page_title: Women in WWE
section_title: Divas Championship and title unification (2008–2012)
hierarchical_section_title: Women in WWE / Women in WWE / Divas Championship and title unification (2008–2012)
caption_attribution_description: English: Layla as the WWE Women's Champion during a WWE live event in 2010.
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 Divas Championship was introduced in middle-2008 on the June 6, 2008 episode of SmackDown, when then SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero announced the creation of the championship, a SmackDown Diva exclusive title. Natalya and Michelle McCool became the first two contenders for the new championship, and, at The Great American Bash, McCool defeated Natalya to become the inaugural champion.
  At WrestleMania XXV, former WWE Divas Sunny, Victoria, Molly Holly, Torrie Wilson, Miss Jackie, and Joy Giovanni returned to WWE for a one night special appearance in the 25 Divas Battle Royal match to crown Miss Wrestlemania. During the 2009 WWE draft, then Women's Champion Melina was drafted to the SmackDown brand, making the Women's title exclusive to SmackDown. Later that same night, then Divas Champion Maryse was drafted to the Raw brand, making the championship exclusive to Raw, effectively switching both female champions and championships between brands for the first time in history. At The Bash in 2009, Michelle McCool defeated Melina to capture the Women's Championship and became the first Diva to have ever held both the Women's Championship and the Divas Championship. Mickie James defeated Maryse on July 26, 2009 at Night Of Champions, ending Maryse's reign at 216 days (also the longest reign of the title at the time) and becoming the second Diva to hold the Divas Championship and Women's Championship. James lost the title 78 days later to Jillian Hall on Raw, where Hall lost the title four minutes later to Melina who became the third woman to hold both titles.
  On February 22, 2010 episode of Raw, Maryse won again the Divas Championship after defeating Gail Kim in a tournament, becoming the first Diva to hold the title twice. On the April 12, episode of Raw, Eve Torres won the Divas Championship by defeating Maryse thus becoming the first Diva Search winner to win the Divas Championship. Mickie James was released from WWE on April 22, causing a lot of controversy. Beth Phoenix became the new Women's Champion for the third time on April 25, 2010 in an Extreme Makeover at Extreme Rules pay-per-view. On the May 14, 2010 episode of SmackDown, Layla won the Women's Championship for the first time by defeating Beth Phoenix in a two-on one tornado handicap match with Michelle McCool thus become the only British Women's Champion (McCool was unofficially the co-champion During this reign, she defended the championship in Layla's place on some occasions, but was not officially recognized as the title holder).
  At Night of Champions 2010, the Divas Championship was unified with the Women's Championship as then Divas Champion Melina faced then-self professed co-Women's Champion Michelle McCool in a lumberjill match. McCool won the match to unify the two titles due to interference from Layla, then McCool locked in her finisher, thus creating the Unified Divas Championship following the lineage and history of the Divas Championship. This also made the Women's Championship defunct after 54 years, which made Layla the final title holder. McCool lost the title to Natalya on 21 November 2010 at Survivor Series in a handicap match involving Layla, and then they competed against Natalya and Beth Phoenix in the first tables match of the Divas division at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs.
  Despite not being what WWE typically viewed as a WWE Diva, on August 31, WWE signed 6'9" female wrestler Isis the Amazon who was set to compete under the ring name Aloisia. She appeared on the show vignette for the third season of NXT, but was released two weeks later, due to the company allegedly finding adult photos, and was replaced by Kaitlyn on the show. On the November 30 season finale of NXT, Kaitlyn was announced as the winner of season three, defeating Naomi in the final to become WWE's first "breakout Diva".
  In late December 2010, WWE signed world-renowned wrestler, Kharma, formerly known as Amazing/Awesome Kong. The company proceeded to air disturbing video packages of her flicking off heads of female dolls and laughing maniacally building t
caption: In 2010, Layla became the last Women's Champion after the championship was unified.
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