Women Still Waiting For Money in the Bank

Last year NXT, which is a WWE property, staged a groundbreaking women’s match when Bailey defended her women’s title against Sasha Banks in a 30-minute iron woman battle. It was glorious and it demonstrated that the girls can lay it on the line just as well as the boys. For years the WWE has been reluctant to get with the times and present female wrestlers in a strong light. It treated them like eye candy more than wrestlers worthy of our respect. Bailey and Sasha seemed to serve as a proof of concept that women could headline a show with the sort of grueling, physically punishing match that we expect from top male wrestlers.

During that same time frame Sasha, Charlotte and Becky Lynch got called up to the main roster to shake up the then divas division. Months later at WrestleMania the WWE finally dropped the “divas” monicker in favor of calling women “women.” Such things shouldn’t be revolutionary, but it signaled the dawn of a more serious, action-packed women’s division. At least that was the hope.

Since then, Natalya has been Charlotte’s main challenger. They’ve done some good work, but nothing amazing. Certainly nothing that measures up to their match at the initial NXT TakeOver in 2014. Yet the division as a whole seems to be in a holding pattern. Injuries to Sasha and Nikki Bella don’t help, but the women’s match at Money in the Bank is Natalya and Becky Lynch teaming against Charlotte and her new bestie Dana Brooke. It’s ho-hum matchmaking. There’s no particular reason to be excited about it. Yes, the women have some talent, but it feels like it’s either a placeholder or something to set up a SummerSlam storyline. In and of itself, this bout means very little.

I would like to point out again here that the event is Money in the Bank. Last I checked, women can climb ladders. They’ve got arms and legs. If this is a new era, one where women wrestlers are being given the opportunity to take their game to a whole new level, then a MITB match would make perfect sense. It would showcase the depth of talent in the division on top of breaking a glass ceiling. Money in the Bank is one of those things women in the WWE haven’t been allowed to do because (insert your favorite half-baked reason here).

This really is simple, level-the-playing-field stuff. The failure to deliver at events like this undercuts the claims that females in the WWE have become truly empowered. It’s frustrating from a fan perspective because the WWE is squandering a lot of talent. It’s also out of step with the times. Women have been cleared for all combat roles in the military. My daughter is going to have to register with selective service when she turns 18. Strong women have become so prevalent in popular culture that they’re almost become cliche. They’re even taking over the Ghostbusters franchise. We’ve been heading in this direction since the 1990s gave us La Femme Nikita and Brandi Chastain ripping off her shirt to celebrate a World Cup victory. Whatever we end up calling the generation coming up behind the Millennials, these girls have never entertained the notion that they’re supposed to be soft.

Some parts of the pro wrestling world have taken notice. The women’s division arguably has been the best thing about NXT. The Paige-Charlotte-Sasha-Bailey-Asuka run with the NWT Women’s Championship has been legendary. In 20 years wrestling fans still will be talking about it. In Lucha Underground Ivelisse and Taya are bringing the fight to male wrestlers. Over in Chikara Princess KimberLee became the first female overall champion of a wrestling federation. She dropped the belt a few weeks back, but she and Heidi Lovelace continue to perform at a high level in Chikara. The industry is moving fairly quickly to an era where women kick as much ass as men.

We can’t act like we don’t know why the WWE has been slow to get on board with this trend. The reason is Vince McMahon is an old man with antiquated notions about how to run the business. He does not take female wrestlers seriously, which is his prerogative, but it’s not best for business. Women are more than half your potential audience. Even if you’ve got a male-dominated audience, you need females to be able to tolerate your product. If they see a promotion where women are a clear afterthought, then you’re limiting your audience increasingly to single males. Nothing is more dangerous to the business of professional wrestling than a female asking a besotted young male “Why do you watch that garbage?”

Money in the Bank was a golden opportunity for the WWE to show it can portray strong women. Female wrestlers would have been all over Raw and Smackdown in the build to the match. The match itself would be getting a ton of media and Internet buzz. The winner would be propelled straight into a prominent storyline. It’s there to be done, but they don’t do it. It’s especially strange because with the upcoming brand split, women are going to have to carry a heftier portion of the load on whichever show gets the Women’s Championship. A Money in the Bank briefcase would have been a ready-made storyline to kickoff that transition in style. Hell, they could have done the cash-in to close the first show of the brand split. That would have provided the kind of fireworks you need to proclaim that we’ve entered a new era.

Instead we’re in Brooklyn Dodgers “wait ‘til next year” scenario. It’s frustrating because for women in the WWE next year never seems to come.