Becky Lynch has responded to reports that WWE has renamed their women’s title in NXT from the ‘NXT Women’s Championship to just the ‘NXT Championship’, dropping the word ‘women’.
The initial report came from Mike Johnson of PW Insider, who said the NXT Women’s title is going to be simply known as the NXT Championship, the exact same name as the title Adam Cole holds.
The name change also comes after The Man’s passionate speech on WWE Backstage this past Tuesday, where she pushed for more gender equality in WWE.
The Man said: “The best thing for the women’s division right now is we eliminate the term ‘women’s.’ It’s now starting to hold us back.
“We’re now going, ‘this is the women’s segment. this is the women’s thing.’ Why do we need that division?
“We need people, we need characters, we need people looking for the main event spot. Not the top women’s spot. The top spot.
“What are people doing to be the main event, to be on the covers of the video games, the cereal boxes, whatever it is? [Gender] shouldn’t be an issue at this point. We’re past making history. We’ve made all the history.
“Sure, of course, there’s always going to be more history to be made, but that’s out of the equation now. Let’s normalize it,”
In response to the title name change report, Becky Lynch sent out a tweet clarifying her position further.
Lynch tweeted: “My comment about removing the word “women” from the conversion wasn’t about renaming a division, it was about beginning to rethink it.
“I wasn’t advocating for any changes in title names or anything else (like I’d have the power)—but simply an equal volume of opportunities that are based on skill, and not gender.
“The term “women” can limit openings because phrases like, “there’s already a women’s match on the show” is still in wrestling’s historical DNA.
“We’re all just Superstars who want our shots and places on the shows if we earn and deserve them.
“I’d simply love us to get a place where there’s three “women’s matches” on PPV, or ten…. or none if it so happens we’re not serving the audience.”
It’s currently unclear if WWE will be following suit on their red and blue brands and changing the names of the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships as well.
