{"id":28855,"date":"2018-10-18T22:06:24","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T02:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=28855"},"modified":"2019-06-03T10:50:24","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T14:50:24","slug":"pro-wrestling-eve-redefining-womens-wrestling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/10\/18\/pro-wrestling-eve-redefining-womens-wrestling\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro Wrestling EVE: Redefining Women’s Wrestling"},"content":{"rendered":"

While women independent wrestlers are gaining more steam in the international wrestling scene and indie boom of the current era, it’s sometimes easy to forget the promotions that were\u00a0strictly<\/em> women’s wrestlers, born out of a repressive culture in mainstream (and to an extent indie) promotions that kept women’s matches to a minimum and still had a mentality that women couldn’t be viable draws. While IMPACT Wrestling<\/strong> and Ring of Honor<\/strong> brought in women in the early stages of their history and with far more respect than women had seen in years, the options still weren’t there like was for the men, in regards to room on most rosters.<\/p>\n

The need for women’s promotions that could fully utilize the growing surge of young women becoming pro wrestlers was apparent – not since All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling (AJW)<\/strong> pushed its way into the history books of the industry in 1968 has other global territories needed a platform for its women talent base to thrive. Thanks to the revolution of AJW, joshi\u00a0<\/em>wrestling has become big business in Japan, with the likes of Stardom, Sendai Girls, Pure-J<\/strong> and OZ Academy<\/strong> creating international stars.\u00a0In the US, it was lead by SHIMMER<\/strong>, founded in 2005 by former ROH employee Dave Prazak<\/strong> and women’s indie wrestler Allison Danger<\/strong>. SHIMMER’s initial success lead to other all-women’s promotions throughout the country, like Women Superstars Uncensored<\/strong> (WSU, 2006), Shine Wrestling<\/strong> (2012), Queens of Combat (QOC, 2014) and Women Wrestling Revolution (WWR, 2016).<\/p>\n

Pro Wrestling EVE: Redefining Women’s Wrestling<\/h2>\n

In the UK, it was one of the UK’s wrestling icons, “Sweet Saraya” Knight<\/strong> of the infamous Knight Family (and mother of WWE Superstar Paige) that kicked off the UK’s women’s revolution, creating the World Association of Women’s Wrestling (WAWW)<\/strong>, the sister promotion to her and her husband Ricky Knight<\/strong>‘s World Association of Wrestling (WAW)<\/strong>. In 2013, it was rebranded as Bellatrix<\/strong>. But while WAW was hugely influential in the development of future women’s wrestlers, it wasn’t until Emily Read<\/em><\/strong> and her husband Dann<\/strong> got together to create something special in 2010. The all-women’s promotion Pro Wrestling: EVE<\/strong>.<\/p>\n