Kevin Eck is a former member of the WWE creative team and now blogs about pro wrestling for PressBox.
"Our fans don't want to see the girls fight like the guys."
That quote is from WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, and I heard it several times during my three years on the WWE creative team (2011-14) when discussing the women's division in booking meetings.
The days of WWE's female performers wrestling in pudding and Bra and Panties Matches (the winner was the first to strip her opponent to her underwear) were long gone by that time, but the women were still branded as "Divas," and McMahon made it clear their role was to provide sex appeal to WWE's TV shows. Women's matches were rarely given more than a few minutes of TV time and were generally treated as filler segments.