7 Major All-Women Wrestling Events Before WWE Evolution
The 'Evolution' has already been televised.
This past Monday, Stephanie McMahon made an historic announcement.
For the first time ever, the world would see a women-exclusive wrestling pay-per-view. WWE - and, implicitly, Steph herself - were at the frontier of progression, aiming to once more "show the world that women can do anything and be anything they want to be."
So long as they're not in Saudi Arabia, anyway.
"The first-ever all-women's pay-per-view." Those words, verbatim, are weighty. But it's not so much down to their inherent historical gravitas, but rather that the weight of history itself pulls them down.
Because they're not really true, is it? They're not even mildly disingenuous. In fact, they're outright balderdash.
You really have to buy into WWE's four-year narrative - that women's wrestling was only invented with the inception of their Four Horsewomen - to not question why at no point during the past century, none of the world's esteemed women's wrestling promotions thought to sell their product on PPV. They did, and they did, dozens of times over.
This, then, is not an exhaustive list. It couldn't be. For the past thirteen years, Illinois-based Shimmer alone has ran 104 pay-per-views, each and every one of them free of male competitors.
Ah but, did Volumes 1 through 104 have the same mainstream relevance as WWE's impending Evolution? Isn't that the crux?
Perhaps not, and perhaps it is. But these following shows did. Beware Steph: You can prove anything with facts.
7. STARDOM Ryogoku Cinderella
It's somewhat ironic given the heightened esteem of joshi puro in contrast to its North American equivalent that the erstwhile emblem of Japan's top female promotion of the 21st century, Stardom, enjoyed a career trajectory typical of any mid-'00s 'Diva'.
Yuzuki Aikawa, in her role as a gravure idol, was effectively eye candy for consumption by a host of horny Japanese teenagers, and bally good at it too. As one of the country's most popular teen icons, it came as something of a surprise when she announced her serious intention to break into pro-wrestling. The recently founded World Wonder Ring Stardom took notice, and promptly installed Aikawa as the first holder of their Wonder of Stardom and Goddess of Stardom titles.
Aikawa though, was not your typical great model-bad worker crossover, and took to her new profession in earnest. Her titles remained untouchable during her Stardom run, until age - or at least, the localised fear of age - caught up with her, and in 2013 she decided to call quits on the business.
Stardom didn't go light on her valediction, hosting their biggest ever event, Ryogoku Cinderella, at Tokyo's legendary Sumo Hall. The card, featuring stars of tomorrow (Io Shirai, Jazzy Gabert) and of the past (Meiko Satomura, Manami Toyota), ended with Aikawa symbolically laying down her long-term rival, Yoshiko.