The Women’s Evolution you see on WWE programming, more than anything else, has been a well-crafted public relations campaign designed to atone for the past sins of Vince McMahon and his wrestling enterprise. While quality women’s wrestling has flourished at different intervals under his watch, these instances read more as blips on the radar – outposts in the proverbial wilderness where women were objectified, if they even made it on TV at all. The longest reigning female champion in company history, beyond the controversial Fabulous Moolah, have been Abeyance and Vacant. Entire years passed during the Golden Age of WWE programming without a single female wrestler on the payroll.

Of course, long-time fans remember the groundbreaking work of the Joshi Puro stars Noriyo Tateno and Itsuki Yamazaki, the Jumping Bomb Angels, whose work with Judy Martin and Leilani Kai produced tag team matches for 1988 WWF programming that were more than a decade ahead of their male counterparts. The New Generation of the WWF briefly flirted in the mid-‘90s with bringing Joshi aces like Bull Nakano and Rhonda Sing in to grapple with hand-picked champion Alundra Blayze. And in the Ruthless Aggression Era, stalwarts Trish Stratus and Lita were given the seminal honor of competing in the main event of an episode of Monday Night RAW: to that point, a most incredible moment.

Each of these moments were supposed to kick down the door for women, whose fight for equity inside the squared circle was as lengthy and uneven as the real-life push for suffrage. Yet the status quo resumed shortly after each movement had begun, largely for the same reason each time: lack of desire, either on the part of management or the fan base. Women’s wrestling, for better or worse, had been branded as a side attraction – an oddity, more to be gawked at than admired for its artistic beauty and athletic prowess. Even this treatment surpassed the debauchery of the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression Eras however, when women were forced to engage in whatever softcore fantasy the company could squeeze past TV censors.

Sure, women have become big stars in the company before: Wendi Richter was arguably among the top five most popular acts of the company during the early years of Hulkamania, a fact galvanized by wrestling in the second featured match of the evening after the main event tag match. The valet-turned-‘wrestler’ Sable was arguably among the top three or four most popular acts in the Attitude Era of the WWF, though this was accomplished as much through the company leaning on her sexuality as it was her talent as an athlete. The aforementioned pair of Trish Stratus and Lita became exceedingly popular workers, though they too were forced to weave a path through sleazy booking to establish their wrestling credentials.

Indeed, much of what we see on TV today as the "Women’s Evolution" in WWE is an acknowledgement that the company’s female performers have historically been given a raw deal. Carrots like the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble match and an all-women’s PPV have been dangled as quasi-reparations to demonstrate WWE’s new progressive attitude towards women’s wrestling. However, to deny the existence of the actual Women’s Evolution is to miss the development of a fascinating turn in the recent history of the WWE. Without question, the PR spin on the main roster has been overbearing and fallow at times. But even amidst the struggle to gain respectability, the clout of women’s wrestling has been growing steadily over time.

It began steadily in the 2000’s, when women’s wrestling gained a permanent (if maligned) foothold on WWE programming. From there, sporadic flashes of brilliance from hard working athletes inspired a new generation of young athletes to take up the profession, entering the picture at the precise right moment. With Paul "Triple H" Levesque looking to redirect the future of the company with his new vision for a training center in Florida, a group of women would arrive to change the game in every conceivable fashion. History has since-lionized the NXT Women’s Division as being a game-changer in the history of WWE, bringing respect and credibility to women’s wrestling never before seen in the company.



They literally changed the game, and made women’s wrestling important.



Now, one of the least-likely progenitors of that movement is on the doorstep of history.

Becky Lynch earned herself wrestling immortality in NXT, thanks in no uncertain terms to her presence amidst the "cream of the crop", NXT’s ‘Four Horsewomen’ contingent of female stars. Even so, her ascension from NXT stalwart to WWE superstar was anything but guaranteed. The least accomplished of her fellow Horsewomen materially, Becky Lynch has been treated for much of her WWE career as something of a failure. Hard working, loyal to a fault, and of a cheerful disposition that bordered between bubbly and nerdy, Lynch endeared herself to the fans for her honest simplicity and fiery passion for wrestling. That passion never translated into sustained success, but it did earn her a passionate coterie of fans.

By 2018, the bloom on WWE’s "Women’s Evolution" was fading; the strides made by the Horsewomen and their contemporaries were being ground down by the same Creative apathy that has beset the company’s quality over the last few years. Milestones no longer felt organic, but manufactured for the sake of a PR talking point. Fortuitously however, a storyline began to pick up some traction on Tuesday nights; long suffering fans of Becky Lynch began to stir under the realization that the ‘Lass Kicker’ was starting to win matches. A string of victories over the summer set up the vague hope that Lynch could be tapped to challenge for the SmackDown Women’s Championship against Carmella, a hope that became reality as the build for the final Brooklyn SummerSlam commenced in earnest.

This quiet groundswell of organic support built into a hidden tempest with the sudden interjection of company favorite Charlotte Flair into the mix with little fanfare. Suddenly, the prospect of Becky achieving her moment of redemption seemed to be in doubt, a painful truth that would become a nightmarish reality when Charlotte pinned Lynch to claim her seventh title. The crowd in Brooklyn grew restless and angry over the booking decision, a reflection that may have been as much directed towards WWE in general as it was towards the push of Charlotte Flair specifically. After years of being maligned, the fans had suddenly had enough.

So had Becky. In what has since become one of the hallmark moments of her rapid ascent into stardom, Lynch turned on Charlotte after a faux-embrace, leading to the loudest pop of the night from the Brooklyn crowd. Though Becky left SummerSlam without her prize, she emerged with something far greater: the admiration of the fans. Suddenly, the fan base had a cause to rally behind: the popular underdog that had been pushed over the edge, and was now about to become a Terminator with a singular goal: destroy any and everyone in her path to glory. Lynch tapped into the very real emotion of her main roster disappointments to channel a fierce, almost malevolent wicked streak that lit up every town on the tour. As the fun-loving punster morphed into an ice cold badass, the fans became ravenous for her.



In the span of a month, Becky Lynch had gone from "a star" in the most generic sense to a legitimate superstar on the roster. She wiped out Charlotte in the ensuing feud to claim that elusive title, logging some of the best matches of the year on the main roster in the process, and immediately wiped out the gap between herself and all other female stars on the roster. No longer the "red headed stepchild" of the Horsewomen, Becky Lynch now had tangible success to rebuke her critics. As her list of asses to kick and own grew on social media, so too did her fans’ zealous devotion to her. Not even legends like Chris Jericho and Edge were spared from her Twitter venom, and still her star power grew.



Then, real life reared its head into the company’s fortunes in a way that caught everyone off-guard. On the October 22nd episode of RAW, Roman Reigns announced that he was taking a leave to battle a recurrence of leukemia. A sucker punch to the gut of his fans and colleagues alike, the stunning announcement completely took the wind out of the sails of everyone. The focal point of the company, the straw that stirred the drink was now off TV, and the company was literally turned upside-down. Storylines that were planned out on RAW were now scrapped, and no credible backup plans have yet to materialize. The Monday night crew have been adrift without their captain, and the company suddenly lacked a central character to build around.

With Survivor Series rapidly approaching, the departure of Roman Reigns led to the surprise elevation of the "Women’s Champion vs. Champion" match as the new feature match of the PPV. For their part, RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey and Lynch immediately ignited a personal vendetta against one another, culminating in the now-famous "Invasion" on the go-home show Monday before the PPV. Becky, bloodied and injured from a reckless right from the new-pariah Nia Jax, would be deprived of her feature match with Rousey due to the injury. But the visual of the bloodied warrior, taunting Rousey from the crowd and staking her claim as "the Man" became one of the seminal moments of the year.



Lynch had found her "moment", and her fans were now ready to bleed with her. Arguably for the first time in the history of the company, the most popular act in the entire company was now a female performer. Talk of Becky potentially main eventing WrestleMania with Rousey spread like wildfire across the internet; what was once blatant fanboy fantasy booking was now shockingly realistic. No other potential match held anywhere near the same level of buzz and excitement among the fan base. Any concerns over Becky ‘cooling off’ during her convalescence were quietly extinguished with the renewed energy her return brought this week to the show on Tuesday night. Becky Lynch is no longer a major women’s star; she’s now a major superstar, period. She’s cleared every peer in every division, and is the hottest commodity in the WWE.

Now, one question remains to be answered: what will WWE do about it?



Becky Lynch’s run for glory in 2018 is ostensibly uncharted territory: never before as a female performer come this far, this quickly, with this much organic support among hardcore and casual fans alike. Yet there is a stark contrast between being the most popular performer on the roster, and being the "Face of the WWE". This final achievement, the final goal to reach is the proverbial glass ceiling itself that has long lorded over women’s wrestling in the WWE. Never has the company given this mantle to a female performer; the fact that such a possibility even exists heading into 2019 is enough to blow the minds of long-time fans of the company.



Make no mistake: there is no guarantee of success from this point forward. Becky Lynch has indeed tapped into the sort of organic support that makes a run to the top possible, but not every organic run ends in victory. Much can happen in the next six months that could either launch her higher or stunt her momentum. Wrestling, much like the weather, is almost impossible to predict with any sort of accuracy. There’s no telling what storyline or angle could suddenly ‘click’ and change the direction of the company on a dime. Despite this, one could argue that the grounds have never been so-well prepared for a woman to achieve the ultimate status in the company.



Truly, the table has been set in such a way to make Lynch’s final push for glory a real possibility. The company’s booking plans were so thoroughly jumbled by Roman Reigns’s departure that his seat at the head of the table is now vacant, and looks to remain so without any obvious heir apparent to replace him. The company has to fill that seat with someone, and the most organically popular performer on the roster is a strong candidate as any. Here too, the heel turn of Daniel Bryan and the weakened stature of the WWE Championship over the last few years plays into Becky’s hands, since fans buy other programs as being more important in stature than the WWE Title picture. And in an age when an individual’s drawing power no longer stands as the top qualification for being the company’s top star, being its most popular act could be enough to push Becky Lynch over the top.



‘The Man’ is quite the unique title for Becky Lynch, given its dual connotation both in the general sports vernacular, and in the loose hierarchy of the WWE roster. The throne to the kingdom is open, and Becky Lynch has a clear path to the throne. What’s more, there is a loud and zealous contingent of the fan base that is bound and determined to install her on the throne. Whether Vince McMahon has the courage to let Becky break the glass ceiling once and for all is to be determined. We should know in the near future whether WWE is going to go "all in" on Becky. No matter how long the ride lasts though, we should take a moment to appreciate just how far Becky Lynch has come. In an age when so much feels artificial and cheap, the Irish Lass Kicker is raising the bar on what women can accomplish, and by God we love her for it.



The Man is coming around, Vince. Let’s see if you have the grapefruits to give her the ball.