10 Things WWE Actually Got Right In 2019
4. Women Main Event WrestleMania
This one might seem so obvious that it’s hardly worth mentioning. After all, Ronda Rousey was the biggest name in the company, Becky Lynch the industry’s hottest star. Here we are praising WWE for recognising that and letting them main event a pay-per-view? Oh and well done Vince for getting up in the morning and putting your shoes on the right feet...
Thing is, what seems entirely obvious in hindsight, and seemed pretty clear then, wasn’t a move entirely without risk. In wrestling, women aren’t yet a guaranteed draw. We know that the previous year’s Evolution pay-per-view, for example, wasn’t successful enough for WWE to repeat the experiment.
WrestleMania needs to sell tickets, boost Network buy-rates and hook casual fans to keep watching. There was a chance some fans, trained for years by WWE’s own output, would still view women’s wrestling as a titillating sideshow or the toilet break spot. Now WWE were banking on women’s wrestling for their biggest show of the year.
Vince and Co. could have leaned even further into the organic success of #Kofimania to excuse themselves from the gamble but instead they backed Charlotte Flair, Rousey and Lynch and that’s to be applauded.