10 Wrestling Matches That Inadvertently Became Infamous
3. The Bella Twins Vs Paige & Emma (WWE Raw)
In an unending quest for strong quarter-hour ratings, it hadn't been uncommon since the figure-grabbing 'Crash TV' era during the late 1990s for matches to run needlessly short on Monday Night Raw. But when a tag team match pitting The Bella Twins against Paige and Emma was allotted just over 30 seconds during a typically bloated three-hour Raw in February 2015, Twitter users galvanised to fight a battle on behalf of the company's top females.
#GiveDivasAChance became a worldwide trend for days as more and more users piled on to highlight the rampant inequality that existed between male and female performers. Many noted the stark contrast between the treatment of women on the main roster in comparison to their NXT counterparts, where Women's Title matches featuring Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Bayley were routinely stealing the show.
Ironically, it had been Paige and Emma's choice war at NXT Arrival just under a year earlier that kicked open a door for the developmental 'Four Horsewomen' to command the time they had richly deserved, but the abject failure of the philosophy in transit to the main roster was becoming increasingly problematic.
Vince McMahon's 'We hear you. Keep Watching' tweet in response to the movement did at least foreshadow the gradual shift.