The Shadow
Thirty-four WrestleMania’s have come and gone.
Thirty-four WrestleMania Main Events.
Thirty-four individual wrestlers have been in the main event of WrestleMania.
Fifteen individual wrestlers have been in multiple WrestleMania main events.
Of those fifteen, five of them have competed in five or more main events; The Rock, John Cena, Hulk Hogan, Triple H and Shawn Michaels.
Nineteen individual wrestlers have been in the main event one time.
All thirty-four WrestleMania main events and all thirty-four individual wrestlers that have competed in the main event of WrestleMania are all males.
This year, on April 7, 2019 at WrestleMania 35 from MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, that changes as history will be made. For the first time ever, women will main event WrestleMania.
Ronda Rousey (Raw Women’s Champion) versus Charlotte Flair (Smackdown Women’s Champion) versus Becky Lynch is the main event of WrestleMania 35.
It was announced on March 25th by WWE.com that the women will headline WrestleMania 35 as the main event.
And just like that, history was made.
November 22, 2014 The Four Horsewomen was born.
Members; Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Bayley.
August 22, 2015 at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, NY at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, Sasha Banks (c) and Bayley tore the down the roof at the Barclay’s Center as Bayley went on to defeat Sasha Banks for the NXT Women’s Championship.
After that match, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair came into the ring to greet Sasha and Bayley. Sasha and Bayley hugged and the four of them raised the others arms in the air and held out their hands & put up four fingers to symbolize The Four Horsewomen.
In my opinion, the women’s evolution was born that night.
No longer were there gimmick women’s matches such as bra & panties matches, mud wrestling matches or pillow fight matches. No longer were the women left off shows. No longer were women left off WrestleMania. No longer were women’s matches in 30 seconds or less. And no longer were they called the Divas division.
After that moment, the women’s professional wrestling division was changed and has led us to the moment of women main eventing WrestleMania for the first time ever.
I remember after that moment on August 22, 2015 when Bayley and Sasha Banks had not only one of the best women’s match of 2015, but best match period of 2015, I told my friends that in a few years, that these women would headline WrestleMania as the last match.
Prediction – correct!
Some will say the women’s division started years prior to these women. And that is ones opinion. This one is mine.
While the women prior to The Four Horsewomen were very talented from the likes of Beth Phoenix, Natalya, Michelle McCool, Layla, Candice Michelle and etc., they just were never given the chance like today’s women wrestlers.
Once The Four Horsewomen came, it all changed and they were recognized for their talent.
One name I have not talked much about, she is one of the women competing in the main event of WrestleMania 35 and is the Raw Women’s Champion, Ronda Rousey. The same Ronda Rousey who is the former UFC Women’s Heavyweight Champion. Rousey recently went on to say that, if it wasn’t for her, the women would not be the main event of WrestleMania 35.
I agree and disagree with that statement.
Rousey’s name, it screams headline. It screams main event. She main evented UFC pay per views multiple times. And her name and her athleticism helps get the women into the main event. That part I agree with.
I, however, disagree as well. I disagree because eventually with this group of women in today’s women’s division, it was bound to happen in WWE. We were bound to get to this point. Whether it was Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Asuka, or whomever, it was bound to happen as the women’s division in wrestling has never been better or more talented. Eventually that talent would have garnered a spot in the main event of a WrestleMania.
But yes, Ronda being there in WWE, it helps and helped get the women into the main event of WrestleMania 35.
It is one of the biggest if not biggest main events of a WrestleMania. Think how big this is for parents with little girls who look up to these women and want to be them with the grow up. This is huge for those girls who idolize them and want to be them one day. To see them as the main attraction, it gives them hope that they could be there one day as well.
This is main event match is not just for the fans of wrestling, it’s for all those looking up to them and knowing that one day they can do that as well.
When Ronda was brought in to WWE last year, I knew we were going to see her in the main event. Rousey has only been in WWE for a year and is already in the main event. More importantly, the women are the main event.
When Ronda was brought in, the match that I and many wanted to see was Ronda versus Charlotte Flair. At the Survivor Series pay per view in November of 2018, we got to see that match. It was not originally supposed to happen at Survivor Series. The match was supposed to be Becky Lynch versus Ronda one on one, but Becky was legitimately hurt by a concussion delivered by Nia Jaxx on the Raw before Survivor Series. At Survivor Series, Ronda and Charlotte had a phenomenal match in my view. The match ended in a disqualification after Charlotte hit Ronda with a kendo stick. Even though there was no build, the hype was there for that match and they delivered.
There was one thing though that happened during that time, Becky Lynch’s popularity kept growing. Fans wanted Becky versus Ronda. At the 2019 Royal Rumble, Becky won the women’s Royal Rumble match. She chose to challenge the Raw Champion, Ronda Rousey. But storyline wise, they had Becky have a banged up left knee and Chairman of WWE, Vince McMahon kicked Becky out and inserted Charlotte into the match instead.
In a match at Fastlane, Becky won her way back into the Raw Women’s Title match after beating Charlotte by disqualification when Ronda attacked Becky. It was then announced a few weeks later that the triple threat Raw Women’s Championship would be the main event of WrestleMania 35.
We are all entitled to our opinion and for those saying Ronda Rousey did not pay her dues to be in the main event, that’s their opinion. But on a recent episode of Busted Open Radio on SiriusXM Radio, Natalya (daughter of the late Jim Neidhart) called in and said Ronda paid her dues. Natalya was there with Ronda the whole way. From Ronda’s first day at the WWE Performance Center in Florida to now, headlining WrestleMania 35.
To throw a curveball to all of this, on the March 26, 2019 episode of Smackdown Live, Charlotte won the Smackdown Women’s Championship from Asuka. Now you have the Smackdown and Raw women’s champion in the main event along with Becky Lynch.
We won’t know if both titles are on the line or not, but what we know is, the women are main eventing WrestleMania 35 and I cannot wait.
This is going to be historic, groundbreaking and all the above. I do not know how you cannot be excited for this match. The visual of seeing these women main event in the last match of WrestleMania is going to be surreal. For those in attendance at WrestleMania, get that camera ready because that moment the bell rings, it’s going to be a picture worth more than a thousand words.
While I am more than sure we will see more women main event WrestleMania, there will only be that first time ever. You couldn’t ask for a better matchup to see for the first time ever. The hype is there. The fan favorite is there. The one you want to lose is there. It is all here for any fan of wrestling. This is the one match I am most looking forward to the most!
(Photo Courtesy of wwe.com)
