What are the main parts of that ice cream cone? You have the ice cream, the cone, and the additional toppings. The main thing there is obviously the ice cream. The cone is what holds the ice cream. Those additional toppings, they help to make it look more appealing and taste even better. They're optional. You can have sprinkles, crushed nuts, a cherry on top, or whatever else. Many options. And when you put it all together, you have something great.
What do I always say are the main positions or careers in the diva division? That would be the centerpiece, the credible jobbers, and the periphery divas. The main diva in the diva division is the centerpiece. That is whom the WWE develops to be the top star. That is like the ice cream. To help put over the centerpiece and act as interim centerpiece to keep the diva division running when the centerpiece is not around, you have credible jobbers. They support the diva division in the same way the cone holds everything up. Other divas the WWE develop and feature to be stars are always getting that treatment on the periphery of the main star. Those are the periphery divas. Those are like those added toppings on the ice cream. They help to make the diva division look more interesting and be more productive.
Let me say why I do like this comparison. I believe it can get you thinking about just how important credible jobbers are. They don't get the same focus on them as the centerpiece, but they keep everything up and running in an important way. Who buys an ice cream cone just for the cone? That better be a very fancy cone. The ice cream is the main thing. And yet, you can have a real mess on your hand with no cone, assuming bowls are not around, or when the cone gets too soggy and starts to fall apart. The cone is important. Credible jobbers, although they almost never become as over as the centerpiece, are important.
The comparison also helps to sell the idea that periphery divas are optional. After Trish and Lita left, the WWE didn't try to develop another female wrestler as a periphery diva like Lita for years. No big problem. That's not what caused the collapse. You have AJ Lee now, but that is not fixing the division. When you order that ice cream or make it yourself, those additional toppings are optional. You have a lot of choices, and you don't even need to choose any. The WWE can develop a periphery diva with a female wrestler, eye-candy diva, or even a non-wrestler like Vickie Guerrero. They can be valets, be used in romance angles, be the bosses of the shows, have wrestled the men more regularly in the past, and so on. A lot of options. The more diva angles you have going on, the more divas you are featuring that are connecting well with the fans, the better the division will look. And yet, it is that relationship between the centerpiece and the credible jobbers that really decides the ultimate fate of the division.
Lastly, can you imagine a cone filled with sprinkles, strawberries, and all your other favorite toppings, but no ice cream? Weird, isn't it? Sounds like some kind of joke. You are missing the most important ingredient. That is the diva division you have now. You have credible jobbers. You have various periphery divas. You don't have a woman being developed as the centerpiece. Unless the WWE starts developing Kaitlyn, she will most likely be eventually phased out, and that means she is an interim centerpiece. The diva division is missing the most important ingredient. As awkward it is to imagine an ice cream cone with all the toppings and no ice cream, that's how bad the diva division is looking without a centerpiece. It also doesn't help that the cone seems to be crumbling and the toppings the WWE are using are not the fans' favorite enough to make them forget the other shortcomings.
Changing the subject, I don't remember if I have gave my favorite way of explaining what happened to Mickie James in the WWE on this blog. I remember saying it at least once somewhere. After writing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of blog entries, I start forgetting some of the things I wrote in them. Whether I have said it before to you or not, since it is my favorite, I think I have an excuse to say it again.
Freddy Vs. Jason is one of my favorite horror movies. Let me tell you the basic story between the two supernatural murderers in the movie. First, both are "dead" when the movie starts. Freddy cannot return to kill people in their dreams because no one is thinking about him. He devises this scheme where he pretends to be Jason's mother and brings him back to kill again. As Jason kills teenagers, people start to think that it's Freddy. They start talking about him. He is back on their minds. They dream about him. And if you have ever watched the movies, that's where he kills. The problem is, Jason was a killing machine that Freddy never anticipated. He is taking Freddy's victims. You ever play a video game with people across the Internet and someone steals your kills? If that ever annoys you, that's basically the same idea. Freddy soon turns his attention to taking Jason out. And that leads to their epic confrontation.
You might wonder why Freddy would turn on Jason like that. Keep in mind, they were never really friends or partners in crime. Freddy was just trying to take advantage of Jason for his own purposes to further his own agenda. After Jason did what Freddy wanted of him, Freddy didn't really care what happened to him. Jason got in the way of Freddy's goals by taking his victims. They were never really on the same team. And Freddy wanted Jason out of the way.
What do I like to argue happened with Mickie James in that diva division? The diva division has a history of using female wrestlers to put over the eye-candy diva they develop as centerpiece. Once they are done being used as jobber to the centerpiece or interim centerpiece, they get depushed and another credible jobber is moved in. The only female wrestlers developed to be successes get it as periphery divas. Mickie James came into this diva division as a female wrestler. She was not getting pushed as Chyna, Lita, and AJ Lee. She was getting pushed as Jackie, Molly Holly, and Beth Phoenix. She was getting pushed as a credible jobber. The WWE doesn't need to tell her that. They can't tell her or any of these women that. How would it look to tell them that they will never get pushed properly? Fact is, they don't need to tell them. Just push them and they can control their overness. That's what it is all about. But they could not control the overness of Mickie James. She was not supposed to get over against Trish Stratus. When they were not even pushing her in 2007, how could she have stayed over? And then she got filler pushes around Candice Michelle getting injured and eventually got used as jobber to the centerpiece again against Maryse and Michelle McCool. But she remained more over than the women the WWE was developing to be the top diva. If they really wanted that, why not actually develop her to be the top diva and stop pushing eye-candy divas so hard? The WWE definitely turned their attention to burying Mickie James, and while still using her like they always would. They used her up, then got rid of her.
Everyone seems to wonder why the WWE turned on Mickie James like they did. Mickie James was never someone they wanted over. Just like Freddy was just using Jason to further his own schemes, not to give him a fair opportunity to take his kills, the WWE was using Mickie James in the same way they have used female wrestlers since the WWE started the diva division. They just did not anticipate Mickie James being able to do what she did and the women they were counting on not working out. A jobber being more over than the centerpiece is not what the WWE is about. If they were, they would have given Mickie a career of success, whether as centerpiece or periphery diva. And after they were done using her, they definitely got her out of the way.
Maybe what I am saying is too dramatic. I could be entirely wrong. In that case, I would be guilty of misleading those few who trust what I say. I'll apologize for that in advance, should that ever turn out to be the case. On the other side of that coin, if the WWE is running an unfair women's division, it would be beneficial to everyone involved for them to end it. It's not even profitable to them anymore. In the end, looking at that diva division, it sure does look like Freddy dropped his ice cream.
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