And Kelly Kelly Returns

The return of the centerpiece? Kelly Kelly returned to Raw this week. She won her match. That was actually the first diva match on Raw in quite some time. In all that time, the Diva's Champion has not been featured well.  AJ Lee has been developed as a periphery diva. That is to say, she has been developed by the WWE to be a success on the sidelines of the major diva division matters. But who is that woman meant to be the star of the actual division? That woman meant to be sold as the best female wrestler of the division, frequently getting the title and elaborate diva storylines to put her over? No one is being pushed like that.

You go back one year. They were definitely pushing Kelly Kelly to be the centerpiece. Right after Michelle McCool left, the transition to putting focus on Kelly Kelly was almost perfectly smooth. She fits the profile of the kind of woman they like to push as the centerpiece and was getting the kind of push, including a push against a credible jobber, Beth Phoenix, to sell her ability to go at it with credible threats and overcome them. They then tried to do this angle where losing the title drove Kelly Kelly into this new zone. She went crazy on Beth Phoenix. And shortly after that, she lost to Beth, the WWE fizzled out on pushing her, and the dark age the division is currently in became very visible. Although Beth's title reign was long, they did not develop feuds for her as best as they could have and showed inconsistency. Back to Kelly Kelly. They did give up on her as the centerpiece. Whether it was because she was not as solid in the ring as they would have liked, they thought they would not be able to develop her character as they would have liked, or she was expressing interest in taking time off, they gave up. She definitely was not as solid in the ring as Michelle McCool and was not connecting well with all types of fans. But I still wonder why they gave up. However, she still went on to win a Slammy and have her moment at Wrestlemania. Gave up on her as centerpiece, but still treated her better than some.

Now that she has returned, will they try to make her the centerpiece again? Were all those months of not pushing her since last year just a rest period? Centerpieces get rests all the time, including Cena. But you can see how much a rest period can hurt, particularly when you are not getting any storylines at all. In the case of Kelly Kelly, she had not even solidified her overness and position yet, which would make wanting to give her a rest so soon very foolish. Do you know why you can afford to bring back a guy like The Undertaker just once a year? This guy has already built a legacy off over a decade of regularly being featured with great storylines, feuds, and moments. He is a legend. Giving a diva you are developing as the centerpiece of your division similar treatment before she even has a solid hold on the overness you want her to have is questionable. And yet, Kelly Kelly seems like the only diva they are interested in having that position on the current roster. If they wanted another woman to have it, they would have already have developed her. If Kelly Kelly is the one, they need to come up with fresh workers to put her over and storylines to really get the fans to buy into her. The latter is where they have been really incapable of getting the job done since they started pushing her last year.