How the WWE Four Horsewomen changed women’s wrestling

The Main Event of WrestleMania

It was Survivor Series 2018 and in the grand tradition, the women’s champions from Raw and SmackDown were supposed to face each other. At that time Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch were the respective champions and the fact that they were going to have a match set the world on fire before they even began promoting it.

Rousey was the biggest name in the WWE at the time and Lynch’s star was rising just as high. The two were a combustible element waiting to explode in an epic match. But a week before the iconic clash an injury sustained by Lynch would change the course of history.

The “go-home” episode of Raw saw Lynch lead a charge with her sisters in blue against the Raw women’s locker room. During the brawl, Lynch took an errant right hand from Nia Jax which left her bloody and concussed. Unaware of the extent of the injury at the time, Lynch continued to pummel Rousey before scaling the steps of the arena and posing for what is now a legendary image. Blood dripping down her face and wearing a half-smile, the pose told everyone Lynch was the leader now.

But with WWE’s concussion protocols in place, Lynch would be forced to pull out from the Survivor Series match and named Charlotte Flair as her replacement. With less than a week to prepare, Rousey and Flair put on a juggernaut of a match. By the end of it, Flair had snapped, leaving Rousey in a broken heap after multiple strikes with a kendo stick. Now Rousey was out for revenge on both Flair and Lynch.

Restless in her recovery, and refusing to be knocked back down to the end of the line, Lynch ignited a Twitter war with Rousey that kept fans entertained and anticipating when the two of them would lock horns. Fast forward through a lot of chaotic booking and the three women became destined to meet on holy ground: WrestleMania 35. It is a testament to the effort of all three women promoting the hell out of the match that got them the coveted main event spot for the first time in 35 years.

But in the end there could be only one winner and Lynch was too white-hot to stop. She emerged victorious as the first woman to pin Rousey, the second foreigner ever to headline WrestleMania behind Andre the Giant, and the first to win both the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships at the same time.