What's going on kiddies?! I'm back with another post within my 'Wrestling Cypher' blog and boy do I have something on my mind for this posting. First off, I must give a shout to those who check out my 'Wrestling Cypher' blog, and have hung with me during my hiatus from doing this particular one. Those who regularly know me from my social commentary and hip-hop blogs know that I pull no punches on what I feel and what's truly on my mind. My wrestling blogs are no different. With that being said, let's go to this new entry.
The wrestling world is still in shock over the sudden retirement of Ashley Janette Mendez-Brooks, otherwise known as AJ Lee. Late last week, the news broke on wwe.com that she had gone to officials and stated to them that she was officially retiring. I must admit, I thought this was a work by WWE. Let's face it, anything that breaks on wwe.com is mostly kayfabe to push their business of entertainment and storylines. However, it did turn out to be completely shoot and was real. Many, including myself, were shocked by the suddenness of it, but weren't surprised. Lee has vocally expressed displeasure over how the Divas division was being under-utilized and was getting disrespected. Aside from not being in one hundred percent support of the show Total Divas, she felt that the division, overall, wasn't getting nearly as much television time. Of course she was right, as stars like Naomi, Emma, Natalya, and even Paige (who's arguably the most accomplished Diva in the back) are only given about five to seven minutes roughly to show their stuff. Lee made more news when she went IN on Stephanie McMahon on Twitter, stating her hypocrisy in her support over actress Patricia Arquette's Oscar speech in which Arquette vehemently advocated equal gender wages. Lee stated that the Divas division received a "fraction" of what their male counterparts made as well as the camera time in spite of record selling merch and quite a few high-rated segments on Raw, Smackdown, and the pay-per-views. Let's not forget that she married one of the company's most outspoken talents ever in former star and WWE Champion, Phillip "CM Punk" Brooks, and given his bad falling out with the company, Lee would be receiving the dog shit from it. It's questionable that she did, but regardless, Lee was under the microscope even more.
Here's the real: the Divas division is a joke. Not because of the talent, but because of the booking. Vince felt that making a reality show based around a few of the Divas would make people more interested in them, in spite of the fact that they were still getting only five to seven minutes of airtime. AJ was a Diva in the sense Vince wasn't comfortable with. AJ's a known geek, a video gamer, and somewhat of a loner, especially with her best friend Celeste "Kaitlyn" Bonin leaving the company. With the division almost considered a bathroom break by many standards, it begs the question, "Does WWE really care that she decided to leave?" AJ was considered, along with Natalya and Naomi, the best overall Diva in the locker room. She won three titles, and remember when she had that EPIC run as Raw General Manager? She caught our attention as a runner-up on NXT, when it was a competition show for a contract as opposed to the prodigious brand it is now. She lost to Kaitlyn and right behind Naomi as second runner-up. After she split on television from Kaitlyn as The Chickbusters, she began an on-air romantic angle with Daniel Bryan, which was a great showing of her being able to take a ton of mental abuse from the guy she "loved", only later to be named as Raw GM and became the most intriguing Diva of any one in the locker room, and possibly of the past several years. In an interesting twist, she stepped down from her GM position and aligned herself with Dolph Ziggler after a strategic swerve of John Cena. Her spazz out sessions, emotional breakdowns, and bi-polar behavior behavior far exceeded anything the Divas division was producing, besides Vickie Guerrero (who was never, or hardly ever, an in-ring performer). Once her GM stint ended, it was time to put her in-ring skills to the test (current ROH TV Champion, Jay Lethal, was one of her first trainers) and she did impress. She was the longest reigning Divas Champion ever, and her whack job persona made her a darling with the fans on-air. One awesome memory I have of her was her version of her husband's "pipe bomb" worked shoot where she went to town verbally on the stars of Total Divas show, which at that time were The Bella Twins, Naomi, Natalya, and Cameron. It was scathing, yet reflected many people's opinions on the show.
They now have a void that needs to be filled. While Paige is definitely a representation of the "anti-Diva" movement that AJ started, you wonder if she has the fearlessness to be outspoken on issues that are important like AJ did.The division is very cookie cutter, and now they don't have someone who's not afraid to ripple the waters, even if it means calling out their bosses on their wrongs. However, we do salute AJ Lee for bringing a new breath of fresh air at the time to the Divas division and carving her own niche in the game. Vince and WWE could give two rat shits about their Divas division, except for the Total Divas brand. They're just now allowing an additional five minutes for them, as Paige and Divas Champ Nikki Bella had a surprisingly great match a couple of weeks ago on Raw. Needless to say, there still needs to be many additional steps taken to actually make the division credible. I've often stated that Vince needs to start a women-only brand, stricly for current and up-and-coming Divas. It could possibly work and would give them as much shine as they needed. I guess to bright of an idea for Vince. Until next time, take it easy folks!
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