While WWE’s progression with its handling of the women’s division has been slow but sure on television, it’s been anything but at house shows. Live events still often feature as many women as possible crammed into one match, and they have never once been the headlining attraction.
Let’s look at the results from last night’s Raw house show in Kalamazoo (via Rajah):
- Woken Matt Hardy def. Bray Wyatt
- Mustafa Alia & Lince Dorado def. Ariya Daivari & Jack Gallagher
- Braun Strowman def. Kane
- The Revival def. Heath Slater & Rhyno
- Seth Rollins def. Cesaro
- Asuka & Sasha Banks & Bayley & Mickie James def. Absolution & Nia Jax & Alexa Bliss
- Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows def. The Miztourage
- Roman Reigns def. Elias
That would be 8 matches and only 1 of them is a women’s match, featuring the entirety of the division (sans the injured Alicia Fox and Dana Brooke, who is crunching numbers for Titus Worldwide). Sasha Banks, for one, thinks it’s time we see women main event, as she told Al Aribaya English:
“The women have never main-evented a live event yet. Closing out those, and showing the guys that we can do it just like them. I watch guys like Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman have these crazy street fights every night at house shows. I ask them, ‘how do you go through a table every single night?’ That’s what I want! I want to do it just like them, I want to perform just like them, and I want it to be a place where— I want it to become normal. I don’t want it to be, ‘that was a great women’s match!’ I just want it to be a great match, period. I don’t want people to say, ‘the women are great!’ No, we’re Superstars, we’re just like the guys, you don’t need to put the women in front of it. I want to keep having those opportunities to be at the forefront and the WWE and the face of the WWE. That’s the goal for me, number one, I want to be the face of the WWE.”
If they can headline pay-per-views on the WWE Network, and episode of Monday Night Rawand SmackDown Live, why can’t they get more than one match at house shows, let alone main event?
It’s time for a change.
