by Matthew Caverhill

Created on: December 19, 2009

When I was a child, I remember that in part, it was women’s wrestling that helped sell the the-then WWF to the masses (alongside a certain blonde superstar whose name doesn’t really need to be mentioned). Indeed, it was the feud between rocker Cyndi Lauper and her “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” costar Captain Lou Albano that led to a women’s match between Wendi Richter and The Fabulous Moolah on an MTV special, The Brawl to End it All, which ended up being the most watched program in the history of that channel.

And while there was some exposure for women’s wrestling in the 1980’s following that event, what with the development of companies like the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, as a whole it was never taken very seriously after that initial boom. In the years that followed, women’s wrestling was on and off the dial for various reasons until the late 1990’s in when what amounted to a mini-renaissance in this form of sports entertainment took place, coinciding with the Monday Night Wars and the Attitude Era, and since then, women’s wrestling has had a permanent place on television.

Of course, the last half-decade has seen an explosion in the amount of women’s wrestling that is available for viewers. We live in an age where women’s wrestling appears on not one, not two, but three wrestling shows available over the air or on basic cable, and on one of them (TNA Impact), it is usually the thing that is its best feature. On TNA, I’ve seen more than a few women’s wrestling matches that were stellar and easily held their own with the work their male counterparts are doing. Of course, in most cases, they were performing in matches that might not be available to them in the WWE, and unfortunately, I am hearing inklings that TNA have been toning down types of gimmick matches that their female competitors take part in, which is a real shame. And with the brevity of the women’s matches on WWE, it would seem like a foregone conclusion that perhaps women’s wrestling may be dying.

However, television is not the only place where women’s wrestling has been getting increased exposure. In fact, perhaps there has never been a better time for fans to follow women in sports entertainment. We have more options when it comes to finding quality women’s wrestling, whether it watching matches on video sites, seeking out independent companies with a strong tradition in fostering this

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