I'm not sure what I'm going to talk about exactly in this Post- I know the frame of what I'm going to say in that I'm going to say where I think it all went wrong for the Divas and then also identify how to improve the Division- and that isn't as simple as calling up the NXT Women and everything will be better.
The Great Model Debate
The way I see it, while the Divas Division wasn't perfect before 2006 it still had a core of solid females and crucially the Divas Division was at least in my opinion respected by the people in the back as legitimate with people like Trish and Lita and then Victoria and Mickie to name just a few around how could it not? I don't think anyone was expecting a smooth transition when Trish and Lita retired almost at the exact same time- but as long as they kept a good core and the right philosophy it should have been fine after a rough transition.
The way I see it, while the Divas Division wasn't perfect before 2006 it still had a core of solid females and crucially the Divas Division was at least in my opinion respected by the people in the back as legitimate with people like Trish and Lita and then Victoria and Mickie to name just a few around how could it not? I don't think anyone was expecting a smooth transition when Trish and Lita retired almost at the exact same time- but as long as they kept a good core and the right philosophy it should have been fine after a rough transition.
Then John Laurinaitis happened. I don't necessarily have a problem with models coming into WWE, but Big Johnny literally ordering models out of a catalogue to send down to OVW is ludicrous and where the long-term problems for the Divas Division started in my opinion. The models in this case were Alicia Fox and Kelly Kelly. The fact the people in OVW were forbidden to have "carnal relations" with Alicia and Kelly says it all in terms of the circumstance of them hiring and the seeming motivation for it.
To me Kelly Kelly was pretty much the living, breathing "What's wrong with the Divas Division" for her entire run. She was sent down to OVW which is fair enough, but she was called up after approximately a Month (if that) to literally be a Stripper. That wouldn't be so bad, if not for the fact that once she did transition into an in-ring performer she was absolutely horrible. I still have nightmares about how she ran the ropes- and the worst thing was she was properly pushed from an in-ring perspective when calling her Green would have been an insult to people who were green. I'm not blaming Kelly Kelly for that- she shouldn't have been there in the first place, and she only really became passable from an in-ring perspective around the time she left in 2012.
To me the whole perception of the Divas changed when they went down the Model route not just from the fans, but in the back- and that is still largely holding the Divas back to this day. You only have to see what happened when the Entourage people showed up and they had Divas lined up to "get on their good side" for them to see what I mean.
Total Divas
Total Divas is a Cancer to the whole Wrestling business- and it is slowly killing the Divas Division without a shadow of a doubt. If you read these regularly you'll know I'm open minded to pretty much everything, and when I saw the announcement of Total Divas I thought it'd be good to get some more exposure for the Divas and would be the garnish if you will to the Divas stories they could put into place in that they could further an angle on Total Divas- because when it comes to "Reality TV" Reality isn't Reality.
Instead they've let Total Divas for the most part control the storylines in the Divas Division since it came into play. The stupid angles they've done with the likes of Nattie and Summer bringing it over to WWE TV when we all know the "drama" with them happened months ago because they date it as such just defies logic and is beyond stupid. Then when you consider Total Divas has led to people like Cameron, Rosa and Eva Marie being featured when they're to be quite frank awful- I'm happy to give Eva a chance now that appears she's actually trying training with Brian Kendrick and what not, but in an almost repeat of Kelly Kelly Eva was on the Main Roster after practically no time in Developmental and it most definitely showed. Then we get onto Rosa and Cameron who both should be on the next lot of Releases WWE does, which if I'm honest I'm surprised hasn't happened yet given the Mass Jobber-Cide had already happened this time last year. I mean anyone who tries to pin someone the wrong way around simply doesn't deserve to be in a Wrestling Ring- and to make matters worse she defended herself on Twitter by saying she was "making her own rules" or words to that effect, NO, YOU WERE BEING DENSE.
The Bellas
Feel free to tweet this to that BriannaNicole or whatever her Twitter handle was who I got into an argument with during that RAW, because she can't disagree with anything I've said. The Bellas are a large part of what is wrong with the Divas Division, and this isn't me Bella Bashing- it's a fact. I think we're all resigned to Nikki beating AJ's title record now- but the thing is nobody gives a damn about her Title run. She's had the Belt for 200+ Days and she hasn't even had one memorable moment in that 200 Days let alone a memorable match/feud. I wish I was doing this when The Bellas were first around because I absolutely hated them- because once again they were literally pimped out to every RAW Guest Host and just everywhere because "Hey, there's two of them". However when they left I thought that was that- and move on, they can go away and be actors or whatever they left for and the Divas Division won't miss them. Nope, A Year Later after they'd completely flopped trying to be actors they came back with their tails between their legs to the WWE with the promise of a Reality show with them as the stars. I don't care what anyone says- it might as well be called Total Bellas, they're so clearly the stars of it.
Then we get onto the complete abortion of a feud they had last year. I wasn't necessarily against them feuding because apart from the bizarre thing when one of them picked Team Teddy and one of them Team Johnny it hadn't really been properly explored and it's an interesting dynamic- because hey, there's two of them. Instead we got what was rightly made the worst feud of the year, and I would argue one of the worst feuds of the Modern Era. It was just horrendous- and what made it worse was they actually got a decent amount of air-time with which to further their pure horrendous feud. The Bella vs Bella and Brie vs Stephanie feud was the first Divas feud to get a really proper amount of exposure in ages- and it was the worst feud imaginable for that exposure, and massively set the Divas Division back, because the Ratings backed up what a lot of people are saying- nobody other than Teenage Girls and Total Divas Fans care about The Bellas.
The "Give Divas a Chance" Era
When I saw the Give Divas a Chance stuff I was in two minds- because on one level I saw the positives in that it was going to get the Divas exposure, but I was also thinking "Well, The Divas Champion is Nikki Bella- so maybe this won't turn out how people think it will". Sure enough we're around 4 Months give or take since it started and we're not any better, if anything we're worse off now because of AJ leaving.
I'm not a massive AJ Fan- but I respect the hell out of her because you know she loves this business and she spent her whole life trying to get to WWE. I also respect her because she was given a crumb of an opportunity in her pairing with Bryan and she played her role so well she ended up in spots with Punk, Bryan, Kane, Cena and Dolph and she was getting Main Event level exposure. She wasn't perfect, but at the same time she was also one half of the last really good Divas match in the AJ vs Kaitlyn match where AJ finally won the Belt- that combined with the fact she was at one point the only Diva with Merch says all that needs to be said about AJ's impact on the Division. Now that AJ's left we're left with this as the Divas Roster;
Nikki
Brie
Paige
Alicia
Summer
Cameron (Ugh)
Emma
Layla
Rosa
Tamina
Naomi
Nattie
Lana
No really, there's 13 current Main Roster Women. I've left out Eva because she seems to be in NXT for the foreseeable future which can only help her.
Let's firstly look at Lana who is now up there with Cesaro and Harper levels in terms of mis-use in my opinion. She was a Strong Independent Woman who was in control of a Beast in Rusev- and that in my opinion is why people gravitated to her. Now she's just another Valet who's inexplicably paired up with Dolph in one of the worst relationship pairings ever- I think Perry Saturn had more chemistry with Moppy. Lana could well have been the next great Woman in the WWE- now she's got to almost start from scratch when I would argue at one point she was one of the hottest (No, not in that way) acts in the company.
Then we move onto the dead-weight. Cameron, Rosa and Layla should be on the next trip to Belize without a doubt and you can also make arguments for Tamina to be on that trip. That would take out nearly a quarter of the current Diva Roster and nobody would even notice.
I'm not going to say call up Charlotte, Becky, Sasha and Bayley and everything will suddenly become great and the Divas will Main Event a PPV- I'm not that naive and it really isn't that simple. I would argue it would take the best part of a year for the Divas to be seen as anywhere near that level. However NXT call-ups are the way to go- not for the necessarily obvious reason of that they're better. The Women down in NXT are pretty much Triple H's project and if one of the dubbed "Four Horsewomen" does get called up I would be very surprised if Triple H didn't "Pick his Hill to Die on" as the saying when it comes to Vince goes in order to protect any of those 4. With that in mind if the NXT Women do come up I think they would be better booked because someone with Vince's ear will actually be fighting for them and fighting to change the perception of the Diva.
Like I said- the Divas Division doesn't have some magic wand where it can be fixed overnight because there's been almost 10 Years of the Division just having completely the wrong mentality- but the Divas Division is now at a crisis point where there either needs to be a marked change just in the whole mentality of the Divas and the way the Divas are booked or just scrap it all together and cut their losses.
I haven't even touched on some of the stuff that's happened with the Divas Division- but to me these were the main bullet points so to speak. This is my breaking point with the Divas- and now I've had my say I'm officially wiping my hands of the Divas Division until we see a marked change- all future Reviews will just have the segment and then a blank space.
Thanks for reading as ever- I'd appreciate feedback on this because at the end of the day it's just an opinion. Anyway, I'll be on Twitter tonight for NXT/ROH and then Impact so if you want feel free to tag along on that 3 Hour journey and come back tomorrow for the Impact Review! Stay tuned for that and then the Cesaro Booking Post on Friday- Thanks again for reading, and remember I truly do want the Divas to succeed- but I'm not sure WWE really does.
To me the whole perception of the Divas changed when they went down the Model route not just from the fans, but in the back- and that is still largely holding the Divas back to this day. You only have to see what happened when the Entourage people showed up and they had Divas lined up to "get on their good side" for them to see what I mean.
Total Divas
Total Divas is a Cancer to the whole Wrestling business- and it is slowly killing the Divas Division without a shadow of a doubt. If you read these regularly you'll know I'm open minded to pretty much everything, and when I saw the announcement of Total Divas I thought it'd be good to get some more exposure for the Divas and would be the garnish if you will to the Divas stories they could put into place in that they could further an angle on Total Divas- because when it comes to "Reality TV" Reality isn't Reality.
Instead they've let Total Divas for the most part control the storylines in the Divas Division since it came into play. The stupid angles they've done with the likes of Nattie and Summer bringing it over to WWE TV when we all know the "drama" with them happened months ago because they date it as such just defies logic and is beyond stupid. Then when you consider Total Divas has led to people like Cameron, Rosa and Eva Marie being featured when they're to be quite frank awful- I'm happy to give Eva a chance now that appears she's actually trying training with Brian Kendrick and what not, but in an almost repeat of Kelly Kelly Eva was on the Main Roster after practically no time in Developmental and it most definitely showed. Then we get onto Rosa and Cameron who both should be on the next lot of Releases WWE does, which if I'm honest I'm surprised hasn't happened yet given the Mass Jobber-Cide had already happened this time last year. I mean anyone who tries to pin someone the wrong way around simply doesn't deserve to be in a Wrestling Ring- and to make matters worse she defended herself on Twitter by saying she was "making her own rules" or words to that effect, NO, YOU WERE BEING DENSE.
The Bellas
Feel free to tweet this to that BriannaNicole or whatever her Twitter handle was who I got into an argument with during that RAW, because she can't disagree with anything I've said. The Bellas are a large part of what is wrong with the Divas Division, and this isn't me Bella Bashing- it's a fact. I think we're all resigned to Nikki beating AJ's title record now- but the thing is nobody gives a damn about her Title run. She's had the Belt for 200+ Days and she hasn't even had one memorable moment in that 200 Days let alone a memorable match/feud. I wish I was doing this when The Bellas were first around because I absolutely hated them- because once again they were literally pimped out to every RAW Guest Host and just everywhere because "Hey, there's two of them". However when they left I thought that was that- and move on, they can go away and be actors or whatever they left for and the Divas Division won't miss them. Nope, A Year Later after they'd completely flopped trying to be actors they came back with their tails between their legs to the WWE with the promise of a Reality show with them as the stars. I don't care what anyone says- it might as well be called Total Bellas, they're so clearly the stars of it.
Then we get onto the complete abortion of a feud they had last year. I wasn't necessarily against them feuding because apart from the bizarre thing when one of them picked Team Teddy and one of them Team Johnny it hadn't really been properly explored and it's an interesting dynamic- because hey, there's two of them. Instead we got what was rightly made the worst feud of the year, and I would argue one of the worst feuds of the Modern Era. It was just horrendous- and what made it worse was they actually got a decent amount of air-time with which to further their pure horrendous feud. The Bella vs Bella and Brie vs Stephanie feud was the first Divas feud to get a really proper amount of exposure in ages- and it was the worst feud imaginable for that exposure, and massively set the Divas Division back, because the Ratings backed up what a lot of people are saying- nobody other than Teenage Girls and Total Divas Fans care about The Bellas.
The "Give Divas a Chance" Era
When I saw the Give Divas a Chance stuff I was in two minds- because on one level I saw the positives in that it was going to get the Divas exposure, but I was also thinking "Well, The Divas Champion is Nikki Bella- so maybe this won't turn out how people think it will". Sure enough we're around 4 Months give or take since it started and we're not any better, if anything we're worse off now because of AJ leaving.
I'm not a massive AJ Fan- but I respect the hell out of her because you know she loves this business and she spent her whole life trying to get to WWE. I also respect her because she was given a crumb of an opportunity in her pairing with Bryan and she played her role so well she ended up in spots with Punk, Bryan, Kane, Cena and Dolph and she was getting Main Event level exposure. She wasn't perfect, but at the same time she was also one half of the last really good Divas match in the AJ vs Kaitlyn match where AJ finally won the Belt- that combined with the fact she was at one point the only Diva with Merch says all that needs to be said about AJ's impact on the Division. Now that AJ's left we're left with this as the Divas Roster;
Nikki
Brie
Paige
Alicia
Summer
Cameron (Ugh)
Emma
Layla
Rosa
Tamina
Naomi
Nattie
Lana
No really, there's 13 current Main Roster Women. I've left out Eva because she seems to be in NXT for the foreseeable future which can only help her.
Let's firstly look at Lana who is now up there with Cesaro and Harper levels in terms of mis-use in my opinion. She was a Strong Independent Woman who was in control of a Beast in Rusev- and that in my opinion is why people gravitated to her. Now she's just another Valet who's inexplicably paired up with Dolph in one of the worst relationship pairings ever- I think Perry Saturn had more chemistry with Moppy. Lana could well have been the next great Woman in the WWE- now she's got to almost start from scratch when I would argue at one point she was one of the hottest (No, not in that way) acts in the company.
Then we move onto the dead-weight. Cameron, Rosa and Layla should be on the next trip to Belize without a doubt and you can also make arguments for Tamina to be on that trip. That would take out nearly a quarter of the current Diva Roster and nobody would even notice.
I'm not going to say call up Charlotte, Becky, Sasha and Bayley and everything will suddenly become great and the Divas will Main Event a PPV- I'm not that naive and it really isn't that simple. I would argue it would take the best part of a year for the Divas to be seen as anywhere near that level. However NXT call-ups are the way to go- not for the necessarily obvious reason of that they're better. The Women down in NXT are pretty much Triple H's project and if one of the dubbed "Four Horsewomen" does get called up I would be very surprised if Triple H didn't "Pick his Hill to Die on" as the saying when it comes to Vince goes in order to protect any of those 4. With that in mind if the NXT Women do come up I think they would be better booked because someone with Vince's ear will actually be fighting for them and fighting to change the perception of the Diva.
Like I said- the Divas Division doesn't have some magic wand where it can be fixed overnight because there's been almost 10 Years of the Division just having completely the wrong mentality- but the Divas Division is now at a crisis point where there either needs to be a marked change just in the whole mentality of the Divas and the way the Divas are booked or just scrap it all together and cut their losses.
I haven't even touched on some of the stuff that's happened with the Divas Division- but to me these were the main bullet points so to speak. This is my breaking point with the Divas- and now I've had my say I'm officially wiping my hands of the Divas Division until we see a marked change- all future Reviews will just have the segment and then a blank space.
Thanks for reading as ever- I'd appreciate feedback on this because at the end of the day it's just an opinion. Anyway, I'll be on Twitter tonight for NXT/ROH and then Impact so if you want feel free to tag along on that 3 Hour journey and come back tomorrow for the Impact Review! Stay tuned for that and then the Cesaro Booking Post on Friday- Thanks again for reading, and remember I truly do want the Divas to succeed- but I'm not sure WWE really does.
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