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

Purely from an in-ring standpoint, the WWE ladies’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 may be a lot work to be finished in getting the division again to the heights it was as soon as at. However that may’t be completed 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 ladies’s division for the final decade. Quite a lot of the promotion’s development with ladies’s wrestling may 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 have been subsequently referred to as up from NXT and gained vital stardom, but the scene will not be fairly on the stage it ought to be.

The approaching 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 pressured into that includes its ladies extra prominently and appropriately on the primary roster after Triple H had finished so with the ladies’s division in NXT, a burgeoning developmental model on the time.

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

They have been lower than a 12 months into their foremost roster runs earlier than they have been the focus of division, particularly Aptitude and Banks. Lynch did not escape 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 gathered numerous championships and accolades.

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

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

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 ultimately made her approach 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 Girls’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 Heart, however there have been few updates on her standing apart from a latest cryptic X submit:

Lynch, in the meantime, opted to not re-sign with WWE following the expiration of her contract on June 1. Throughout a latest 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 an enormous enhance to the purple model’s ladies’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 ladies’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 Girls’s Championship and elevated Lyra Valkyria by dropping the belt to her at Halloween Havoc 2023.

Though her newest run as ladies’s world champ did not final lengthy, she did cross 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 attention-grabbing.

The Girls’s World Championship itself has taken a backseat to the Ripley-Morgan drama the place Dominik Mysterio has principally grow 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 routinely elevate the profile of the division and maybe give it some much-needed course 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 the very best match for The Queen upon her return.

Not solely is that the place husband Andrade at present 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 ladies’s champion Nia Jax, who received the 2024 Queen of the Ring match and would take exception to Aptitude calling herself “The Queen.” Jax’s right-hand lady, 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 always 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 helpful in serving to kind the muse 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 ladies’s division following back-to-back WrestleMania wins over the multi-time champs.

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

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

They acquire little from beating anybody apart from established commodities equivalent 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 ladies’s wrestling to push the following technology 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.