Send the Girls Out!: What #GiveDivasAChance Means for Wrestling.

September 18, 1956. The smoke filled arena bustles in the middle of Baltimore Maryland. The fans shift in their seats as they watch the Fabulous Moolah and Judy Grable walk to the ring. These two women have fought tooth and nail to survive through a tournament to crown the NWA's first ever women's champion. The air is thick tonight. The crowd knows they're seeing history in the making. The sound of the bell echoes through the arena, and when it rings again, future Hall of Famer The Fabulous Moolah is standing tall with the Women's title in her hands.

For a long time (and often times still today) in the United States women's wrestling was treated like a side show act. They would be brought out infrequently, much like midget wrestlers, to give the crowd something different to watch for a bit. Of course it has evolved over the years. It has been a side show, ignored, used for the purposes of sexual titillation, and treated as a serious sport. You can see it switch between these representations, often depending on how many women are watching the product at any given time. Why does this matter? Well we need to know about the history of women's wrestling if we're going to talk about the future.

If you have been a wrestling fan for any length of time, you know we're just coming out of an era where female wrestlers were treated like sex objects and little more. That ended rather abruptly, and I honestly don't think it's something you'll ever see return, thanks in part to internet porn. I know that sounds crazy, but when you can see virtually anyone you want naked by clicking a link, the fanbase tends to demand less sexualization from other forms of media. The biggest problem with this is that they went from being sex objects, to being largely ignored. Often getting very little time, and being given scripts that seem to have been written for a terrible high school melodrama.

Many of these same problems still plague the women's division, but with the advent of Total Divas, WWE has realized that the Divas can make them plenty of money without putting out swimsuit calendars or competing in bra and panties matches. Thanks to the popularity of Total Divas, we are also seeing the return of something we once thought long lost, the female wrestling fan. There are more women watching professional wrestling now than ever before, and they, along with a good number of male fans, have been crying out for the company to give the Divas a chance to truly entertain us.

While this outcry has been helped by Total Divas, the true catalyst has been the audience watching NXT, and getting to see their women's division treated like a legitimate competition, and often having matches that outshine the men. The fans have gotten a taste, and now we want this same respect and attention given to the Divas on the main show. We want to see them treated like athletes competing for a title, rather than school girls having pathetic, petty feuds where they call each other ugly and steal each other's ring gear.

Now, will professional wrestling always be a male dominated form of entertainment? Probably. Nowhere near as many women aspire to be involved with it. That doesn't mean the women's division should be treated like a joke. Ronda Rousey has proven that women can be marketable commodities in combat sports, and there is no reason professional wrestling can't make the change. It does you no good to have an entire division viewed as a pointless bathroom break filler. It insults the female fans, as well as the intelligence of the male fans who know that women can fight.

How does WWE change the perception of the female performers in their company? It's going to take a lot, but not as much as you might think. It really comes down to one thing, treat them like athletes. They're not girls. They're female competitors fighting for a prize, just like the men. Write for them with that in mind. Promote the talented wrestlers over the pretty faces, and give them enough time to have a decent match. I can think of very few wrestlers, male or female, who could get over with three minutes a week.

We're not asking for much. We're not asking for four Divas matches on every card. We just want one or two really good ones. I honestly thought this whole thing was done. When I watched Lita and Trish Stratus tear down the house in the main event of Raw, I really thought that that was the signal that we were going to see the women's division treated with respect. I thought we would see women in the main event more often going forward. It hasn't happened since, and that was almost a decade ago.

They have the talent. Charlotte Flair, Natalya, Bayley, Sasha Banks, AJ Lee, Naomi, all incredibly talented wrestlers and overall performers. You just have to give them decent writing, and the time to have a good match. WWE has said they heard our pleas to give the Divas a chance, but they seem to think that means we want two 3 minute Divas matches per show instead of one. What we want is to see a women's division we can enjoy watching, and not feel embarrassed to have our friends see when they finally give wrestling a shot.

We can speculate all day on why women have had such trouble wrestling in the United States. Is it misogyny within the business? Is it that they're often not trained as well, or paid as much attention to? Is it because certain fans just don't buy women as wrestlers? It's probably a little of all those things. The one thing I do know is that the time has come for it to end. We as fans now often find ourselves watching NXT just as much for the women as we do the men, and there's no reason the main shows can't be the same way.

I'm not going to pretend I have all the answers, but I do know WWE is taking the wrong approach, and they need to catch up with the times, or they'll be left behind and look like dinosaurs. This is something wrestling fans are all too used to seeing, and we're tired of it. So please, WWE, from me, and every wrestling fan I know, we're begging you to give the Divas a chance.