Trivia / WWE Women's Evolution

• Creator Backlash:
  • Becky Lynch spoke quite openly about disliking how the 2015 'Divas Revolution' storyline started, in her words "just random tag team matches and being like 'here, there's girls, we're doing things with them'."
  • Nikki Bella detailed a section in her and Brie's autobiography on how she hated the way the storyline framed her, Brie, Alicia Fox and the women of the Diva Era as holding the division back; feeling it invalidated everyone's hard work. She admitted to suffering Creator Breakdown as she had to remind herself it was just a storyline. She did however praise Charlotte Flair and the women involved.
• Creator's Apathy: During this time, Emma was planned to be repackaged as 'Emmalina', a throwback to the glamorous Divas of the past. The debut kept being pushed back for weeks because the higher-ups felt she wasn't performing it right, and she herself later said how she felt the gimmick wasn't her, so she put very little effort into it. Indeed, the night of the actual debut, she appeared just to announce that she'd be going back to her old gimmick.
• God Never Said That: Sasha Banks has had to refute claims that she didn't like the women of the Diva Era, especially in light of the promos she had to cut in 2016. She insisted that she disliked the booking and the way the women were presented, not the talent themselves, and pointed out that she was signed during the tail end of that era and the first thing she did was buy several bikinis in anticipation of the swimsuit contests she'd likely have to do.
• Playing Against Type: This era marked the only time that Nikki Bella had been pushed not only as a singles competitor, but as a face - as she normally played the Evil Twin whenever she and Brie were pit against each other.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Becky Lynch's place in the Divas Revolution storyline was originally meant for Bayley. Down on NXT, Becky had just begun a storyline feud with Sasha Banks over the title, while Bayley seemed primed for a call-up. Bayley however had an injury, so the spot was given to Becky instead. This ended up working out for both, since Becky became the first Smackdown Women's Champion and Bayley became the top face of NXT.
  • The entire secondary feud on Smackdown in 2016 would have been radically different had it not been for Eva Marie's suspension^note She tested positive for Adderal but the paperwork was submitted too late, and it was counted as a Wellness Policy violation. right before SummerSlam. Nikki Bella was chosen as her last-minute replacement, and got a positive reception for her return. As a result, they pulled a Face/Heel Double-Turn with her and Carmella to capitalize on it.
  • Paige was meant to play a much bigger part in the division in 2016, but injuries and personal problems saw her being inactive until a re-debut in 2017 heading the stable Absolution...and then having to retire only weeks into the storyline when her injuries caught up to her.