Getty Images
Serena Williams.
- Serena Williams is on WWE's radar.
- According to the company's chief brand officer Stephanie McMahon, the 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion is "awesome."
- Williams would be a welcome addition to the WWE roster, according to McMahon, and would represent a coup for the company as it continues to revamp its women's division.
Serena Williams is being targeted by professional wrestling firm WWE as it continues to revamp its women's division with big-name signings.
Williams is a 23-time Grand Slam champion in tennis, a tutu-wearing badass on the court, and a feminist hero to many off of it.
She is one of the most famous athletes in her sport, is considered the greatest female player in the Open Era of tennis, and would bring a set fanbase with her should she sign terms with WWE once she hangs up her tennis racket for good.
That appears to be what WWE may be banking on, as the company's chief brand officer Stephanie McMahon hints that Williams may well be her ideal signing.
McMahon, daughter of WWE owner Vince McMahon, said: "Serena! I want Serena," when speaking from the company's New York Office, as reported by WWE expert Gary Stonehouse for The Sun. "She's awesome."
Capturing Williams, even if the American only made sporadic WWE appearances, would still be a coup for McMahon considering the company continues to revamp its flourishing women's division.
WWE brought former UFC world champion fighter Ronda Rousey to the business of sports entertainment earlier this year, and she has proven to be a smash hit with fans.
In just half a year, Rousey slammed her boss through a table during a scripted moment on live television, "blew the roof off the joint" in her professional wrestling debut, and was slapped with a "30-day suspension" when she "attacked" her WWE mentor with a briefcase in June.
When she returned, Rousey was a "woman possessed" when she dropped SummerSlam opponent Alexa Bliss on her neck, and won her first ever WWE title in August.
Rousey is one key part in the cog of a machine that is revolutionising women's wrestling. Rousey, after all, was just one of 22 women's wrestlers who took part in Sunday's groundbreaking WWE Evolution event at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in New York. Evolution made history as it is the first WWE pay-per-view (PPV) show to consist solely of women's matches.
For McMahon, the initiative could not have been done without massive fan support. "It would've taken a lot longer," she said, had it not been for fan demand and a recruitment drive she and husband Paul Levesque aka Triple H took part in, to bring as many elite athletes from all over the world, to WWE. "Both male and female."
Women athletes were put under the same exhaustive training regime that the men were required to do, the WWE hired its first female coach, and then increased opportunities for women's appearances at live events. The result was Sunday's PPV show, but the way McMahon tells it, there could be more to come regardless of whether WWE signs Williams or not.