In a February episode of Raw, four female wrestlers faced off-the Bella Twins versus Paige and Emma-in a tag team match that lasted an insultingly short 30 seconds. That night, #GiveDivasAChance trended on Twitter, and the next day, wrestler AJ Lee started a Twitter feud with Stephanie McMahon (now chief brand officer of the WWE, a title she still holds) about the company’s miserable reputation among women. In 2016, Stephanie announced that the WWE would retool its women’s division to include longer matches and more nuanced storylines. The main event pitted three high-profile athletes against each other: Rounda Rousey, a famous mixed martial artist Charlotte Flair, daughter of WWE legend Ric Flair, and Becky Lynch, a trash-talking Irish wrestler who goes by “The Man.”īy the end of 2018, the female roster had its own pay-per-view event. Lynch, the night’s winner, was once written into WWE scripts as a “heel,” or villain, but was so universally adored by fans that writers had no choice but to make her the good guy. And that’s no small thing: Wrestlers who win blockbuster matches are usually the ones fans decide MUST win. So when a stadium packed with nearly 100,000 people cheered Lynch’s name-liked they’d cheered for The Rock, John Cena, and Hulk Hogan in past WrestleManias-she became one of the biggest superstars in wrestling history. That doesn’t mean she gets paid like one. The WWE doesn’t disclose wrestling salaries, but it’s no secret that its women’s roster makes significantly less than its men’s. CNBC estimates that Lynch’s salary hovered around $250,000 in 2018 - while Brock Lesnar, a popular male wrestler, took home about $12 million.Īnd while the company has added lots of feminist verbiage to its promotional material, it’s hard to tell how much of Lynch’s moment, and the growing attention paid to women’s wrestling in general, is thanks to legitimate progress at the WWE, and how much is just marketing.Ĭliched storylines-catfights, boyfriend problems-are still par for the course. And just because some female wrestlers are getting more opportunities doesn’t mean they all are.
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