What's happening everyone?! Great to have you back with me again. Hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day weekend and that hopefully someone saved me some grub! Anyways, let's get down to it shall we?
This blog is centered around the decline and subsequent ridicule of the Divas division in WWE. What exactly is the Divas division? It's just really a group of decent to terrible women wrestlers trying to obtain camera time. Truthfully folks, it's not all these young ladies fault, at least not entirely. This is clearly not the age of talented women in the ring in WWE. Gone are the days of superb in-ring talent of underrated stars like Ivory, Mickie, and Victoria (later known as Tara in TNA) and special, exceptional wrestlers like Hall Of Famers Trish Stratus and Amy "Lita" Dumas. Let's go back even before them. Icons like the late pioneers of Sherri Martel, Fabulous Moolah, and Mae Young helped define women wrestling for generations to come. For Vince McMahon, it became all about models, ex-dancers, and former professional football athletes. While the pro football athlete isn't terrible necessarily, models and ex-dancers should NEVER be in this game without a decent amount of wrestling knowledge and ability. The question is "What happened to those who could care less about being models, and just cared about hanging with the guys and being show stealers?" I have to keep remembering that this is VKM's world.
Case in point about how bad the division has gotten: this Bella Twin storyline. First of all, the Bella Twins, although very attractive and fairly athletic, have become the 'it' girls of the company. They were trained by retired wrestling great Tom Pritchard and have since been the centerpieces of the division. Am I a fan of the Bellas in the ring? Not at all. Do they have heart and show that they like to perform? Yes and I'll give them that. However, this angle of twin versus twin speaks of the same tired, worn-out, formulaic story lines that we've seen way too often before: one twin, or sibling, is more successful than the other and the other gets resentful. This already has overdramatic acting all over it (you don't believe me? Watch last week's "Family Meeting" segment on RAW concerning those two). In case you've been missing what's been going on, here's the skinny. Stephanie Nicole "Nikkie Bella" Garcia turned on her sister Brianna Monique "Brie Bella" Garcia-Danielson (yes it is true that she's the real-life wife of recovering star Daniel Bryan) at Summerslam in what was a very anti-climatic and predictable moment. The inevitable twin versus twin matchup will occur very soon and I can't say that this will be a new Trish versus Lita classic, nowhere close.
That however is the problem. Why wouldn't it be? Why aren't these two young ladies good or exciting enough to garner a potential classic? The answer lies in the fact that WWE could care less about thrilling Divas matches. Take for example the rivalry between champion AJ Lee and the youngest star in the entire locker room, the twenty-two year old Paige. These two are arguably the best overall performers in the Diva locker room and their match at Summerslam SHOULD'VE been that good classic, at least it looked that way on paper. Not only was the match sub-par, but it was also short, but then again the average time for Divas matches is between five and seven minutes. This should be a legitimate flap in the face to Divas like Natalya (whom in my opinion is the best pound-for-pound performer in the Diva locker room), Naomi, and Emma, who are all tremendous working talent. They should be given a ton more time to exhibit their gifts and story-telling abilities and with more compelling story lines.
The NXT ladies of Sasha Banks, Bayley, Alexa Bliss, and NXT Women's Champion, Charlotte (daughter of iconic Hall Of Famer, Ric Flair) are all stars in the making, but I dread them getting called to the main roster. Although Paige, former NXT Women's Champion, is finding success, Emma has not. She's been relegated to a fairly comedic act that's not being taken seriously, in spite of how good her in-ring work is. I've often stated that there's closeted racism that's going on the WWE, but don't sleep or ignore sexism either. At one time, Trish and Lita was the main event on RAW at one time, and nearly there main event on several other occasions. If, in fact, those days are long gone, I feel very sorry for the division, for Vince is silently killing it without loudly doing so. The fact that the NXT Women's Trainer, Sara Del Ray, is one of the toughest women on the planet and she's just relegated to a trainer is beyond ridiculous. Take a look at the "Death Rey" in indie action.
Folks, THIS is what true, passionate wrestling from women is really all about and what it should represent. Young female wrestlers such as Sara, Jessica Havok, Mercedes Martinez, and others put their blood, sweat, and tears into the business just as much as the guys do. Maybe, young ladies like Cameron, Summer Rae, and Layla could be far better competitors in the ring with lots more disciplined training, but all Vince, Kevin Dunn (EVP of Television Production), HHH, and Stephanie McMahon Lesveque care about is the entertainment aspect of the company. Before, the sexism was centered on heavy sexuality and partial nudity (not to mention Jerry Lawler's constant references to women's chests and refer to them as "puppies"). Now, it's making these young ladies look like incompetent amateurs that don't need to ever be on television except at ringside being eye candy.
In contrast, the Knockouts division in TNA is a little more fair game. Ladies like Gail Kim (the TNA Knockout Champion), Madison Rayne, Terryn Terell, and The Beautiful people duo of Angelina Love and Velvet Sky are decent to great athletes that legitimately work their rear ends off and we, as fans, greatly appreciate it. The huge six foot, two-hundred pound aforementioned Jessica Havok is now on the TNA roster, and it's very possible she will turn that division upside down. Also, independent women promotions like Women Superstars Uncensored, Shimmer, and Women Extreme Wrestling highlight superb talent that needs to get presented to the masses on a global scale.
One only knows how much longer this will be acceptable to audiences. Point blank: the Divas division is a joke and needs to be seriously addressed. I hope the young ladies of the locker room, one day, have the audacity to let Vince have it and say enough is enough. In the meantime, I guess money really does talk. Before I go, I'm going to show two different vids. One will show a match between "Divas" Eva Marie and Bayley from NXT and a highlight tribute video of "Death Machine" Jessica Havok. See you guys and gals next time!
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