There's been a lot of talk about who started the Women's Revolution in wrestling. Some say it was the WWE's NXT Brand, and women like Paige, Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Bayley and Becky Lynch. Some say it was Stephanie McMahon. Stephanie McMahon has recently said it's the fans.
Well, back in March, former WWE Women's Champion Gail Kim sent Stephanie a tweet stating her belief:
Kim thinks is was TNA Impact Wrestling, not anyone in WWE, that got the lady party started in professional wrestling. This got some attention at the time, as many who read the tweet had some strong feeling about her contention.
Kim was a recent guest on Busted Open Radio, and elaborated on her Tweet from six weeks ago:
"You know, I’ve always been the type of personality – you know me. A lot of people that have worked with me know I’m pretty direct. I’m the type of person – I think my husband has made me worse, because he’s a pretty direct guy. But when I have a spot in my head or a very strong dealing, I just have to let it out. Verbally, physically, who knows? So when I saw that it was kind of like, it was frustrating because – Yes, I feel that Hunter (Hearst Helmsley, aka Triple H) did do a lot for women in NXT. If you actually look up the definition of 'revolution', if you really think about it then the fans really revolutionized women’s wrestling, because they’re the ones that Tweeted at Vince through social media, the power of social media, to say ‘Give Divas a chance.’
But before that, I would say the evolution of women’s wrestling really came from Impact Wrestling, TNA, because at that time I got into wrestling at a time where the girls were doing a great thing, but it was kind of a mix of girls. I thought it was actually a perfect balance where they had Trish, Victoria, Jazz, Ivory, all these great women on RAW, and they’re the ones that inspired me to become a wrestler. Especially Molly. I saw here and I was like ‘Wow this girl is different and she moves like an athlete in the ring.’ I just really loved her, and that was the reason I got into wrestling. But at the same time, they had this perfect balance of Torrie and Stacy and these sexy girls who, not necessarily wanted to wrestle, but still wanted to entertain in their own right. Then we kind of had that era where we did wrestle, but then it kind of went away and just got killed. For me, people might kind of look at it and go ‘Well, Sensational Sherri and The Fabulous Moolah’ of course I give my props.
They’re the ones that were the wrestlers in the beginning. But when it gets killed, women’s wrestling was dead for a while. That’s why I had something to fight for in Impact Wrestling, and they took time with it. It took about a year and a half for me to basically fight, fight, and fight. They finally did it and we were virtually a success almost overnight. We didn’t think it was going to happen, we didn’t know what was going to happen, but it just happened with Kong and I. They kept things really simple and I don’t know if it was because we were an after thought and ‘Okay let's bring in all these girls and -‘ Jackie and I had kind of proven ourselves before that, they kind of tested the waters and when they brought all these girls in, and we took the ball and ran with it, they never stopped.
Impact Wrestling has never stopped with women’s wrestling. When I left after that, to go back to WWE, they never stopped. They brought in women’s tag titles, and I’ve never seen than ever waver from how they portray the girls. And then they have that ‘give Divas a chance’ whole, what do you want to call it? A revolution. Yeah, WWE is a company that is mainstream and gets more coverage, obviously, but I think that all comes from somewhere else. And that was Impact Wrestling. WWE can say they don’t watch Impact and TNA but I know that’s a lie. They would tell me all the time ‘We don’t watch it, we don’t watch what happened back then with you and Kong.’ Oh okay, then why did you hire us?
If you didn’t see us in TNA – you hired us back for a reason, it’s not like we’re doing nothing during those years, and all of a sudden you’re like ‘Okay let’s hire these two girls.’ So it was just funny. I think, yes, give credit where credit is due. I think Hunter did a great job with it, the NXT girls. That’s pretty much where Charlotte and Sasha and Becky and Bayley, they pretty much but their mark on the business and that was great. I support those girls one hundred million percent. Those girls are doing what I wanted to do back then. I get it, I get their passion. I just think that Impact Wrestling needs to get their credit because they gave us that chance to never stop.“
