There’s always a lot of discussion about who deserves the credit for WWE’s “Divas Evolution”-turned-”Women’s Revolution”.
Was it Stephanie McMahon? Triple H? NXT’s Four Horsewomen? Ryan Ward? Sarah Amato?
While the real answer to who’s responsible for the change in how women’s wrestling is presented is more complicated than just giving any one person credit, one name that doesn’t come up that often is Vince McMahon. While obviously, nothing happens in WWE without the Chairman’s blessing, popular opinion is that progress on this front was something Vince had to be convinced was a good idea.
This dialogue between Gail Kim and former Creative team member Kevin Eck from Baltimore’s Pressbox isn’t going to change any minds:
Eck: When I worked on the WWE creative team -- I started in 2011 right after you left the company -- Vince McMahon said several times that "no one wants to see the girls fight like the guys." Was that something that was ever said or implied to you while you were there?
Kim: It wasn't politically correct to say out loud, nor would they say that straight up, but -- I'm not going to say which agent said it -- but they would tell us that Vince doesn't like that. I remember specifically a match I had on "Superstars" with Jillian [Hall]. We got seven minutes, which was rare back then -- we usually got three minutes. There's no way to tell a story in the ring in that time, so when we had a match on "Superstars" it was like a pay-per-view match [laughs]. Jillian and I had awesome chemistry, so we'd want to wrestle. We wanted to do a superplex off the top rope, and the agent -- again, I'm not going to name names -- said, "Go ahead. I'll take the heat for it," because he knew Vince wouldn't really be happy with that. Now I heard WWE has announced a Money in the Bank match for the girls. I honestly feel like [Triple H] has done so much for the girls, because he started that whole thing in NXT with the Four Horsewomen. When I left WWE, he was one of the people who was so positive. He told me, "You're talented and don't let anyone else tell you any different." I was very flattered and glad that he respected women's wrestling.
Kim is giving a lot of credit to Trips, and that will help his image as a force for good within WWE among a lot of fans.
Seems to me the real props go to us for tuning in and buying merch when the ladies were given an opportunity, and therefore proving to Vince people DO want to “see the girls fight like the guys”.
Your thoughts, Cagesiders?