivasAChance hashtag for sparking the women’s revolution when she said the following:
“So this groundswell came about from our audience. And, of course, on the executive side a number of us had been advocating for this for a long time, but then, there was a match on Monday Night Raw and it featured a tag team match of our, what was then called the Divas division, that lasted all of thirty seconds, and our fans started a trend called “Give Divas A Chance” that trended worldwide for three days. And their voice was so loud, and so strong that our chairman and CEO [Vince McMahon] responded and said “we hear you, keep watching #GiveDivasAChance”. And since then, at last year’s WrestleMania, again on our grandest stage, WWE Hall of Famer Lita came out to the ring and she announced that we were rebranding the Divas division to the Women’s division, she unveiled the new championship belt which evolved from a butterfly to a championship belt more akin to the men’s, and said that our female athletes are now going to be called Superstars – just like the men.”
However, former Knockouts Champion Gail Kim disagrees. Kim believes that the revolution started in Impact Wrestling, and she politely pointed this out on Twitter.
My opinion is @IMPACTWRESTLING did. No shade just truth and my personal opinion. I never got my opportunity till then and it's never stopped https://t.co/5HbWH1DNbX
— Gail Kim-Irvine (@gailkimITSME) March 25, 2017
Who do you agree with, Stephanie McMahon or Gail Kim? Sound off in the comments below.
Eva Marie has publicly said that she’s had problems with addiction and alcoholism in the past. She posted the following video on YouTube and informed her viewers that she recently celebrated 4 years of sobriety.
Gail is absolutely correct. WWE and all their women can claim so, but they’re wrong.