WWE Wants Its Anchors Again for Ladies’s Division to Return to Glory

Purely from an in-ring standpoint, the WWE girls’s division is deeper than it has ever been. The collective expertise throughout all three manufacturers is unmatched and has ushered in an thrilling period for ladies’s wrestling within the firm.

Even nonetheless, there’s a lot work to be achieved in getting the division again to the heights it was as soon as at. However that may’t be achieved till Becky Lynch and Charlotte Aptitude are once more within the combine.

Alongside Sasha Banks (now Mercedes Moné in All Elite Wrestling) and Bayley, Lynch and Aptitude have served as two of the anchors of the WWE girls’s division for the final decade. Quite a lot of the promotion’s development with girls’s wrestling might be attributed to the success of the 4 Horsewomen.

Their overexposure within the late 2010s and early 2020s resulted in followers demanding extra selection. Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair had been subsequently referred to as up from NXT and gained important stardom, but the scene just isn’t fairly on the stage it must be.

The upcoming returns of Aptitude and Lynch are pivotal to the method of rebuilding and restoring the division to its former glory.

In 2015, WWE was primarily compelled into that includes its girls extra prominently and appropriately on the principle roster after Triple H had achieved so with the ladies’s division in NXT, a burgeoning developmental model on the time.

The preliminary Divas Revolution was hardly something particular, nevertheless it did see Charlotte Aptitude, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch all promoted to the Uncooked roster concurrently after years honing their craft in NXT.

They had been lower than a 12 months into their essential roster runs earlier than they had been the point of interest of division, particularly Aptitude and Banks. Lynch did not get away as The Man till 2018, and Bayley’s rise was even slower.

Collectively, although, they dominated the ladies’s ranks on Uncooked and SmackDown for a number of years and accrued numerous championships and accolades.

Their above-average in-ring talents mixed with their natural connection to the group not solely made them family names but additionally opened many doorways for the females of WWE: first-ever gimmick matches, essential occasions, elevated tv time and extra.

Ronda Rousey, Asuka and Alexa Bliss had their respective components to play within the evolution of girls’s wrestling in WWE, however The 4 Horsewomen had been all the time the appointed measuring sticks for achievement.

There was a noticeable shift within the portrayal of the ladies on WWE TV when Lynch, Bayley, Banks and Aptitude both took day without work or left the corporate, and issues have not been the identical since.

Banks departed WWE on the finish of 2022 and finally made her method to AEW as Mercedes Moné, the place she has reigned as TBS champion for over 180 days.

Bayley missed a 12 months of in-ring motion with a separated shoulder from 2022 to 2023 and hasn’t been capable of preserve momentum long-term regardless of profitable the ladies’s Royal Rumble match and the WWE Ladies’s Championship earlier this 12 months.

That has left Aptitude and Lynch as the 2 remaining potential “saviors” of the division, and fortunately, each are anticipated again sooner relatively than later.

Aptitude has been out with a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus since December 2023. She revealed in an Instagram video again in July that she had returned to coaching on the Efficiency Middle, however there have been few updates on her standing aside from a current cryptic X publish:

Lynch, in the meantime, opted to not re-sign with WWE following the expiration of her contract on June 1. Throughout a current interview at Vulture Festival 2024, she made it identified that getting a cage door slammed in her face by Dominik Mysterio is not how she intends to exit.

Mike Johnson of PWInsider additionally indicated The Man might resurface on Uncooked as early because the Netflix premiere on Jan. 6, which might be a giant increase to the pink model’s girls’s division simply in time for WrestleMania season.

Lynch reporting to Uncooked whereas Aptitude stays on SmackDown would take advantage of sense to make sure each manufacturers profit.

The Uncooked girls’s division wasn’t precisely firing on all cylinders even when Lynch was round earlier within the 12 months, however there was a drastic drop-off creatively with the way in which it has been utilized and portrayed on tv since her departure.

Previous to WrestleMania 40, The Man was largely faraway from the title image but remained related in rivalries with Trish Stratus, Xia Li and Nia Jax. She briefly held the NXT Ladies’s Championship and elevated Lyra Valkyria by dropping the belt to her at Halloween Havoc 2023.

Though her newest run as girls’s world champ did not final lengthy, she did move the torch—and the title—to Liv Morgan forward of her exit. Morgan’s rivalry with Rhea Ripley has taken heart stage on Uncooked in Lynch’s absence, however their storyline has slowly misplaced steam and nothing else within the division has been remotely as fascinating.

The Ladies’s World Championship itself has taken a backseat to the Ripley-Morgan drama the place Dominik Mysterio has principally turn out to be the prize value preventing for. With Iyo Sky incomes the following shot on the strap, Morgan vs. Ripley would not look like on the verge of ending anytime quickly.

Lynch being again would mechanically increase the profile of the division and maybe give it some much-needed path as effectively.

Aptitude was treading water lengthy earlier than getting injured in December 2023. She had been embroiled in a tedious feud with Injury CTRL for a lot of months and wanted one other hiatus to clean up her stagnant character.

The one intriguing program on the horizon for her on the time was with Bianca Belair. The EST of WWE has since moved on to teaming with Jade Cargill, however SmackDown would nonetheless be one of the best match for The Queen upon her return.

Not solely is that the place husband Andrade at the moment works, however there are additionally loads of compelling opponents for Aptitude to work with who would give her a clear-cut path to WrestleMania 41 if she’s cleared to compete by then.

There is a ready-made story there with WWE girls’s champion Nia Jax, who received the 2024 Queen of the Ring event and would take exception to Aptitude calling herself “The Queen.” Jax’s right-hand girl, Tiffany Stratton, is one other ‘Mania-worthy adversary for Aptitude, particularly if the title was on the road.

If Aptitude was reintroduced as a heel, Naomi and Belair can be found choices as effectively. She would not essentially have to be again on the forefront of the championship image, however her simply being round will present great depth to the division.

It is not crucial that The 4 Horsewomen are continuously competing for championships and shoved down the throats of viewers. They’ve loads extra to supply within the ring earlier than they name it quits, however at this stage of their careers, they’re much more useful in serving to type the inspiration for the longer term.

Ripley and Belair are prime examples of stars whose shares skyrocketed after working with—and defeating—Aptitude and Lynch. Ripley specifically turned the face of the Uncooked girls’s division following back-to-back WrestleMania wins over the multi-time champs.

Belair has spent far too lengthy within the tag group ranks this 12 months, however in any other case she has cemented her standing as a essential event-caliber competitor.

The identical cannot be mentioned for the remainder of the roster. The likes of Lyra Valkyria, Michin, Chelsea Inexperienced, Dakota Kai and Candice LeRae all possess the required expertise to interrupt by to the extent however aren’t over sufficient with the viewers as a result of they’re primarily programmed with one another.

They achieve little from beating anybody aside from established commodities comparable to Aptitude and Lynch, whose immense credibility permits them to maintain any variety of losses. WWE cannot create a brand new crop of 4 Horsewomen with out first utilizing the modern-day pillars of girls’s wrestling to push the following era ahead.

Consequently, their presence is paramount.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham “GSM” Matthews, has specialised in sports activities and leisure writing since 2010. Go to his web site, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for extra wrestling-related content material.