For the first time ever, women will go on last at WWE’s biggest pay-per-view of the year.
WWE announced Monday that the Raw Women’s Championship match between champion Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair will main-event WrestleMania 35 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on April 7.
BREAKING: #WrestleMania 35 will feature the first-ever women's main event when @RondaRousey, @BeckyLynchWWE, and @MsCharlotteWWE battle for the #RAW #WomensChampionship! https://t.co/kZvtY1hUo3
— WWE (@WWE) March 25, 2019
I ran my mouth, put in the miles, took the bumps and entertained the people till they couldn’t deny me any longer. It’s an emotional day just knowing I get to smash Ronnie and Char in front of the whole world on the biggest stage possible. To the people: THANK YOU. #IAMTHEMAN pic.twitter.com/XKRhMNdz5A
— The Man (@BeckyLynchWWE) March 25, 2019
The WWE came to this conclusion now, basically because the match is loaded with three stars that have outshined their male counterparts. Rousey, a former UFC champion, is the current Raw women’s champion. The Irish-born Lynch, arguably the most popular WWE superstar at the moment, along with Flair, daughter of “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, will be the challengers in a triple-threat contest.
WWE has placed a major emphasis on women’s wrestling in recent years. For the second straight year, WWE held a 30-woman Royal Rumble match to go with the traditional men’s match at January’s pay-per-view at Chase Field in Phoenix. In October, WWE held Evolution, its first-ever all-women’s pay-per-view.
At WrestleMania 32 at AT&T Stadium, Flair, Lynch, and Sasha Banks performed for the newly-created WWE women’s championship, which replaced the outdated Divas championship in a moment of symbolism for the company. WWE also began referring to all of its performers as “superstars” rather than differentiating between men and women by calling the latter “divas.”
Fast forward three manias later, the ladies will close out the show. Many will speculate it’s because of Rousey and her lengthy background to why the WWE is giving the main event slot to these ladies. It’s actually the opposite. The momentum has been building towards female closing out the show for some time now.
