Stephanie McMahon on Women’s Division, Storytelling, Women’s Rev., More

The Times of India held a recent interview with Stephanie McMahon discussing WWE’s Women’s division, WWE staying relevant in wrestling, Triple H’s role in the Women’s Revolution, and more.

On the topic of WWE’s current generation of women wrestlers, Stephanie stated one of WWE’s main goals is to be able to convey a message of empowerment to fans. She mentioned Alexa Bliss and Sasha Banks as examples of those on the roster who overcame tough real life struggles to get where they are today in the WWE.

“Even real life story of what is happening, like for example Alexa Bliss overcame a eating disability that almost killed her twice, look at where she is today.

You think about Sasha Banks who stayed at home as a kid to help her teach her brother who is autistic, so her mother could go to work and who was homeless for number of years. You thin bout her story, that perseverance is a real-life story we all can be inspired by. With digital and social media, the purpose of that platform for me is also about inspiring and putting out a positive message.”

On the topic of WWE’s Women’s Revolution, Stephanie credited Triple H for being the main person responsible for it. She stated he made sure they had access to the same training and opportunities needed to succeed as their male counterparts got in NXT.

“In terms of WWE, Paul Leveque (Triple H) started recruiting elite athletes from all over the world, both male and female and he started training them the same way as men, he the same opportunity to tell stories in the ring, the same as men and what resulted was a huge ground swell of our audience chanting for our women and chanting women’s wrestling and ‘This is Wrestling’ and it really gave rise to the voice of our audience and they knew they could impact the content of our show.”

On the topic of WWE staying relevant in wrestling, Stephanie stated it is due to their storytelling capabilities and keeping fans interested in their shows.

“The real reason why WWE remains so relevant and continues to grow over the past 50 years, is we are all about storytelling – no different than a famous Opera, play, book or a Sitcom. It is protagonist vs antagonist with conflict resolution; the only difference is our conflict are settled inside a 20×20 foot ring with some of the great live action you can see in sports and entertainment. And when you have that connection with the audience, when audience is part of the show influencing the storytelling and you have larger than life, still relatable characters, the audience has the opportunity to engage and live their fantasy through these characters which is no different than any other form of media and that really is the secret to or our success.”

Other topics discussed included the #GiveDivasAChance movement, WWE’s involvement with charities, and Ronda Rousey.