Stephanie McMahon Explains Why WWE Got Rid Of The Term “Diva”

Stephanie McMahon recently published a blog entry on ThePlayersTribune.com titled, A Redefining Moment. In her column, she discussed the reasoning behind getting rid of the term “Diva” and how now both the men and women wrestlers will be referred to as “Superstars.”

The following is an excerpt from that blog.

The message from our fan base around the world during those 72 hours was resounding: They wanted to see our female performers in more prominent storylines, with deeper character development, and they wanted to see them compete in longer matches. This sentiment resonated so strongly throughout WWE that our Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon responded with a tweet of his own, “We hear you, keep watching #GiveDivasAChance.”

“Divas” is how WWE branded our female performers starting in 2008, in an effort to give them a more prominent role. As a point of reference, our male performers are known as Superstars. It was so successful, it led to the creation of a WWE reality show, Total Divas, and launched the careers of those who have become household names, like the Bella Twins, Natalya, Paige, Alicia Fox and Eva Marie.

The role of women in WWE has continued to evolve. For the first time in WWE history, Sasha Banks and Bayley became the first women to main event an NXT pay-per-view, and they tore the house down. In fact, their match the month before at NXT TakeOver was voted “match of the year” by our fan base. And earlier tonight, at WrestleMania, Charlotte, Sasha and Becky competed in a triple threat match, which ultimately saw Charlotte leave as the champion.

Our female performers are world-class athletes, actors, public speakers and philanthropists. They’re role models, inspiring and empowering women and girls to be confident and strong. They dedicate themselves to WWE, achieve great success and earn the same respect as their male counterparts.

Therefore, from this point forward, all of our performers – male and female – will be known as “Superstars.”

You can read Stephanie’s blog entry in it’s entirety right here.

Mark’s reaction: Makes total sense as to why WWE did away with the term Diva, even if Stephanie didn’t really come right out and say it in the excerpt above. She kind of fed around the bush a lot, but we all know what she means. Using the term “Divas” was successful for the time because it ushered in a popular television series for WWE. However, female wrestling in WWE is changing, so if they want to be taken seriously they can’t be referred to as “Divas” anymore.

I love bringing back the Women’s Championship and giving it a new look. I also really like how it resembles the WWE Championship. It’s the WWE’s way of saying that both titles are on the same level of importance. Even if that’s not necessarily true just yet, that’s likely the new designs goal.

What makes me curious about the change is what happens/how do they explain the Total Divas reality series. They can say that it’s just the name of the show, but it’s pretty much calling a chunk of their female wrestlers “Divas.”

Picture used above is courtesy of WWE.com.