Mickie James revealed on a recent interview that she had been told WWE will never do another Evolution pay-per-view, nor would there ever be a show revolving strictly around the women’s division.
She was told that women’s wrestling doesn’t draw money. People don’t tune in for it. There’s not enough interest. Basically, “drop it, cause it’s not happening.”
Most people’s immediate reaction to that is a justifiable “What the hell? That’s very defeatist. They aren’t giving the women’s division a chance.”
While that’s an admirable thought and a more-than-acceptable response, it’s reactionary. It’s also dismissive of how there may be legitimate reasons why this is the case, beyond just writing it off as “sexism, 100%, and that’s it.”
So let’s play devil’s advocate. What are the pros and cons of these two ideas, when you really give credit to the gray areas, rather than having a black or white viewpoint?
The Benefit of Representation
Obviously, the absolute biggest, most important element of this from a positive perspective is that it is another major step toward putting the women’s division on an equal playing field.
Any sensible person understands why this is something to strive for in all aspects of life. There are still many situations where, unfortunately, women deal with completely unnecessary obstacles for no reason other than old school mentalities used to position them as lesser, which is horrible. It’s been an uphill battle that has taken this long to get to this point and there are still many things that need to change.
Women’s wrestling can’t progress until the narrative changes and the opportunities are there. I don’t think there’s any argument whatsoever to this point of view. This is just a definitive point in the column of “these shows should happen.”
Money Makes the World Go ‘Round
However. The absolute biggest, most important element of a business is making money. If something doesn’t sell, you stop trying to sell it.
That’s just how it works. It may suck that people don’t want to buy something, but being upset about it doesn’t change it. You have to take steps to make that thing more desirable. Supply and demand.
If it’s true that Evolution was one of the lowest-selling events in company history, then why would WWE want to give it another shot? For that matter, why would WWE think a weekly television show would be a good idea if people didn’t even want to tune in to a one-night special?
You invest in things you think will yield you a net positive in some fashion. Either you make more money than you put into it, or you get some non-monetary positive that becomes worth the cash.
Simply put, WWE doesn’t think the investment will be worth it. Just like the idea of the physical Hall of Fame being a “money pit” and not worth building, this would be more money than it would generate— or, at least, that’s one of the excuses being said.
So How Does It Become More Profitable?
Again, simply put, the way to make it worth taking the risk is for the risk factor to diminish. You’re dealing with theoretical concepts and unreliable metrics when it comes to “popularity” and “public interest”. Judging the potential viewership of a women’s division show/event isn’t like judging stocks where you sell because a company is about to become technologically obsolete.
The only metrics WWE has to judge on are ratings during the women’s division segments, merchandise sales and the arbitrary social media tracking. If those numbers aren’t high enough, the risk factor is too big of a gap.
So you make it more desirable by doing one or more of the following:
- You get lucky and it just happens naturally.
- Someone strikes oil with a storyline or gimmick that gets people talking.
- You spend more time developing the concept so people have more of an attachment and awareness of it.
Let’s talk about that third aspect.
Time Investment
Did you watch any of the films that were nominated for Best Picture this year at the Oscars? Probably not, right? You probably never even heard of them. That’s because little to no money was spent advertising them. You had to hear about them from word of mouth or directly doing the research yourself.
That word of mouth doesn’t come around as easily when less people know about something. If 100 people can spread the word, that circle is exponentially wider and has a quicker spread than if 10 people talk about the same thing.
I’ve never seen a single Fast & Furious movie, but by just being in pop culture, I can tell you half the character names, fill you in on how Han has apparently died and come back to life like 3 times, etc. It’s all about family, supposedly. Can you tell me anything about what Mank is about?
Without question, the more time that is invested in showcasing the women’s division, the better chance it has to develop a stronger fan base. One match on a 3 hour show can go unnoticed even by someone watching the show as they might have spent those few minutes doing something else, or it might not have resonated with them, but another women’s division match might have been the best part of the night if it were on the show.
Time is Money
But here’s the kicker. Time is money and it’s a vicious cycle. If you don’t believe fans will tune in, why would you waste your time trying to build up the women’s division if you know you’re taking a hit in the meantime?
Risk management repeats itself.
“I need money to pay my bills. But I need a job to earn money. I need a car to get a job. But I need money to buy a car. So I need money to get money.”
Unless you have a benefactor that steps in and breaks the loop, you’re left going back to #1 or #2 — IE, you have to randomly get lucky that something catches on and gives you more leeway to work with to close that risk gap.
Cross-pollination vs. Brand Split and Oversaturation
Having a show dedicated entirely to the women’s division would open up fresh matches. We’d be able to see a feud like Charlotte Flair against Bianca Belair, rather than having Bayley go back to fighting for the SmackDown Women’s Championship because she’s one of the few people on the blue brand.
Remember when Bayley fought Nikki Cross 18 or so times in a year? That wouldn’t have to be the case.
However, why would we have a SmackDown Women’s Championship if there’s a show dedicated to the women’s division? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the brand split entirely?
There wouldn’t be a need for the women’s matches to be on Raw, NXT and SmackDown, because there would be a whole show dedicated to it that would need to be prioritized. Otherwise, you’re running into oversaturation.
By taking them out of Raw, SmackDown and NXT, you run the risk that someone says “I don’t want to watch the all-women’s show, so I’ll just skip that entirely” like they do with 205 Live and NXT UK. When they’re on the same show as the men, people are forced to watch some of the women’s division action they might otherwise skip. Then, their negative perspectives could change.
You’d have to consolidate titles (one Women’s World Championship, one midcard title and one tag team title) and you’d have to figure out a way to get people to tune in to the show that would be an all women’s division program without just telling them “Watch it, or you’re sexist.” Telling people “watch the cruiserweights, or you’re only supporting the land of the giants” hasn’t helped the purple brand.
There’s no way to have your cake and eat it, too. You can’t have it both ways that the women’s division gets their own show AND is on the regular programs while saying “there’s no way people don’t start complaining that they’re seeing the same people too often”.
Could Evolution Even Work a Second Time?
Something else to think about is whether or not there’s a purpose to another Evolution show other than our first point of “because it’s representation.”
Would you actually want to see the card that could happen? An even more important question would be “Would you rather see that potential card happen more than a show that also included the men’s division?”
Trish Stratus is retired, along with several others. Most of the ones that would be interested in coming back are names we’ve already seen in the past few years, so the value of their returns has diminished. Lita wrestling Bayley won’t feel as special now compared to the first time around, right?
Mickie James is out of the company, as are several others. AEW has scooped up a lot of names. WWE isn’t the only show in town.
There’s no Ronda Rousey. The Bella Twins are done. Paige isn’t coming back. AJ Lee isn’t coming back.
So what’s the hook? Do you really want to see an event revolving around Natalya and Tamina against Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler again? I’d love to hear the argument that The Riott Squad against Lana and Naomi will be 10x more interesting on a pay-per-view than if it takes place on Raw or SmackDown. You’d be fooling yourself.
So why dedicate all the resources of a pay-per-view to those matches when you can put the 2 or 3 women’s matches that people would actually care about on a card with matches that involve the rest of the WWE Superstars who have equal or superior fan interest?
The Hard Truth
In a perfect world, we aren’t even having this discussion. Ultimately, the biggest element of this is that the women in professional wrestling (as well as their fans) are entirely justified in their frustration that there isn’t an equal playing field.
However, the business is a business. You can complain that they aren’t taking a bigger risk, but you can’t fault them for not being willing to take a risk.
I think we’re all in agreement that women’s wrestling is far better now, in all aspects, than it was in the past. Progress is being made. Definitively. However, progress takes time and you can’t just skip to the end of it, as frustrating as that may be.
If you miss a nail when building a house, you might be okay. But if you skip the nails all together to speed up the process, your foundation is going to collapse. So you can’t just go from “women’s wrestling doesn’t matter to most people” to “it’s 100% solved” overnight.
There WILL be an all women’s show at some point because there already IS all women’s wrestling promotions out there, like Shimmer. WWE and AEW just don’t happen to feel they can risk their time and money investments in producing more dedicated content for the women’s division because they feel it’s going to be a bad business decision and the benefits of a boost in public morale don’t make up for the negatives of the monetary loss.
Or…the people in charge are just using that as a scapegoat excuse to hide that they don’t actually care about this so-called Women’s R/Evolution. If that’s the case, you’re not getting anywhere unless those people willingly change their minds or lose their power and influence.
It sucks. What are you gonna do, other than keep trying, or give up?
What do you think about the next progression of the women’s division? Should WWE take a chance, or is it too risky? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
