Josh Barnett

USA TODAY Sports

As Sasha Banks rolled up to AT&T Stadium in Texas in the days before WrestleMania last year, she was amazed to see images of herself, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch in the center of a massive banner with men’s wrestlers on either side of them.

“I never in my whole life thought that I’d see the women right in the middle representing WWE,” said Banks, who got out of the vehicle to take a photo.

Raising the banner meant raising the bar.

“To think that the company had that much faith to highlight us along with the men on the stadium, it was surreal,” Flair recalled. “And it makes you want to work that much harder.”

WrestleMania 32 was the last time the company used the term “Diva” to describe its female talent, instead opting to use “Superstars,” the word it uses to describe its male performers. The championship belt with the pinkish butterfly was replaced.

From a change in philosophy in recruiting and developing women to the trending hashtag #GiveDivasAChance from angry fans in reaction to a 30-second women’s match in February 2015, to the Divas Revolution to the Women’s Evolution to elite-level performers now among the most popular athletes within WWE’s three brands, women’s wrestling has undergone a metamorphosis. Another potential inflection point is ahead Sunday at WrestleMania 33 in Orlando ( 7 p.m. ET, WWE Network).

Bayley defends her RAW women’s title against Flair, Banks and Nia Jax; all four women were trained under WWE’s third brand, NXT, and the Performance Center in Orlando. Alexa Bliss defends her Smackdown women’s title against Lynch, Carmella, Mickie James, Natalya and likely other surprise participants. Bliss, Lynch and Carmella came up through NXT. Natalya and James are veteran performers with wrestling backgrounds. In a mixed tag team match, Nikki Bella teams with boyfriend John Cena against Maryse and husband The Miz.

WWE trainer Sara Amato takes pride in women's success ahead of WrestleMania

As a former gymnast, Charlotte Flair represents new athletic era in WWE

“I always think there’s more work to be done,” Flair said. “But if you look at 2016 as a whole, Sasha and I having the first-ever women’s Hell In A Cell match, we main-evented a pay-per-view, we stole the show at WrestleMania at AT&T Stadium. There’s always a women’s match on the show; sometimes on RAW and Smackdown, there are two matches. I think that they are giving us more and more opportunity every week.”

Merchandise sales depicting its female performers continue to grow, the company says. Walk through an arena at any WWE event, and you see as many men wearing T-shirts in support of Bayley, Flair, Banks, Nikki Bella and others as you do women wearing them.

WWE’s television audience continues to increase in the percentage of females, nearing 38%, according to Nielsen figures. Those numbers include reality shows “Total Divas” and “Total Bellas” on E! that have added an entry point to the female performers for new fans.

As a television product — revenue from television and the WWE Network was more than $420 million in 2016 — WWE appears to have convinced a male-dominated viewing audience to accept female athletes.

“We gave the women a platform, and once the world saw that, they realized that is what they wanted,” said Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE’s executive vice president of talent, live events and creative. “Women’s wrestling has earned the platform that it has. There are times when the men’s match can’t follow the women’s match. There are times when the women’s match is — and it should be — the main event. …

"And we’re not stopping here. It’s just getting started.”

Changing the game

Beth Phoenix, who will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on Friday, wanted to be a wrestler since watching WrestleMania X as a 13-year-old. She was on her high school's wrestling team. She had a giant poster of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin on her dorm room door in college. She trained and worked on the independents before getting a developmental contract with WWE.

During a six-year run on the WWE main roster before retiring in 2012, she was a three-time women’s champion and also won the Divas title. She did so with a dominating physical style that was rare in her era in the company. Many of her opponents had been models or dancers who had not previously had aspirations to be wrestlers and were culled from the company's Diva Search contests.

It also was an era of brazen sexuality by the women’s performers in bikini contests, bra and panties matches, pillow fight matches, even a gravy bowl match.

“There were times where that wasn’t the trend to have wrestling matches,” Phoenix said. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but it wasn’t the style, it wasn’t the brand, it wasn’t the flavor of the month. …

“This movement happening now is girls getting opportunities that they have had occasionally in the past, but not consistently. There were some amazing gimmick matches and Trish Stratus and Lita main-evented RAW (in 2004). Now there is a consistent drive to market the girls as equal as men, and I think it’s awesome.”

The key moment of change came when Levesque took over the company’s developmental efforts and altered the parameters of what the company was looking for when it hired women — in both experience and physical appearance.

Consider the vast differences among the current talent: In Banks, Bayley and Lynch, the company has three women who began training as teenagers. Charlotte was a personal trainer and former college volleyball player who had wrestling in her genes as the daughter of two-time Hall of Famer Ric Flair. Alexa Bliss is a 5-foot-1 dynamo who was a former college cheerleader who got her pro card as a bodybuilder at age 16. Jax is a former plus-size model and relative of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Carmella is a former New England Patriots cheerleader and Laker Girl whose father had been in the wrestling business. Natalya and Mickie James are both veterans well-versed in the art of wrestling.

Levesque wanted to change the perception of women’s wrestling, presenting the women as athletes and helping WWE ride a wave of interest in women’s sports fueled by Serena Williams, the U.S. women’s soccer team, Ronda Rousey and others.

“Previous WWE regimes went looking for a specific look and type, the same way casting directors do when casting a film, and wouldn't go outside of that comfort zone. This always worked, so it always will,” said Mike Johnson, who covers the industry for PWInsider.com. “Now, I think WWE is more open to seeing who is out there that they can groom as opposed to just relegating themselves to, for example, one blonde, one brunette, one Spanish talent, etc. It's made the entire female roster more varied.”

WWE also hired its first female assistant coach in Sara Amato, one of the world’s top female wrestlers at the time and now the company's director of women's wrestling.

The combination of the right hires, the right training and the opportunities began a firestorm that has not been stopped.

“We didn’t come out and say these are going to be pivotal moments in women’s wrestling before we walked to the ring. You were going to watch it and make that assumption yourself,” said Natalya, who has been with the company since 2007. “Every single girl, they’ve taken the opportunities and run with them, but you can’t run with it if there is no opportunity. Triple H established the opportunities for the girls.

“I feel like that transcended to the main roster and people were demanding it: ‘We see this on NXT and we want to see it on RAW and Smackdown.’ It evolved and caught fire. I’m so happy that I’ve been able to be part of it.”

Those pivotal moments are many, including Natalya’s match against Flair on NXT TakeOver in January 2014.

Another was the NXT TakeOver match between Banks and Bayley in Brooklyn in 2015. As great as the match was, the moment that gave the crowd chills was when Lynch and Flair joined Banks and Bayley in the ring afterward and acknowledged themselves as the “Four Horsewomen.” That was a send-off from developmental to Flair, Banks and Lynch and what the company dubbed the “Divas Revolution” formally began soon after on the main roster.

“It was almost two years ago and people still bring it up in every interview I do,” Bayley said.

Though there were steps along the way from there, Banks and Flair climbed into the first women’s Hell In A Cell Match, and a women’s match was the main event for the first time on a WWE pay-per-view last October.

“I think it all came with due time,” Banks said. “The fans want the women to do exactly what the guys do. ... Just like they are, we’re superstars and now we get to go out and prove it just like them.”

The Bayley Factor

Perhaps the most popular performer — male or female — in WWE right now is Bayley, who heads to WrestleMania as the RAW champion.

Her connection to the fans runs deep, given that she was a longtime fan herself who dreamed of being in WWE as a kid growing up in the Bay Area. Pictures of her as kid at WWE shows with past stars and a school essay she wrote about one day being a WWE star have endeared her to the audience. Her wardrobe with bright colors and tassels hanging from her sleeves is inspired by WWE Hall of Fame Randy “Macho Man” Savage.

And her main philosophy revolves around hugs, and who can’t identify with the notion that maybe life’s problems can be solved with a hug?

“I still feel I’m such a fan, and I literally every time I come out, I can’t believe that I’m here and I really do this,” she said. “I still remember just the feeling of being at WWE shows. Maybe they can sense that or maybe not. For me, every time I give out a shirt or give a hug to one of the kids or high-five one of the dudes wearing my headband, I just remember how cool it was to have my favorite superstars look at a sign I spent all night making or even point in my direction. It would make my whole night.

“I want to give back, and I also feel like such a fan. I’m so excited to be there so I can’t imagine how they feel."

As much as Bayley has — or will accomplish — she also has been lauded for serving as a key transitional talent to help the next group of female performers. When Flair, Banks and Lynch went to the main roster, Bayley remained in developmental.

“She never let it show, but she must have been a ‘why not me?’ but we knew from a company standpoint that it was a complete compliment,” Amato said. “We couldn’t have gotten this (current NXT) group ready without Bayley. She challenged herself to raise that group up.

“A lot of the girls now have that feeling like this is so achievable. They know the women have put such a high standard to live up to so they’re just down here trying to work their way up to the main roster.”

Japanese star Asuka defends her title against Texan Ember Moon at NXT TakeOver on Saturday in Orlando (8 p.m. ET, WWE Network). The current NXT women's roster features an array of performers from various locations, including Australians Billie Kay and Peyton Royce, Nikki Cross from Scotland, and Liv Morgan from New Jersey.

Levesque said he is hoping to announce a women’s tournament for possibly the summer that could be similar to what WWE did last summer in building up a cruiserweight division for men's wrestlers who weigh less than 205 pounds.

“That will change the face of it again, further change how the women are perceived and add to the talent pool,” he said. “It will make the division so much deeper and make the division so much better.”

Depth is a key next step. The current women’s rosters on Smackdown and RAW, barring injuries, are about seven performers per brand. That means the same women work together in some combinations most nights. Having more options for matches means having more opportunities for compelling storylines.

The biggest step, though, seems ahead, and not nearly as far away as it was even a few years ago.

“To main-event WrestleMania,” Flair said, “that would be my goal.”