page_title: Women in WWE
section_title: Women's Evolution (2016–present)
hierarchical_section_title: Women in WWE / Women in WWE / Women's Evolution (2016–present)
caption_attribution_description: English: Professional wrestler Becky Lynch in April 2019
context_page_description: Throughout its history, women have served in various onscreen roles in the American professional wrestling promotion WWE. In the 1990s, WWE introduced the term Diva to refer to its female performers. The term was applied to women who appear as wrestlers, managers or valets, backstage interviewers, or ring announcers. The term was discontinued at WrestleMania 32 on April 3, 2016 when the new Women's Championship was introduced. WWE currently refers to their female talent as Women Superstars or simply Superstars.
context_section_description: The WWE Women's Championship would return in the year of 2016 when Lita unveiled a brand-new Women's Championship belt during the WrestleMania 32 pre–show to signify a change in the status of the division. The title shares its name with the original Women's Championship, however, the new title does not share the same title history as the original as it was merged into the Divas Championship in 2010 when it followed its lineage and history. WWE acknowledges the original championship as its predecessor, and notes that the lineage of female champions dates back to The Fabulous Moolah's reign in 1956. The then-current Divas Champion Charlotte would win the new championship by defeating Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks in a triple threat match. This also made the Divas Championship defunct after 8 years, which made Charlotte the final title holder. It was also announced that female performers in the WWE would be referred to as "WWE Superstars" in the future, the same as their male counterparts as the term 'Diva' would be dropped after seventeen years since April 1999 when the company began using the term for the women's division as the focus shifted from sex appeal to athleticism. In addition, women's matches began to increase in episodes of RAW and SmackDown as well as becoming much longer. The following day on Raw, Maryse returned to WWE interfering in her real life husband, The Miz's Intercontinental Championship match against Zack Ryder by helping him win the title for the fifth time. Three months later, WWE would re-introduce the brand extension on July 19 and WWE Women's Champion Charlotte would be drafted to the Raw brand, making the Women's title exclusive to Raw leaving SmackDown without a women's championship yet again for the second time in history.
  Lilian Garcia would depart from the WWE yet again on August 1, 2016 due to personal reasons as her departure would officially leave a brand new generation of WWE female talents. Nikki Bella returned from a legitimate injury at SummerSlam in a six-woman tag team match. The WWE SmackDown Women's Championship was introduced on the August 23, 2016 episode of SmackDown, when SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan and Commissioner Shane McMahon announced the creation of the championship, a SmackDown women's exclusive title and announced that the inaugural champion would be determined at Backlash in a six-pack challenge between Alexa Bliss, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Naomi, Natalya, and Nikki Bella, where Becky Lynch became the inaugural champion. Most of the year of 2016 saw Charlotte and Sasha Banks feuding and trading the WWE Raw Women's Championship including main eventing Raw twice (one in a Falls Count Anywhere match to be contested between women since 2007) since Trish Stratus & Lita in December 2004, for the Women's Championship, competing in the first ever female Hell in a Cell match in WWE history at Hell in a Cell, also the championship was revealed to be the main event of the pay-per-view, marking the first time a women's match would headline a WWE pay-per-view event. Mickie James would return to WWE in a one night only match when it was announced by the company in late October 2016 that she would compete against title holder, Asuka for the NXT Women's Championship in the developmental territory's semi-monthly NXT TakeOver event. On the November 29 edition of SmackDown Live, it was announced that Becky Lynch would defend the SmackDown Women's title against Alexa Bliss at TLC in the second female tables match since 2010, where Bliss defeated Lynch to become new champion.
  Mickie James would return to WWE on the January 17, 2017, episode of SmackDown Live by helping Alexa Bliss retain her SmackDown Women's Championship against Becky Lynch in a main event steel cage match. WWE announced on January 28, 2017 that Nikki Bella would serve as an executive producer for Total Divas starting in the second half of the sixth season in April. Nikki would become the first female talent within the company to become a producer of a company related show. On June 18, at the Money in the Bank p
caption: Lynch defeated both Ronda and Charlotte in first ever Wrestlemania Women's Main Event and is the only woman to hold the WWE Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships concurrently
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