Becky Lynch Spells Out The Importance Of The Wrestling Industry Tapping Into Its Women Fanbase

While there can easily be arguments about whether or not enough has changed, it can't really be argued against that the presentation of women on main roster WWE programming has progressed greatly in the last eight years. 

The idea of treating women strictly as eye candy was done away with, as was the "Divas" branding for the most part, with the women's division being presented much more in an athletic context. Though the balance has shifted lately, women often carry episodes of "WWE Raw," taking the focus away from the male wrestlers. Becky Lynch laid out the importance of the growing share of the fanbase women have while appearing on Steve A. Smith's "Know Mercy" podcast.

"I think our female audience is 40% now?" she began. "And I think you get that relatability. For example, the UFC, I prefer watching the women fight, because I'm a woman, so I can picture myself in that regard. It's just ... we're all just people doing a sport. We're all just telling stories. I think, gender aside, we do bring in a larger female audience because we show what [women are] capable [of]. But, in general, I think we're at this stage, where, gender be damned, we're just flowing with our stories and we're just [WWE] Superstars." 

After an interjection from Smith, she clarified that she "was talking about 'gender be damned' in terms of storylines," that everyone is a top star who can be in the main event. Lynch also added that she feels that the female audience also buys more merchandise. "Well, we like to shop a lot," she said. "So we spend a lot of money."

Lynch, Lita, and Trish Stratus were victorious at WrestleMania, defeating Damage CTRL on night one of the show.