Triple H & Stephanie McMahon Trying To Change How WWE Women Are Featured

Last night's NXT Takeover special featured a fantastic match between NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch that went nearly 20 minutes for the match. It was the match of the night and when it was over, Banks left with the title while Lynch earned the respect of the fans, who gave her a standing ovation for her efforts. To compare it to the main roster, at Sunday's Payback PPV the divas were in a forgettable tag contest and the Divas Title match that followed on Raw felt rushed too. What's the difference? Triple H runs NXT while Vince McMahon does not. According to this week's Wrestling Observer, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon want to change the way women are featured in WWE. Meanwhile, Vince McMahon seems to be set in his ways in using women as part of the show instead of featured as major attractions. After 40 years of doing things a certain way, it may be tough to get Vince to change his ways. https://twitter.com/TripleH/status/601201243558703104 It was noted that a big reason why Hunter and Stephanie want to change how women are portrayed is because of not only Stephanie's influence in the company as an executive, but also the massive success that UFC has had with Ronda Rousey. While Hunter and Stephanie aren't UFC fans, the fact that Rousey has become arguably the biggest star in UFC and also was on the cover of Sports Illustrated last week shows that female performers can definitely become top draws. Look at the reaction to Rousey at WrestleMania. She wasn't advertised, yet she was treated like a big deal by the audience. The #GiveDivasAChance movement that WWE has tried to push has seen a few longer matches for the women on Raw and Smackdown, but it hasn't been anything significant or close to what it's like on NXT. At nearly every Takeover event there's a divas match that gets about 15 minutes of in-ring time. Matches like Charlotte vs. Natalya at NXT last year, Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte, the four way that the women had at the February Takeover event or Banks vs. Lynch last night all were given plenty of time and all of them are among the best women's matches in WWE history.

What WWE needs to do is really listen to the fans. The crowd at NXT shows react to the women as huge stars. Why? Because they are presented as such. On Raw they are given three minutes sometimes and nobody is going to get over as a star in such a short time. This seems like one of those things that could change only if Vince McMahon really does give his divas a chance and that's only if Triple H and Stephanie can convince him to do so.