Today, women in WWE are one of the foundations of every live event and TV show, but that wasn’t the case a decade ago.
For years, the WWE Divas division struggled to find ways to have competitive matches in front of crowds that wanted to watch them. In February of 2015, then-WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee had enough of sitting on the sidelines.
Stephanie McMahon had tweeted a thank you to actress Patty Arquette for fighting for women’s rights on a public platform, to which Lee replied, “Your female wrestlers have record selling merchandise & have starred in the highest rated segments of the show several times, and yet they receive a fraction of the wages & screen time of the majority of the male roster.”
The decision to do so rocked social media, and kickstarted the #GiveDivasAChance movement that led to major changes in the presentation of women in WWE.
McMahon and Lee were able to finally address the situation a decade later on McMahon’s podcast this week, where Lee said she felt like she had nothing to lose at the time by speaking up.
“You were champ, so you did have a lot to lose, but the courage that it took to fight for what you believed in. The fact that you were a different character than any type of stereotype. The audience loved you from the start. They connected with you in a special and unique way,” McMahon said.
“I appreciate your directness. I’m a direct person as well. I’m sure some people think I’m rude, but I don’t mean to be. I hate all the BS. Let’s just have the conversation. In preparing for the interview, I read all the backstage gossip about what happened, and I was like, ‘I don’t remember that at the time.’ It’s so interesting because people never really know.”
How AJ Lee’s Post Created Change in WWE
AJ Lee returned to WWE after 10 years away back in September. | WWE
While Stephanie McMahon was a major player in the WWE hierarchy at the time, Vince McMahon still had final say on everything as far as the product was concerned.
“I was actually happy that you posted that. I wasn’t happy that it was directed at me because it wasn’t anything I had direct control over, but I was really happy that you did because the whole women’s evolution in the WWE, it didn’t happen because of executives, maybe along the way, people voicing their opinions,” she said.
“It really happened because of the women who paved the way, all the way back to the beginning of all of these incredible women who have been inside the squared circle, no matter what promotion they were in.”
When the public calls for support from the likes of Lee began, the audience caught on. #GiveDivasAChance began trending on social media, and by the summer (shortly after Lee left the company to go on a 10-year hiatus from wrestling), WWE was ready to invest in featuring women prominently on TV.
“Then, for our audience, when they started Give Divas A Chance at that time, that’s what couldn’t be ignored. The audience would never have gotten behind the movement if it weren’t for people like you, who actually stood up for women publicly and took on the machine a little bit. It was a big deal, I thought,” McMahon said.
Lee would return earlier this year to team with her real-life husband CM Punk against Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins, opening a new chapter for a career built on being bold.
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“I appreciate that,” Lee told McMahon. “Change doesn’t happen unless there is sacrifice. You have to be willing to lose everything to get what you want. Playing it safe doesn’t work. It might give you a safe life, but I don’t know if it gives you an exceptional life. I felt like that was worth it, whatever the backlash was going to be. You were cool after. Everyone was pretty chill. It was business, and I appreciate that. It was a rough time.”
“There were a lot of things happening at the time. I’m sure everyone can read into it however they wanted, but it was so important. It was an important public-facing step.”
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