11 Misconceptions About WWE You Probably Believe
4. Stephanie McMahon Invented Women's Wrestling
In defence of WWE here, the company has never been shy of crediting four specific people with the enormous shift in attitudes towards women's wrestling over the past decade, even if the work was really done by many many more. It's also a pity that those four people are Stephanie McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Stephanie McMahon.
What's more galling about the July 2015 segment that saw McMahon introduce Becky Lynch, Charlotte and Sasha Banks to the main roster and thus plaster herself all over a carefully marketed "revolution" forever was in how long she and the company took to get there. Pridefully boasting that the company was at long last going to appeal to over 50% of its potential audience decades late was a weird flex from the 'Billion Dollar Princess', and simultaneously buried the hard work of many that had grafted to make something worthwhile in worthless times.
The Bella Twins, Paige and Emma were the four (barely) in the ring when a #GiveDivasAChance hashtag trended worldwide for days after yet another three hour Raw passed by with mere minutes of airtime. The likes of Michelle McCool, Beth Pheonix, Natalya, AJ Lee, The Bella Twins and many others had worked under impossible pressures chasing fair representation, all while Lynch, Flair, Banks and Bayley became Horsewomen in NXT riding a wave of momentum that saw every show-stealing TakeOver match improve upon the prior one.
McMahon was there again for the announcement of the first Women's Royal Rumble, three years after that and when the company had got enough ducks in a row to promote such a thing. Only in 2010s WWE could a fall come before the pride.