411's Countdown To WrestleMania 25: Evolution Schematic - WrestleMania Women

Posted by Mathew Sforcina on 04.04.2009

In tribute to the WWE finding Miss Wrestlemania, I recap just who should really be competing for the honor.



Writer's Notes

Given the influx of new 411 readers (who, of course, are all bookmarking this site for future reference or, even better, being cool like me and making 411 (one of) their homepage(s), a recap of what this column is about, given that it's not your usual deal.

Pro Wrestling has always been about characters. We wouldn't care about these people fighting if we didn't care about the people themselves. But over time, characters have to change in many ways, alignment, teams, drives, desires, ability, sometimes even massive character overhauls. But while in the Territorial days, characters were only known to small areas unless they were wildly successful, these days, in the age of Global TV and exposure, characters have long, involved histories. And in almost any career, a character will change in many ways, at times with no understandable reason. This column will attempt to explain a character's entire development, from debut to today and beyond, in such a way that the entire run makes sense. This is not to say that this will be the only, correct interpretation, but merely one way to explain the character's development. This can also be extended to look at a certain type of match, an event, a title, or some other aspect of wrestling that, while not being a character in of itself, has still evolved and thus can be chronicled. The name comes from the technical term for the picture we all know that starts from a frog and leads to current man (or fat guy on the computer, depending on your sense of humor.

5 Second Version: Kayfabe friendly history column.



Overview

For a group that makes up 50% of the population, women have, for various and sundry reasons, not exactly put in impressive showings at Wrestlemania. Rare is it that there's more than one match at a WM, and even then sometimes it's just as a manager.

Sure, there's reasons for that. Women's wrestling was for a long time not in vouge, it was at best a side show, so it's not a shock that on the biggest stage of them all, they are hardly represented. And yet…

Wrestlemania began thanks, in no small part, to some women having a bit of a problem. Some of the best moments in Wrestlemania have involved women, both in and out of the ring. No women's match at a Wrestlemania, so far, has been a true classic in terms of workrate. But in terms of memories and moments, absolutely they have delivered.

And it's all built up to this year, where most of the women are fighting over a beauty pageant sounding ‘title' and one is seemingly on the line like she was a title belt. How did we get here, and is there hope for the future?

Well, there's always hope…

Debut- Rock ‘n' Wrestling. Really, that means mostly Cindy Lauper

Wrestlemania 1 was a huge gamble. Sure, PPV as an idea existed, Starrcade into it's third year in 1985, but Vince McMahon wanted bigger. He wanted better. So he put his entire company on the line, building up to this one event, with closed circuit all across the nation, and got as much hype as he could about the show. And a hell of a lot of that hype centered on women.

Cindy Lauper was THE young hot diva of her day, beloved by the kids and teenagers for her music and interesting style, especially MTV, they just loved her to bits. And in the course of making one of her music videos for ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun', the director cast Captain Lou Albano to play her father. This worked out well since he was easy to dislike and it allowed Cindy to lock in a hammerlock on him during the video.

Ok, so a nice bit of cross-promotion, nothing wrong with that. But then Captain Lou started claiming that his appearance in the video was what drove it, it became very popular, so clearly it was all him, after all, he was a man. Cindy disagreed. And said so on WWF TV. The two couldn't come to an agreement, and so, as it tends to happen in Wrestling, a match was signed between a representative of both. Cindy chose a young up and coming woman, Wendi Richter. Captain Lou was very pleased, since he was managing The Fabulous Moolah, WWF Women's Champion for 2000+ days, or 10000 days according to WWF. Surely she would make quick work of this Wendi.

But on The Brawl to End it All on MTV, Wendi pinned Moolah to win the title.

Captain Lou took this as a sign, and he made up with Cindy, agreeing that she was her own success. But Moolah, annoyed at losing her title, was now pissed at Wendi. But since she couldn't beat Wendi herself, she challenged Wendi on behalf of one of Moolah's students, Lelani Kai. And on The War to Settle the Score, Moolah's training was able to help Kai to win the title.

A rubber match was needed, and was one of the main events at the first Wrestlemania, where Cindy again managed Wendi, and in the last match of Cindy's run with the WWF, she again helped Richter overcome the odds and win the WWF Women's Title, getting the crowd pumped for the main event tag match.

Right before the main would become a regular place for women in later years, but sadly not to hype the crowd.

Phase 2- Helpful to spread the gold.

So Wrestlemania worked well. So well that making it a yearly event was obvious. But since Wendi Richter was gone by the time they got to WM2, women's wrestling had taken back a step, it was again just a sideshow, under Moolah's iron grip. But it was helpful to have Moolah defend her title at Wrestlemania 2, in order to get a title match in each show, although the fact that this one shared the same arena as the tag match kinda disproves this point.

Moolah's win over Velvet McIntyre was not a well received match, given that it barely laster 90 seconds. And the various female celebs were more window dressing than playing any real part. If anything, WM2 was the start of Miss Elizabeth being the Alpha Female in the WWF, as paradoxical as that thought is.

At WM2, she was the focal point of the Savage/Steele brawl for the IC title, since Savage treated her badly and Steele loved her. But despite being the focal point, she wasn't involved in the match to any real degree.

But it was still better than Women at WMIII.

Phase 3- Women? Where?

You'd be forgiven for thinking that there were no women at the biggest show in WWF history. Sure, Miss Elizabeth was there in Randy Savage's corner, and The Fabulous Moolah was in King Race's corner with Bobby Heenan in his match with The Junkyard Dog, but they were non-factors. Of course, this would change the following year.

Phase 4- A small but crucial role.

If Ted DiBiase had won the World Title at Wrestlemania IV, then all we could talk about here would be crying over a lack of Jumping Bomb Angels, debating if Peggy Sue really was Sherri Martell and Liz's ability to get changed quickly.

But he didn't. Savage did.

Thanks to Liz. Because while in a fair, one on one match Savage might very well have been able to defeat Ted, with Virgil AND Andre in his corner (although Andre wasn't exactly the smartest guy to have at ringside), Savage was doomed.

Until Liz went backstage, after Savage gave her the order, and got Hulk to come to ringside. So while she doesn't get credit for the idea, she was the messenger, and that's something, right?

Although without Wrestlemania IV, Liz's involvement in Wrestlemania V might not have occurred…

Phase 5- A love triangle with barely one side.

You know, I'd like to point something out here. The WWF Women's Title still existed, and the current champ at this point was Rockin' Robin, who was somewhat liked by the fans, and was the half-sister of one of the bigger stars of the day, Jake ‘The Snake' Roberts. Did she get a match on the card? No. Was she wrestling in a dark match before the show? No. She sang America The Beautiful, despite not being a trained singer and frankly sucking at it. Sure, she managed to get into an argument with Sensational Sherri out of it which… led to nothing at all. So, the best female wrestler in the company wasn't worth anything.

But some woman in the middle of a tug of war? That was worth something. Randy Savage's deluded madness that had gotten him to the top was also his downfall, as he saw conspiracies and lust between Hogan and Liz when there was none. He was the WWF Champion, but he took the 3rd spot in the Megapowers behind Hogan and Liz, in his mind. He snapped when Hogan abandoned him to check on Liz after Savage KOed her, and ended up leaving Hogan to the wolves (which he managed to overcome anyway) and then blasting Hogan after Hulk tried to get Liz to calm him down. Liz was caught in-between the man she loved who was deluded and yet, deep down, had a point, and her friend who was realistic but, deep down, was a bit of a glory hog.

She chose neither, staying in a neutral corner during the main event, until her presence got so distracted to Savage that Dave Hebner, the referee, was forced to send her backstage.

After Hogan defeated Savage, Miss Elizabeth would haunt Savage at several major events, including the following year.

Phase 6- Sherri, cool. Liz, great. Sapphire…

Wrestlemania VI at least had women wrestling. And it also marked the first ever Mixed Tag Match at a Wrestlemania, as King Savage teamed with his new Queen, Sensational Sherri, to take on Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire, with Miss Elizabeth in Dusty's corner. This was a shock to Savage, but perhaps the most shocking thing is how much Liz got involved. Before this point, Liz's most physical involvement had been to fetch Hogan and/or to rip her skirt off. But in this match, after Sherri went out and got in Liz's face, not only did she toss Sherri back into the ring, but she then tripped her up to allow Sapphire to get the pinfall.

And this nicely set up the following year…

Phase 7- Forget Liz and Sherri, it's all about the Women In The Blue Dress.

For sure, the big story, the only story involving women at Wrestlemania VII, was when Savage failed to defeat The Ultimate Warrior, and thus had to resign. Queen Sherri didn't take this too well, and began to attack King Savage while he was down. Miss Elizabeth, who hadn't been seen on WWF TV for many months then jumped the rail and threw Sherri away. After a moment of confusion, Savage and Liz embraced, and a Wrestlemania moment was sealed when we cut to the crowd, and there in the front row was the woman in the blue dress, whose tears said it all.

Phase 8- See, now in any logical look, Sherri and Liz are the REAL Miss Wrestlemanias.

After all, for several years, they were the only ones there. Like at Wrestlemania VIII, when Sherri had recovered from her grief and found her new man in Shawn Michaels, who made his solo WM debut with a win over Tito Santana. And again Liz was in the corner of Randy Savage, this time defending her honor against Ric Flair, who, in a futile attempt to keep his title, implied that he had dated Liz before Savage, and had centrefold quality pictures to prove it, pictures we sadly never saw. But then again, perhaps it's for the best. There's nothing worse than a bad fake.

Speaking of worse things…

Phase 9- A rare bright spot in an otherwise crappy show.

Wrestlemania IX is hardly beloved by the fanbase. And with good reason. Thankfully a woman did provide a rare good point, or rather a couple of them, as Sherri came out in a faux-Native American Princess get-up to see Shawn Michaels lose the IC title to Tatanka after Shawn dumped her for Luna Vachon.

Talk about trading in a Corvette for a golf cart.

But sadly Sherri's dreams went unfulfilled, and she got beat up by Luna just to rub it in. And speaking of unfulfilled dreams…

Phase 10- Lose a little cred, gain a little cred.

Wrestlemania X was all about long journeys. Bret Hart had spent years rising to the top, and this was his chance for redemption. Luger had a long path behind him as he tried to gain the credibility and the status that he had been assured of for so long. And, to link it back up with the very first Wrestlemania, Lelani Kai returned from a lengthy absence and challenged for the WWF Women's Title, held by new ubergirl Alundra Blayze. Their match was short, but it was treated with something resembling respect, as Kai's fruitless quest and Blayze's reign were given some degree of serious equality.

To counter this clearly incorrect cred, Luna Vachon was seen to be an equal of a midget, when she teamed with Bam Bam Bigelow against Doink and Dink The Clowns.

Now, a current Diva Search contestant, I might buy as being equal. But Luna Vachon? Really?

At least her team won. And WWF Women got on the damm show.

Phase 11- Well, at the time it was a good idea…

Because Wrestlemania XI saw two women involved in the WWF title match. But their involvement was to just stand there and look pretty, and they were Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy. Big stars at the time, sure, but hardly wrestlers and CERTAINLY neither really commands anything resembling respect or feelings of gender equality.

Thankfully we got away from this extreme the following year.

Phase 12- Sable. You might have heard of her. Or, considering the age of the average fan today, you may not.

Given the lack of time available for the majority of the roster at Wrestlemania 12, it would be easy to understand if no women got on the show. And yet, not only did Marlena make it on, helping her man the Intercontinental Champion Goldust run away from Roddy Piper to lose the (thankfully non-title) Hollywood Backlot Brawl, but some blonde bimbo whose name we weren't told on that night came to ringside with Hunter Hearse Helmsley, then walked back with him a couple minutes later when he lost to The Ultimate Warrior, Hunter blaming her for the loss which drove her into the arms of Marc Mero who was backstage being interviewed and thus set off the resurgence of the Women's Division.

Funny how things work out, huh? The Ultimate Warrior the cause of the resurgence.

Of course, a resurgence takes time…

Phase 13- Marking time.

Although Chyna certainly, albeit indirectly, helped it along. Her helping Hunter defeat Goldust via shaking poor Marlena around like a rag doll in her Wrestlemania Debut gave her credibility, enough that when she started doing the same to men she gained even more, and that helped drag the average level of respect to women up a notch or two.

Kinda.

Phase 14- Sable and Chyna. Unlikely sides of the same coin.

Wrestlemania XIV was a turning point, as now women were an accepted part of the mainstream of wrestling. Sure, you still had sideshow appeals, like Gennifer Flowers being the first to detect The Rock's culinary efforts, but for the most part, women were now interacting with men far more often, and having a profound effect on the company. Chyna screwed Owen Hart out of the European title, proving Sgt. Slaughter a fool to do so, and Sable established herself as a new force in wrestling with her win over Luna Vachon in a mixed tag match, teaming with her man Marc Mero against Luna and The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust.

Phase 15- Women All Over The Damm Place!

Wrestlemania XV is probably the high point for women at a Wrestlemania. Perhaps not in terms of credibility, but certainly in sheer weight of numbers.

Terri Runnels, Debra and Ivory all got into a 3 way argument during the Tag Title defence which led to Debra's men retaining their titles. Ryan Shamrock screwed up and cost the man she entered the 4 way Intercontinental Title Elimination match, Goldust, the title, and got chewed out because of it. Chyna turned on Kane and reunited with HHH and reformed DX for a half hour or so. Soon to be Playboy Cover Girl Sable defended her WWF Women's Title against Tori, who only lost the match thanks to Nicole Bass beating her up. And then Chyna then returned to the ring and also re-turned, this time with HHH, to re-join the Corporation by helping Shane McMahon retain the European title.

It's ironic, that the period of time most associated with the debasing of women, and the objectifying of them, is the period when more women had greater roles than every before.

Phase 16- Powerful women debut.

Wrestlemania 2000 saw some firsts. It was the first major stage Trish Stratus would be seen on in the Wrestling world, but certainly not the last as she led T&A to victory. It was the first Wrestlemania that Chyna fought on, teaming with Too Cool to beat 3/4 of The Radicals when she groped then defeated Eddie Guerrero (who apparently impressed her enough to warrant joining him the next night on Raw). Tori got her comeuppance for leaving Kane by getting a Stinkface from Rikishi. The sole one on one match of the card saw The Kat lose a 2 woman battle royal to Terri Runnels, with Mae Young and The Fabulous Moolah in their respective corners.

But the main event was the real shocker, with a McMahon in every corner of the main event, thus this meant that Linda McMahon and Stephanie McMahon debuted at ringside. Linda gave Mick Foley his main event, a spot he blew but still managed to leave with his head held high, and Stephanie…

Steph masterminded the family reunion that saw Triple H walk out of the PPV still the champion. Steph was the person that helped set up, for the first time in history, a guy the fans hated win the main event of a Wrestlemania.

Proof that women can indeed achieve great things.

Phase 17- Emotions run high, Ego runs even higher.

Sure, Jacqueline and Lita had some excitement, interfering in matches to help defeat Right To Censor and attempt to help the Hardys win the tag titles respectively. But they aren't really what is remembered from Wrestlemania X7, in terms of the women at the show.

Some people focus on the interweaving stories of Stephanie, Linda and Trish Stratus, as the three women involved in the McMahon family drama all came to a head when Trish turned on Vince and thus Steph, and Linda got the biggest reaction in Wrestling history for someone just standing up. Oh, and kicking her husbands square in the nuts.

But given how often the McMahons fight and make up and fight, the more important moment is the WWF Women's Title match, in which Chyna squashed Ivory like a bug to win the belt, reclaim her right to pose nude if she wanted, and send her on a ego trip that still has a grip on her today. That may well be the longer impact, in that Chyna was a unique talent that has been wasted, in more ways than one.

But when one talent leaves, another steps up.

Phase 18- Mighty Molly, WWF Hardcore Champion. YEAH!

Sure, Jazz retaining the Women's title over Lita and the new face of the Women's Division Trish Stratus, that's important. Steph screwing up and costing Jericho the Undisputed title, that's a bummer. Stacy Kiebler was her usual hot self in glasses and camo miniskirt. But really, Wrestlemania X8 is all about two title changes.

Mighty Molly won the Hardcore title off her good buddy The Hurricane with the help of a frying pan.

And Molly then losing it half an hour later to a NASTY Dutch door shot, thanks to Christian.

Apart from an obscure Ho, Molly was the first woman to hold the Hardcore Title. And, unlike all the others, she was the sole one to earn the title herself. She hit Hurricane, and then pinned him, all the other winners pinned someone else already taken out by someone else. And for that, she holds a unique place in wrestling history.

But as the company changed, so to did the Women's Division. As the company became less chaotic and more organised, the Women's Division began to be liked, almost respected, as women were now seen as Wrestlers first and women second.

Phase 19- You can give the credit to Trish if you want, but I'll stick to my fantasy land, thanks.

Most people attribute this to Trish Stratus, as she was the head of the division and was seen as the focal point. And certainly her winning the title at Wrestlemania XIX was a big moment. But for me, the Women's Division gained credibility when Victoria won the title, Victoria losing the belt on this night.

It may not be accurate or correct, but it's my line and I'm sticking to it.

Alas, the serious nature of the division did not last long, as a mere one year later, while the heart of the division was still there, Playboy reared it's airbrushed head and, more importantly, Trish found she liked it rough.

Phase 20- 1 out of 3 isn't that great.

When you have something that you want taken seriously, it's important to treat it as such. True, in Professional Wrestling, that's hard to do at times, the line between serious, comedy and just stupid is razor thin. And that line was stepped all over at Wrestlemania XX

Getting your head shaved is oddly a good thing, Molly being so desperate to win the Women's title she put her hair on the line was a positive, it showed just how much the belt meant.

But on the other side, having 4 women roll around in their underwear over who got to pose naked isn't exactly becoming to taking the people involved as serious athletes.

And then there's Trish's choice. Certainly she's allowed to fall in love with whoever she likes, and be in whatever sort of relationship she wanted. But she was the face of the division, and certainly was the focal point, and for her to turn her back on Jericho and the fans in that way, and hook up with Christian, it certainly changed the perception of her and the division in the fans eyes. Perhaps for the better, perhaps for the worse, it's hard to say. Mostly because a far greater threat kicked in at this point.

Phase 21- Playboy AND The Diva Search. Talk about a 1-2 KO.

Obviously, Trish Stratus didn't lose her wrestling ability when she indulged in her Sub fantasies. If anything, her ruthlessness and new found ambivalence towards evil helped her win the title and keep it. But to lose the shining star, and then to see an influx of untalented models, with the added shock of the WWE/Playboy relationship becoming a regular dealings, saw women's wrestling in the WWE take a severe credibility nosedive.

Christy Hemme w/Lita V Trish Stratus at Wrestlemania 21 did not help correct this. In fact, it was like a lead weight to a kamikaze plane. Hemme did well, considering, but compared to the heights the division had a mere 2 years prior, it was almost sad in a way.

But someone noticed, and the WWE tried to correct the faults the following year. And they almost succeeded.

Phase 22- Lift, Support and Separate.

Women got a much more prominent role at Wrestlemania 22, where they fitted into 3 divisions.

Most of the women involved were supporting their man, be it Jillian Hall's advising to JBL, Lita helping her man Edge beat Mick Foley, or Sharmell standing by her husband as they lost a handicap match to The Boogeyman, right up until she got a worm enriched kiss and thus ran off.

Candice Michelle, being the Diva who appeared in Playboy and not yet the Trish heir apparent she appeared to be for a few months when she wasn't injured, got a couple of minutes to lose to Torrie Wilson in a Playboy Cover Girl Pillow fight, in harmless fun.

And the real female wrestlers got their match, as Trish's year long reign as champion came to an end at the hands or rather feet of Mickie James.

This smart practice of separating out the good and the marketable sadly lasted for just one year, as someone had the bright idea to just throw them back together again the following year.

Phase 23- Ashley. *shudder*

Ashley appearing in Playboy, you can defend. Ashley getting attention on WWE TV for this, no problems there. Ashley getting a Women's Title shot in a Lumberjill match at Wrestlemania because of it?

There's your problem.

The match was at least thankfully short, as any longer and Ashley's body, which is apparently made of crackers, might have folded up badly. And despite this match being terrible and dragging the entire division down, they pretty much tried it again the following year!

Phase 24- When Santino dominates the division, there's a problem.

At Wrestlemania 24, Maria, after having Santino screw her brains IN, and after posing in Playboy, wanted to humiliate Santino, so she got him to pick some divas, Melina and his future lover Beth Phoenix, and she would team with another Playmate, at first Candice but then Ashley after Candice got injured, and they had a tag match under Lumberjill rules, with Snoop Dogg as Master Of Ceremonies. And, thanks to Santino, the bad girls won the match, thus proving that Santino can outsmart a girl. And that may come in handy….

Today- 10-1 Santino/Spider Lady enters it.

In a short time from now, Wrestlemania 25 will begin, and a Miss Wrestlemania will be crowned, 25 divas past and present in an over the top battle royal. Sounds like a good idea in theory, but for the most part, most people are focusing on whether or now Santino will get in and thus, if he'll win.

Anyone else see a MAJOR problem there?

Oh, but of course there's other women at Wrestlemania, surely they are doing better? A couple of women who both hold great power being fought over as trophies and/or trophy kills, and a set of twins that has led to a Tag Title Unification.

Ok, call that last one a wash.

Conclusion

Clearly Women's Wrestling has a long way to go if it's ever to be taken as an equal of the men. Many feel that it'll never get there, and that it's not worth it anyway.

And yet, for a subsection of the industry, it's been, at times, somewhat over-represented at the biggest stage of them all. Most of the time it's been as eye candy or window dressing, but occasionally, a moment sneaks in that shows that women, like any man, can tug at your heartstrings or leave an indelible mark on your memories.

Regardless of your opinion, and regardless of what happens, always remember that without Women, Wrestlemania might never have existed. And for that, we should be forever grateful.

And that Dutch Doors are dangerous.