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The Women's Revolution and the Women's Evolution (2015 to Present)
While AJ Lee and Paige were attempting to bring some semblance of prestige to the women's division on the main roster, the women in the developmental territory, NXT, were doing their best to make the competitors for the Divas Championship look like untrained amateurs. The collection of women wrestling in NXT from early 2013 until the Stephanie McMahon Officially Sanctioned Divas Revolution in mid-2015 was unbelievable. Paige, Emma, Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair, Bayley, and Becky Lynch were the notable stars, only one of whom didn't succeed on the main roster.
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When Stephanie announced the Revolution in July 2015, three of the four women dubbed the "Four Horsewomen" made their debuts. Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair, and Becky Lynch joined the main roster all at the same time, sparking something of a gang warfare storyline. Becky and Charlotte teamed with NXT alumnus Paige while Sasha aligned herself with Tamina and the up-and-coming Naomi. Nikki Bella was the much-maligned Divas Champion (the top star whom AJ Lee railed against in 2014), and she teamed with her sister, Brie Bella, as well as Alicia Fox.
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Nikki was in the midst of what would become her record-setting second reign, as she would hold the belt for 301 days before losing it to Charlotte in September 2015. It became a main facet of the storyline, as Charlotte, Paige, and Becky (along with the other women and the fans, but mostly those three) fought tooth-and-nail to keep Nikki from becoming the longest-reigning Divas Champion. They would ultimately fail, as Nikki would end up holding the belt for about a week longer than previous record-holder AJ Lee. The storyline epitomized one of the main reasons the Women's Revolution existed -- people wanted "real" wrestlers, not divas parading as wrestlers, fighting for the highest prize for women in the pro wrestling industry.
Charlotte's victory was a huge win for herself and the fans, and it signified that WWE was getting ready to really pull the trigger. The three factions fell to the wayside as time went by, with that storyline over in under 6 months, but the framework for the end of the Divas Title and the re-emergence of the Women's Title was in place, and, just moments before WrestleMania 32 went on the air on April 2, 2016, Lita unveiled the new Women's Championship belt, symbolically throwing the Divas Championship, and the "diva" name, in a trash can. The women were now Superstars, just like the men, and their wrestling matches showed it. Charlotte won the triple threat match between the three members of the Four Horsewomen who were on the main roster and became the first WWE Women's Champion of the current era. The fourth horsewoman, Bayley, had lost the NXT Women's Championship only 24 hours earlier and would join her sisters on the main roster later that summer.
It was a long journey, but finally, 30 years after Vince McMahon brought women's wrestling to the WWF, the women began receiving the treatment that they had fought for and earned.
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