Women's Division: Evolution of women's wrestling in WWE over the years

The long way to go (2000 to 2006)

Women often wrestled in schoolgirl outfits instead of wrestling attire.

In the period of approximately 7 years from 2000 through 2006, things were particularly rough for the women of World Wrestling Entertainment. The horror-show of the late 1990s has already been discussed, but it was often just as bad, and sometimes worse, as the 2000s began. There were photoshoots for WWE's website and DVDs (trips to the Bahamas and other exotic locations where the women were filmed in skimpy clothing, mostly on the beach). But that's not the heart of the matter.

Whether or not you were a fan of those PG-13 style photo and video shoots, it's understood that stuff like that -- purely risque, made for the eyes of young men, and with no actual relation to wrestling -- would not be well-received in today's atmosphere -- at least not to that extent. That kind of stuff certainly sells, and plenty of male and female wrestlers of today use their looks to sell t-shirts, 8x10 photos, and the like.

The part that is difficult to get past, and what is a giant hurdle for all women, especially during that time period, was the content that was featured on weekly TV. Wrestlers like Trish Stratus, Molly Holly, Gail Kim, Ivory, Victoria, Lita, and so on -- were proving themselves inside the ring with the limited time they were given. At the same time, those very women were also featured in on-air contests to determine who looked better, evening gown matches (just re-named with a much more lewd title), fights in the mud, and participated in other demeaning activities.

Trish Stratus, on many occasions during her reign as Women's Champion, would wear clothing that eccentuated her attractiveness just to show that she was more attractive than one of her opponents (especially the women portrayed as prudish, such as Ivory and Molly Holly). Lita defended her title in the lewder-named evening gown match. The treatment of women in WWE (and everywhere in pop culture) is well-documented, but think about it solely from the standpoint of how that made the Women's Championship look -- it made the belt seem worthless.

WWE's women were working extremely hard to be taken seriously, and they put on some tremendous professional wrestling matches when given the opportunity. But while they were doing that, they were still subjected, on worldwide television and pay-per-view, to actions that completely contradicted what they were trying to achieve.