It has been rumored for some time that WWE wanted to do a women’s tournament like they did with the Cruiserweights over the summer, and it appears as if it will most certainly happen in 2017. The rumor began to take shape earlier this year when WWE was actually just getting the Cruiserweight Classic ready to go. WWE had it in draft, if you will, for most of the year.
However, WWE decided to wait and for good reason. They had no idea how the CWC would actually do. It was on the WWE Network, and WWE had never tried this before with their network either. They needed the CWC to be a success before they ever put the women’s tournament together. Thankfully, the CWC became a massive success for the WWE, so much so that there are plans to do it again next summer.
The success of the CWC helped WWE to realize a women’s tournament may also succeed. The tournament seems to be the brainchild of both Triple H and his wife, Stephanie McMahon. Early on, we were hearing Stephanie was the biggest proponent of the tournament and her being involved was surely going to mean it was going to happen. When Stephanie wants something, she tends to get it. She tends to always represent the business well in that department, so no one can hate her for getting her way when it’s really for the betterment of the WWE as a whole.
[Image by SHIMMER]
A women’s tournament makes sense, both on paper and in real life terms. The CWC proved the tournament model can work for today’s WWE fan to care about, which means they would tune into great women’s wrestling. This is why fans have seemingly gotten through the never ending Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks rivalry. Obviously you’ve seen enough of the storyline, but the matches never seem to disappoint and are always worth the watch.
Having a tournament with some of the best women in the world, many of which the WWE would love to sign eventually would be terrific. The question is, who is on deck to be brought in for the tournament next year? According to Ringside News, Kimber Lee, Evie, Nixon Newell and Heidi Lovelace have all been contacted to be part of the tournament. Deonna Purrazzo and Rachel Ellering are also in plans to be part of the tournament. WWE is doing even more tryouts to add others too.
WWE seems to have a good relationship with indie companies, unlike before. This has allowed them to have a good talk with the people of WWN Live, which has allowed them to use some of their talent. However, they have also managed to do well in talks with other indie companies like Progress and ICW, both of which have women who could be good for this if available.
Obviously, WWE would want to contact all female promotions like SHIMMER, who could provide them a lot of great women. Keep in mind, a lot of WWE’s best female talent went through SHIMMER at one time or another. This is not even including talent that have expressed interest in joining WWE in the past, like Velvet Sky, who happens to also be available right now for hire.
[Image by TNA Wrestling]
This also does not include women who have expressed an interest in joining the tournament itself, like one of the best TNA Knockouts Champions of all time, Angelina Love. WWE very well could be bringing in a lot of women who are well known in many circles. They are certainly going to bring girls in that you may have never seen before, just like they did with the CWC.
It is uncertain what all the women would get if they are part of the action. Obviously many would get signed if they can be, which would make a lot of fans happy. However, this is actually more than a try-out for WWE, it is one for the fans. People like Cedric Alexander gave us a great match with Kota Ibushi and even in a loss fans were still chanting “please sign Cedric,” which was unplanned and not rehearsed for them to say. That said, some women could become stars here where the fans demand they be signed and the WWE will most certainly do it in response.
One would imagine a trophy would be given to the woman who wins, but more than this the WWE could be giving the woman who wins a title match with possibly the NXT Women’s Champion Asuka. While this is unknown as of now, one would imagine that WWE would consider this since she has cleaned out the division already. This is big for WWE as well, as they will now have more women to use just to continue stacking their growing list of impressive female WWE Superstars.
[Featured Image by WWE]