WWE WrestleMania main event: Evolution achieved as women headline for first time?
Sunday 7 April 2019 22:10, UK
One month into the role of WWE Editor with Sky Sports, I was given my first interview assignment: a conference call with the then-women’s champion Charlotte Flair.
The call took place around six weeks before the 2018 Royal Rumble, where a women's version of the 30-participant elimination match would take place for the first time.
As one of two champions - the other being Alexa Bliss on Raw - Flair would not compete in it, a ruling which she was asked about several times on the call by various outlets.
She felt mixed emotions - disappointment from missing out, but pride that such a ground-breaking event was taking place.
As well as that repeated query, there was one other question asked of Flair at regular intervals on that December afternoon: will a women's match ever be the WrestleMania main event?
While it is hard to be absolutely precise, it is a question which I think has been asked of every female superstar I have ever heard interviewed.
That is, until last autumn, when it became clear that the women's division was the hottest part of WWE's output, and that a main event at WrestleMania not only could happen, but absolutely should.
Becky Lynch's popularity was exploding after she was denied a champion-against-champion Survivor Series match with Ronda Rousey, and, after Flair stepped up to take her place and deliver a viciously brutal contest, there was no looking back. From that point, the women had to be the main event.
It came just a month after WWE had staged the first all-women's pay-per-view in their history, ticking off another milestone on the road towards full equality between the two rosters. It was called Evolution - and evolution was exactly what was happening.
The truth of that statement was there for everyone to see at the company's dates on their United Kingdom tour. In Nottingham, this reporter witnessed boys chanting for women wrestlers, as living, breathing, and screaming embodiments of the changing attitudes in the stands.
There had already been a women's Elimination Chamber match last year, and this year they doubled down on the advancement with it, minting new women's tag-team champions in the process.
Bayley and Sasha Banks took the crown, almost certainly - but unofficially - a reward for their direct-to-Vince McMahon campaigning behind the scenes for the titles to be introduced.
And so the WrestleMania main event remains the final item on the list to be checked off.
Whether it would be happening were it not for the presence in the company of a legitimate star from elsewhere in Rousey is a discussion for another time. The gut feeling is that it perhaps would not be.
But Lynch is the most popular competitor in the world right now. and is in the correct position at the top of the card. Flair is wrestling royalty and makes every match that she is in better.
The match deserves to go on last. Some questionable booking in its build-up aside, it is the program which has captured the imagination of the fans with the most consistency for the past six months.
When the dust has settled on the match in the very small hours of Monday morning, there will be no questions left to ask female superstars about what the next steps are on the road to evolution. The journey will be complete.
